Yukon Quest
Yukon Quest
The Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race, or Yukon Quest, is a sled dog race run every February between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon. Because of the harsh winter conditions, difficult trail, and limited support competitors are allowed, it is considered the "most difficult sled dog race in the world". or even the "toughest race in the world".
In the competition, first run in 1984, a dog team leader (called a musher) and a team of 6 to 14 dogs race for 10 to 20 days. The race course follows the route of the historic 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, mail delivery, and transportation routes between Fairbanks, Dawson City, and Whitehorse. Mushers pack up to 250 pounds (113 kg) of equipment and provisions for themselves and their dogs to survive between checkpoints. Racers are permitted to drop dogs at checkpoints and dog drops but not to replace them. They may neither replace their sleds without penalty nor accept help from non-racers except at Dawson City, the halfway mark. Ten checkpoints and four dog drops, some more than 200 miles (322 km) apart, lie along the trail. Veterinarians are present at each to ensure the health and welfare of the dogs, advise mushers about caring for their dogs' medical needs, and provide veterinary care for dropped dogs. The veterinarians, together with the race marshal or a race judge, may remove a dog or team from the race for medical or other reasons.
The race route runs on frozen rivers, over four mountain ranges, and through isolated northern villages. Racers cover 1,016 miles (1,635 km) or more, temperatures commonly drop as low as −60 °F (−51 °C), and winds can reach 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) at higher elevations. Sonny Lindner won the inaugural race in 1984 from a field of 26 teams. The fastest run took place in 2009, when Sebastian Schnuelle finished after 9 days, 23 hours, and 20 minutes. The 2009 competition also had the closest one-two finish, as Schnuelle beat second-place musher Hugh Neff by just four minutes. Lance Mackey, who held the quickest finish record before Schnuelle, is the only musher to have won the race four times. In 2007, he became the first musher to win both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. He repeated this in 2008. The longest race time was in 1988, when Ty Halvorson took 20 days, 8 hours, and 29 minutes to finish. In 2000, Aliy Zirkle became the first woman to win the race, finishing in 10 days, 22 hours, and 57 minutes. To accommodate mushers who participate in both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod, the 2010 Yukon Quest will begin one week earlier than usual—February 6, in Fairbanks.
Yukon Quest International, which runs the Yukon Quest sled dog race, also runs two shorter races: the Junior Quest and the Yukon Quest 300. The Junior Quest is a short race for mushers younger than 18. The Quest 300 is a 300-mile (482 km) race on the Yukon Quest trail and a qualifier for the next year's long-distance race, which runs at the same time.
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History
Since the race was conceived in 1983, competitors have encountered moose, had to deal with unusually high and low temperatures, and faced hardships. The race organizers have faced logistical, financial, and organizational difficulties. Yet the Yukon Quest continues to run every year.
Origins
The idea for the Yukon Quest originated in April 1983 during a bar-room discussion among four Alaskans: LeRoy Shank, Roger Williams, Ron Rosser, and Willie Libb. The four proposed a thousand-mile sled dog race from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon, to celebrate the Klondike Gold Rush-era mail and transportation routes between the two. They disdained the many checkpoints and stage race nature of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and envisioned an endurance race in which racers would rely on themselves and survival would be as important as speed. "We wanted more of a Bush experience, a race that would put a little woodsmanship into it", Shank said at the race's 25th anniversary.
This remained a vague plan until August 1983, when the first public organizational meetings took place. Fundraising began, and the start date for the race was optimistically moved forward from February 1985 to February 25, 1984. The entry fee for the first race was $500, and Murray Clayton of Haines, Alaska became the first person to enter when he paid his fee in October 1983. In December 1983, the race was officially named the Yukon Quest. Two more months of planning followed, and a crew of volunteers was organized to staff the checkpoints and place trail markers. On February 25, 1984, 26 racers left Fairbanks for Whitehorse. Each team was limited to a maximum of 12 dogs, and racers had to finish with no fewer than nine. They also had to haul 25 pounds (11 kg) of food per dog (300 pounds (136 kg) total) to cover the long distances between checkpoints.
