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

July 20th, 2009

The Yukon River 1000: A new canoe and kayak race, a new style of canoe and kayak race.

The Yukon River 1000 is a new LONG endurance paddling event that is provisionally scheduled to be held starting Monday 20th July 2009. This race will be the longest canoe and kayak race on the calendar, knocking other long races into a distant second place.

The Race will start from Whitehorse and continue 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.

Take a look at the new section on the Yukon 360, a "short" race that fits in the 3 day weekend Yukoners have 15-17th August next year.  This is being run with similar rules to the Yukon 1000, but is a third the length.

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.

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 new 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 7 or 8 days to complete the course. 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.

Registration opened on the 21rd of September for people paying by cheque (or check). What is really exciting is that within 24 hours there were 4 teams registered, and there are now 7 teams registered, 5 canoes and 2 tandem kayaks. We have ourselves a race.

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.  If you pay cash or check we  take US dollars at the "Fair Exchange" rate published in the local papers here in Whitehorse.  This is currently $1.00US = $1.20CN.   So the entry fee cash price is $217.40US per person at the moment.  There's a bargain. This does not affect PayPal transactions.  PayPal does its own currency conversions.

Two questions that keep coming up are "How will I get my boat back from The middle of nowhere?" and "Where can I rent a suitable boat?" I am looking into this There will be boats available one way or another, and there will be transport back from the highway bridge.

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 at +1 425 799 1160 or
AIM me at yukon1000race
The postal address is 185 Falcon Drive, Whitehorse YT  Y1A 6T2