Do you really want to do this?
Whitehorse to the Alaska Pipeline/Dalton Highway
1000 Miles / 1600 Km
7 to 12 days of 18 hours solid paddling
Monday July 19th, 2010
This annual race is the longest canoe and kayak race in the world, by far.
The Yukon River 1000 is a LONG endurance paddling event. The 2010 race starts Monday 19th July 2010. This race is the longest canoe and kayak race on the calendar, knocking other long races into a distant second place. Note that the rules have been modified slightly for 2010. The changes are highlighted in red.
Last Year's Race
The race is run. You can see the results from last year, and the daily reports, in the history section. The weather was insanely generous to the extent that I worry that the racers will not realise just how lucky they have been.
Rod Price, one of the paddlers in the 1st place canoe in 2009, has written a book about his adventures. Click on the image to go to his web site so you can order his book.
The 2009 race was a great success. Some photos of the racers have been posted in the gallery, and there are a couple of YouTube videos that are really worth looking at.
Well done Rob and Russ, and Richard and Henry, first place kayaks and overall winners, and Ardie and Rod, 1st place Canoe, and Kerry, Paul, Holly, Mike, Matt, Teresa and Brian in the Voyageur and everyone who took part in the 2009 race.
Next year's race will be held on the 19th of July. Registration is now open, and we already have eight teams signed up and others showing interest.
New course records have been set. Well they would be, wouldn't they? The record for canoe is now 6 days, 8 hours and 54 minutes, for voyageur: 6 days 6 hours 52 minutes and 29 seconds, and for kayaks 6 days 2 hours 11 minutes and 7 seconds. We expect these records will stand for a while because the weather was so good this year.
Our other races
Take a look at the section on the Yukon 360, a "short" race that fits in the 3 day weekend Yukoners have 14-16th August 2010. This is being run with similar rules to the Yukon 1000, but is a third the length.
The 360 is not a short or easy race. It is still a two or three day race and is hard work. It also is run on a different river each year. Last year it was on the Teslin River. Next year it will be on the Pelly River.
Next spring and summer we will be putting on a series of short races on Wednesday evenings. These races will start when the ice if off Schwatka Lake sufficiently that we can launch get get up the canyon. The venu will change to Chadburn Lake as soon as it is ice free, at which point we will start the 5Km youth races too. The Wednesday night races will not take place between 23rd July and 4th August (inclusive) to avoid conflict with the Yukon River Quest, the Down River Race, and the Yukon 1000. The racers will resume after the Yukon 1000, and carry on into September. More details on the Summer Series page.
Race Stuff
Take a look at the Yukon 1000, Yukon 360 shop, you can buy mugs, T shirts, race shirts, and our beautiful posters. We still have some 2009 race shirts. These are high tech long sleeve shirts. For 2010 we will be doing short sleeve shirts: It will be worth getting both!
The Race
The Race starts in Whitehorse and continues down river all the way to the Alaska Pipeline Bridge on the Dalton Highway, 1000 miles, 1600 Kilometres downstream. Dawson is not even halfway!
This race is held in the same spirit of the 20th century explorer prizes: the first to fly the English Channel, the first to fly the Atlantic. No one expected the Daily Mail or Raymond Orteig (who offered the prizes) to provide any safety cover. Teams should enter the race in that in mind. We provide the frame work of the race, we provide monitoring and presentation of the progress of teams, and that is where our responsibilities end. Each team should think of itself as being on a self sufficient expedition.
We have a travel deal in place with Air North that gives competitors and their support crews 10% off the price of their tickets. Air North flies to Whitehorse from Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. They also fly between Whitehorse, Dawson and Fairbanks. Contact us for information on how to take advantage of this offer.
Please note that the Yukon 1000 has reorganised to be "double headed" having legal presence in both Canada and in the USA. This should have little effect on competitors other than that there will be a US postal address. The principle driving force for this is to make race insurance feasible, actually cheap. Another change that comes from the same place is that we will be a USCA sanctioned race.
The FAQ, rules, waiver, and 5 fingers pages have been rejigged so they print nicely. the FAQ prints very well "2 up". I printed it in "booklet" format, but my printer is clever that way.
Race Technology
The Yukon 1000 is made feasible by new technology. In the past, putting on a race of any length has required a small army of volunteers to man checkpoints. But this race will be using the Spot devices ( findmespot.com). These devices are little boxes a bit larger than a Garmin ETrex GPS, have no display and only 4 buttons. Inside, they have a GPS receiver and a Sat phone messenger. You push a button, and it sends a little message from almost anywhere in the world telling those you want to know where you are and if you are OK. In addition, these devices come with a panic button and $100000 of rescue insurance. This is a completely new way of running a race that has not been possible before.
This race is long. We anticipate the leaders taking 6 to 8 days to complete the course, depending on weather. We want to prevent racers from being "overenthusiastic" and paddling all night so we will require each boat check in every evening before 11:15, and again in the morning FROM THE SAME PLACE at least six hours later. This enforces a night time stop for each boat.
The race will be open to tandem canoes and kayaks, voyageur canoes, and pairs of solo canoes and kayaks. Solo boats must travel together and must camp together each night. The river is too big and the race too lonely to allow solo competitors.
The entry fee is $250 Canadian per paddler, so that's $500 Canadian for a pair of buddied solos or a tandem kayak or a tandem canoe.
Contact Information
It you are interested in
this race, I suggest you read the
rules, and waiver. Then if you are still interested,
email me at info@yukon1000.com,
phone me on +1 867 668 4630
fax me
(by arrangement) at +1 867 668 4630 or
The postal addresses are
1801 Rainbow Av, Laramie WY 82070, USA
185 Falcon Drive, Whitehorse YT Y1A 6T2, Canada
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