Numerous problems occurred in the first race. The leading mushers had to break trail because the snowmobile intended for the task broke down. Trail markers often were absent or misplaced, and no preparations had been made for racers in Dawson City until organizer Roger Williams flew there shortly after the race began. After Dawson City, mushers had their dogs and sleds trucked 60 miles (97 km) to avoid a section of snowless trail, then had to deal with open sections of the Yukon River near Whitehorse due to above-average temperatures. The eventual winner of the inaugural race, Sonny Lindner, was greeted with little fanfare on his arrival. At the race's 25th anniversary, he recalled, "I think it was 90 percent (camping) trip and maybe a little bit of racing."
First decade
After the inaugural race, organizers improved the marking of the trail for the first contest held in the Whitehorse–Fairbanks direction. Musher Bill Cotter said, "The trail was so nice that it was difficult to keep from going too fast." The race grew in popularity over the next few years. In 1988 and again in 1989, 47 mushers entered. In 1989, 31 completed the race—the most that ever finished it in a single year. In 1990, Connie and Terri Frerichs became the first (and so far only) mother and daughter to compete in the same Yukon Quest: Terri finished 21st, beating her mother (22nd) by 26 minutes. The 1991 race saw eight teams withdraw in the first quarter of the competition due to an outbreak of a canine disease called the "Healy Virus". Thirty-five other dogs also were sickened before the spread of the virus was halted by colder weather halfway through the race. In 1992, unseasonably warm temperatures caused problems in the first half of the race, and the second half was affected by bitter cold. The head veterinarian of that race, Jeannie Olson, was replaced after she offered canine acupuncture to several mushers. Though it was not forbidden by the rules at the time, she violated equal-treatment guidelines because she did not offer the treatment to every musher. At the conclusion of the race, George Cook became the first musher since 1984 to finish the race short of Whitehorse when open water on the Yukon River prevented him from continuing. Because he did not quit, race officials awarded him the Red Lantern Award.
Following the 1992 race, controversy erupted when the Alaska board of directors of Yukon Quest International informed the Yukon board that they were considering dropping the Yukon half of the Quest because Yukon officials did not meet fundraising goals. Alaska officials also believed it would be easier to manage an Alaska-only race. A crisis was averted when the Yukon board of directors agreed to raise more money and the two sides came together to form a joint board of directors. The 1993 race was run as usual, but musher Jeff Mann had a more eventful race than most. When a moose attacked his dog team, he was forced to kill it with an axe, then butcher it according to Quest rules. Later, he was penalized 90 minutes for borrowing a reporter's head lantern. Finally, after the conclusion of the race, he was fined half his winnings when his dogs tested positive for ibuprofen.
In the 1994 race, Alaska musher Bruce Cosgrove was denied entry by Canadian customs officials, marking the first and only time a musher has been denied entry into either Canada or Alaska. The denial had no impact on the race, as Cosgrove quit before the border. Following the race, controversy again erupted when Alaska Yukon Quest officials announced they would unilaterally eliminate Whitehorse from the Yukon Quest and run a cheaper Fairbanks-to-Dawson City race. Registered members of the Yukon Quest organization revolted against this and voted to evict the board members who had proposed it.
Second decade
The 1995 race featured 22 mushers, of whom 13 finished. Budget problems caused the first-place prize to drop to $15,000 from $20,000 the previous year, contributing to the low participation. This problem was fixed for the 1996 race, with a first-place prize of $25,000. The 1997 race was won by Rick Mackey, brother of later Quest winner Lance Mackey. Together, the two are the only brother-brother winning tandem in Quest history. Following the 1997 race, financial troubles again arose. This time, the problems were on the Alaska side, as Canadian organizers secured international sponsorship for the 1998 race. When the Canadians refused to allow any of the sponsorship money to be spent on debts accumulated in Alaska, Alaska board members threatened to host a separate competition. In the end, the Alaska board members were forced to resign, and a deal was worked out between the two sides.
