Friday 1st Feb.
 

The training session was very worth while with a presentation from Shelly who is a Yukonner and race veteran followed by a Q&A. I learnt that there will be more overflow than usual this time due to the mild weather, overflow is where the pressure of the water under a frozen lake or river pushes water up onto the ice, it quickly freezes but its possible to break through an get wet feet. Big insulated over boots were recommended, or by some described as essential so I was back down to Coast Mountain Sports to part with some more cash.

The real valuable bit of the training course was the evening trek, with sleds, to an area a few miles south of Whitehorse called hidden lakes. On arrival we all had to set up our sleeping system (in my case a tent as I don't want to weather a storm in a bivi bag), light our stoves and make a fire. Good training and good to get out and stretch the legs. It was a still night and at -15C still mild for February. The river had open water in the faster flowing areas and was a joy to wanders along side with the head torches off.... easy when its a 2 hr outing and then back to the hotel bar....

Saturday 2nd Feb.
 

The final trail briefing was followed by a final shopping trip for supplies and more trail food. We were handed our Spot devices which will allow the organisers and anyone online to follow our progress: http://trackleaders.com/yukonultra13

We watched the start of the Yukon Quest dog sled race which travels the 1000 miles to Fairbanks.

If I am half as keen as the dogs at the same start line tomorrow I'll be in a good place. It was taking

12 people to hold them steady at the start.

Drop bags were handed in and a race dinner was followed by a final shandy. 12 hours to race start

and looking forward to it. You can follow progress at the above link and I hope to find a couple of

places to update this blog on route.



 

1 day to go

On the 30th I flew North via Chicago and Vancouver to Whitehorse. I missed the connection at Vancouver as we were late out of Chicago which meant buying a later ticket from  Air North, not all bad as then I was sure that my kit was actually on the flight and I met up with a fellow racer and friend from previous events Pete Gold.

Thursday 30th
After steak and eggs for breakfast we headed out to acclimatise and test our kit. It was around -12C with a light wind which is above average for this time of year. White horse sits in a valley alongside the Yukon river, we followed the riverbank South on our 3 mile trek to a series of lakes where where we planned to get the tents up, test our camping stoves and build a fire. Karl Shields, a Yorkshire man who had completed the 100 mile distance had returned to tackle the 430 mile route to Dawson, joined us for the outing. He had followed this route last year as it is used on the training course provided by the organisers, the same course myself and Pete will be attending the next day.

Beautiful views over the city and of the surrounding hills as we climbed up towards the lake. A successful outing with the tension building..

We visited the local supermarket and outdoor gear shop to buy yet more supplies. I'm packing a zip lock food bag per day plus the mandatory 48 hour emergency food bag, I'm planning on taking 5500 calories per day. A daily pack includes 3 dehydrated meals, 100g beef jerky, 350g trail mix, 100g chocolate, 60g of cheese, 100g crisps (great for calories and salt intake), coffee x 2 and a chocolate recovery drink. We do get to put food in our drop bags for the checkpoints at 100 miles, 170miles and 270 miles, but I'm beginning to get worried that my sled is too small. The distance from the 270 mile to the finish is 160 miles which will need 5 days of food + the emergency 48 hour pack, at around 1500g per bag I'm beginning to get concerned that it will fit in my sled..

More to come with photos later today