The 1998 race was run on schedule and had 38 entrants. The 1999 race was won by Alaska Native veterinarian Ramy Brooks, who defeated Mark May by 10 minutes. In 2000, Aliy Zirkle became the first woman to win the Yukon Quest after taking 10 days, 22 hours, and 57 minutes to trek the 1,000 miles (1,609 km). Also in 2000, Yukon Quest International added two races: the Quest 250 (today the Quest 300) and the Junior Quest (both described below). Competitors in each have gone on to participate in the Yukon Quest. The first of these graduated mushers competed in the 2001 race, won by Tim Osmar.
In 2002, the Yukon Quest was won by Hans Gatt, an Austrian-born resident of British Columbia and the first European to win. This was the first of three consecutive wins, making him the first three-time winner. In 2003, Gatt's second win was truncated by a lack of snow near Whitehorse. Unseasonable warmth forced organizers to truck mushers and their dog teams to Braeburn before continuing what became a 921 miles (1,482 km) competition. The 2004 race saw 31 mushers start the race and 20 finish, a drop-out rate of 35 percent. During the first 24 years of the competition, there were 776 starters and 513 finishers. Though 90 more mushers attempted the race in the first 12 years than in the next dozen runnings, there is little difference in the percentage that did not finish (35 percent from 1984–1995; 33 percent from 1996–2007).
Third decade
In 2005, first-time participant Lance Mackey broke Hans Gatt's three-win streak. Mackey finished in 11 days, 32 seconds. The victory was the first of four straight wins by Mackey, who holds the record for most consecutive Yukon Quest wins and is the race's only four-time winner. During Mackey's second win, a fierce storm atop Eagle Summit caused a whiteout that forced seven mushers and dog teams to be evacuated by helicopter. Partly because of the storm, only 11 mushers finished the 2006 race—the fewest ever. The finishers also endured an unusual course: because snow was scarce near Whitehorse, mushers doubled back and finished in Dawson City after racing the 1,000 miles (1,609 km). In 2007, three dogs were killed in unrelated incidents, but Mackey tied Gatt's record of three consecutive wins. One month later, Mackey became the first person to win both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year. Mackey's fourth win came during the 2008 race, the first Yukon Quest to end in Whitehorse since 2003.
Because of the late 2000s recession, the 2009 Yukon Quest purse was reduced to $151,000 from a planned total of $200,000. As a result, the first-place prize was reduced to $30,000 from the planned $35,000 . Partly because of this, Mackey withdrew before the race, making it easier for a new musher to win. In the closest one–two finish of the Yukon Quest, German musher Sebastian Schnuelle completed the race faster than anyone before, finishing that year's 1,016-mile (1,635 km) trip in 9 days, 23 hours, and 20 minutes. He was just four minutes ahead of second-placed Hugh Neff.
Following the 2009 race, officials decided to advance the competition's start date by one week to better accommodate mushers also participating in the Iditarod. The 2010 race will start in Fairbanks on February 6, 2010. That race will run a slightly changed route because the building that housed the dog drop at McCabe Creek burned down shortly after the 2009 competition.
Route
The course of the race varies slightly from year to year due to ice conditions on the Yukon River, snowfall, and other factors. The length of the route has also fluctuated, ranging from 921 miles (1,482 km) in the weather-shortened 2003 race to 1,023 miles (1,646 km) in 1998. In even-numbered years, the race starts in Fairbanks and ends in Whitehorse. In odd-numbered years, the start and finish lines switch.
The route follows the Yukon River for much of its course and travels over four mountains: King Solomon's Dome, Eagle Summit, American Summit, and Rosebud Summit. Its length is equivalent to the distance between England and Africa, and the distance between some checkpoints is the breadth of Ireland. Racers endure ice, snow, and extreme cold. Wildlife is common on the trail, and participants sometimes face challenges from moose and wolves. Because of the harsh conditions, the Yukon Quest has been called the "most difficult sled dog race in the world" and the "toughest race in the world".
Pre-race preparation
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Iditarod has stiffer competition, but the Quest trail is vastly harder, it's not just the mountains. It's the Yukon River
itself. Iditarod only has about a hundred and thirty miles on the
Yukon, the Quest stays on the river closer to four hundred miles.
—Brian O'Donoghue, Honest Dogs. p. 263.
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Because of the extreme difficulty of the competition, several stages
of preparation are needed. The first is the food drop, when mushers and
race officials position caches of food and supplies at race checkpoints.
This is necessary because mushers may only use their supplies along the
route, reflecting the Gold Rush era, when dog trains would resupply at
points along the trail.
One week after the food drop, all dogs participating in the race
undergo a preliminary veterinarian inspection to ensure they are
healthy enough to race 1,000 miles in subarctic conditions. The final stage of formal preparation is two days before the race, when mushers pick their starting order from a hat.
Whitehorse to Braeburn
The traditional starting line is in Whitehorse on First Avenue, near the former White Pass and Yukon Route train station, which today houses the Canadian offices of Yukon Quest International. Shortly after leaving the starting line, racers follow the frozen Yukon River north out of town. Crossing onto the Takhini River, mushers follow it north to the Klondike-era Overland Trail. Racers take the trail to Braeburn Lodge, the first checkpoint.
This trail segment is about 100 miles (161 km) long. The terrain consists of small hills and frequent frozen streams and lakes. When the race runs from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, the Braeburn checkpoint is the site of a mandatory eight-hour stop to ensure the health of mushers' dogs before the final stage.
Braeburn to Pelly Crossing
In this leg of the race, mushers travel 77 miles (124 km) to the checkpoint at Carmacks, followed by 73 miles (117 km) to Pelly Crossing.
Coming out of Braeburn, competitors cross the Klondike Highway and proceed east for about 10 miles (16 km) to Coghlan Lake. From there they turn north, then northwest, and travel along a chain of lakes that stretches for about 30 miles (48 km). They then enter a notorious stretch of heavily forested hills nicknamed "Pinball Alley" for the way the rough terrain bounces sleds into trees, rocks, and other obstacles. Trees are so scarred from repeated sled impacts that they have lost their bark on one side. In 1998, racer Brenda Mackey was jolted around so much by the rough trail that her sled became wedged between two trees, forcing her to cut one down to continue.
After Pinball Alley, racers briefly mush along the Yukon River before climbing the riverbank to the Carmacks checkpoint. They then follow a road for about 15 miles (24 km) and turn onto a firebreak trail. After departing the trail, they travel alongside and across the Yukon River to McCabe Creek, the first dog drop on the Whitehorse–Fairbanks route. Leaving McCabe Creek, the race trail parallels a driveway and the Klondike Highway for several miles before turning north to cross the Pelly Burn, an area scorched by a wildfire in 1995. Because the fire destroyed much of the forest in the area, this portion of the trail has few obstacles and is considered fast. From the McCabe Creek site it is about 32 miles (51 km) to Pelly Crossing.
Pelly Crossing to Dawson City
The stretch between Pelly Crossing and Dawson City is the greatest distance between checkpoints of any sled dog competition in the world. Between the two sites are 201 miles (323 km) of open trail, marked only by a dog drop at Scroggie Creek, an abandoned gold-mining site activated only during the Yukon Quest.
From Pelly Crossing, mushers travel west on the frozen Pelly River, or on a road that parallels the river if ice conditions are poor. At Stepping Stone, shortly before the Pelly and Yukon rivers meet, they can rest at a hospitality stop before turning north. From Stepping Stone to Scroggie Creek the trail consists of a mining road or "cat" road, named for the Caterpillar tracked mining vehicles that use it. Before organizers coordinated schedules with the mining equipment operators, racers often had to contend with heavy machinery blocking the trail or turning it into a muddy path. The Scroggie Creek dog drop is at the confluence of the Stewart River and Scroggie Creek.
After Scroggie Creek, the trail switches from a westerly direction to almost directly north. At this point, mushers enter the gold-mining district surrounding Dawson City. From the Stewart River adjacent to Scroggie, the trail climbs, crossing the Yukon Territory's Black Hills. Fifty miles (80 km) from Dawson City and 55 miles (89 km) from Scroggie Creek, it crosses the Indian River, and mushers begin the climb to King Solomon's Dome, the highest point (4,002 feet (1,220 m)) on the trail. The trail ascends more gradually in the Whitehorse–Fairbanks route than in the opposite direction, where mushers have to endure several switchbacks. When mushers start in Whitehorse, they already have gained several thousand feet from the ascent into the Black Hills, including a climb over 3,550-foot (1,082 m) Eureka Dome. The main difficulties come during the descent from King Solomon's Dome to Bonanza Creek, the epicenter of the Klondike Gold Rush. After reaching the creek, mushers thread through an area of mining waste and follow the Klondike River to Dawson City, the halfway point of the race. They are required to rest for 36 hours in Dawson City.
Dawson City to Eagle
The distance from Dawson City to Eagle, the first checkpoint in Alaska for the Whitehorse–Fairbanks route, is 147 miles (237 km). The second half of the race is conducted in a time-even fashion: mushers leave in staggered order, their rest times adjusted to make up for the staggered start.
Racers exit Dawson City on the Yukon River and follow it for about 50 miles (80 km) to the Fortymile River hospitality stop. The river's name comes from its distance from Fort Reliance, an abandoned trading post established in 1874. From the hospitality stop, mushers travel southwest on the Fortymile River in what is one of the coldest portions of the race, due to cold air sinking to the bottom of the river valley. The trail on the river crosses the Alaska–Canada border, noticeable only because of the border vista, a strip of land cleared of all foliage. Shortly past the border, the river turns northwest, and mushers leave its frozen surface when it meets the Taylor Highway, a road closed to automobile traffic during the winter. As the trail follows the highway for 49 miles (79 km) conditions are often hazardous, with high winds and drifting snow that can obscure trail markers. After climbing the 3,420-foot (1,042 m) American Summit, the trail gradually descends 20 miles (32 km) to Eagle, on the banks of the Yukon River.
Eagle to Central
The route from Eagle to Central covers a distance of 233 miles (375 km). In winter, Eagle is buffeted by high winds and drifting snow funneled through the town by nearby Eagle Bluff, which stands 300 feet (91 m) above the Yukon River. Because it is the first stop in the United States, competitors are greeted at Eagle by a United States Department of Homeland Security official who checks passports and entry documents.
After leaving Eagle, mushers travel northwest for 159 miles (256 km) on the Yukon River, except for a few short portages. During this stretch, two hospitality stops are available. The first is 28 miles (45 km) from Eagle at [Trout Creek, Alaska|Trout Creek]]. The next is Biederman's Cabin, the former home of Charlie Biederman, one of the last people to deliver mail by sled dog. (The final sled dog mail route was canceled in 1963, and Biederman's sled hangs in the National Postal Museum.) A dog drop site is located 18 miles (29 km) from Biederman's Cabin at Slaven's Cabin, a historic site operated by the National Park Service. Some 60 miles (97 km) past Slaven's Cabin mushers arrive in Circle, so named because its founders believed it was on the Arctic Circle. (Circle is actually about 50 miles (80 km) south of that line.)
From Circle, it is 74 miles (119 km) to the checkpoint in Central. Mushers follow Birch Creek south until just before Central Hot Springs. This area, along with the Fortymile stretch, is considered among the coldest on the trail, and mushers are advised to prepare for −60 °F (−51 °C) temperatures. Turning west, they travel through frozen swamps before reaching the Steese Roadhouse checkpoint in Central.
