The MYAU 2024 photo gallery on our website is now complete. It features most but not all of Mark Kelly’s photos. For all the photos taken by Mark, please visit the website gallery.markkellyphotography.ca.
As always, MYAU athletes can purchase photo packages directly with Mark.
As our fourth and last finisher, Alan Purdue, from Scotland reached the Pelly Crossing 300 mile finish line at 17:06 today. After a shower and two dinners he is now getting some rest.
Most of our volunteer crew are still in Pelly Crossing and tomorrow we will all go for a visit to Pelly Farm to celebrate 20 years of our race and to enjoy the great company of Sue and Dale at their farm.
In the meantime, the results table will be updated and we will post more photos in our gallery. If you want some impression right away, please check out our social media channels.
I will also write my final race report and, of course, as soon as possible announce the details for next year.
Jovica Spajic from Serbia wins the Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra 2024 300 mile race from Whitehorse to Pelly Crossing. Avoiding the dangerous trail just before McCabe meant shortening the distance by 38 miles. So, we can’t compare Jovica’s time to previous winners. However, it’s fair to say that Jovica would have been a strong contender to set a new record time. His speed was very impressive and he clearly learned some lessons from his previous two attempts during which he could not reach the finish line.
After a good night’s sleep and a much deserved shower, Jovica got a ride back to Whitehorse where has a few days left to relax before he flies home.
Copyright: MarkKellyPhotography.ca
The next 300 mile athletes to finish were Daniel Benhammou and John Nakel. Both US and both MYAU veterans. They finished together but due to the fact that Daniel had arrived in Carmacks before John, in the official ranking, Daniel ranks 2nd and John 3rd. Although I am pretty sure they do not care. They are not so much here for the “ranking” and more for the adventure and to enjoy Yukon’s nature and the atmosphere created by the crew – both out on the trails and at the checkpoints. Like Jovica, they got a ride back to Whitehorse and I am almost certain we will see them again.
Alan Purdue is now the last athletes we are waiting for. He arrived at Pelly Farm this evening. Now he has to make his way back to Whitehorse and we hope to welcome him in tomorrow night. We are all very impressed with him. Alan is always in a good mood and super relaxed.
Alan Purdue is now the last athletes we are waiting for. He arrived at Pelly Farm this evening. Now he has to make his way back to Whitehorse and we hope to welcome him in tomorrow night. We are all very impressed with him. Alan is always in a good mood and super relaxed.
Copyright: Callum Jolliffe
It has been an extremely busy few days. Normally, I get to do one or two updates on our website before we get to Carmacks. This time, I did not have this opportunity. To all of you who are on social media, please check out facebook group or instagram page, as I have the support of Callum Jolliffe who posts short updates, great reels and photos there.
Day 1 was as we expected it. Shipyards Park was extremely icy and there was a lot of ice without snow cover on the Yukon River, too. It meant that our fatbikers were able to fly, since they had studded tires. For those running and hiking it was a fast race, too. Just our skiers had to suffer.
All marathon runners who started also did reach the finish line at Muktuk Adventures. I hope to update the results table tonight for you all to be able to see the times and rankings.
It was a cold first night. As a consequence, some athletes did run into problems with frostbite. Not to a degree where they will lose toes or fingers but bad enough to have to withdraw. As a matter of fact, even “mild” frostbite for our athletes means that they have to stop.
That night more athletes had to scratch for other reasons.
For a long time, both our fatbikers were close together. However, Scott Herron decided not to rest long at our remote Dog Grave Lake checkpoint, while Ric Horobin stopped for a good night’s sleep. Hence, 100 miler Scott came first and Ric second. The third athlete to reach Braeburn Lodge was Elise Zender from Germany. She had already finished our 300 mile race in 2023, along with Josh Tebeau who also finished the 100 miles not long after her. This year both of them came “just” to train, to then return for our 430 mile race to Dawson City in 2025! In total 11 athletes finished the 100 mile race and 4 had to scratch.
Just before or after Braeburn, more athletes had to call it a day – for various reasons, like issues with the knees, ankles, heart, hip or stomach. We received a total of 3 SOS messages in a relatively short period of time. All of them we were able to attend quickly. In two cases things turned out to be not as severe as expected. However, for one of the athlete, Alex de Sain from the Netherland, it was important to get him to a hospital quickly. Alex got surgery and is now recovering from it. The entire MYAU team wishes him a quick and full recovery!
By noon today a total of twelve 300 milers have had to quit.
From the beginning our race to Pelly Crossing has been dominated by Jovica Spajic from Serbia. It’s his third attempt at the MYAU and under normal circumstances, this time he will finish and win. As I write this he is 19 miles from Pelly Crossing and our team is waiting for him.
All our 300 miler are affected by an issue with trail safety just before McCabe. Here the Yukon River has not frozen as it normally does and there is a lot of open water. Initially we were going to use an improvised trail but after checking and re-checking we decided it is not 100% safe. Therefore, Jovica and this morning Daniel Benhammou and John Nakel, all MYAU veterans, were brought from Carmacks to McCabe by car. They continued from the other side of the river and are on their way to Pelly now.
Alan Purdue from Wales is close to Carmacks now and crew just came back from checking on him. He is fine and says that “he’s loving it”.
Further south, Todd Robertson reached Mandanna Lake checkpoint. There he decided to withdraw because he saw no chance to reach Carmacks within the 4 day and 12 hours deadline. Last on the trail was Alla Bova from the USA. Our snowmobile crew is going out to pick her up as Mandanna checkpoint is closing, and, like Todd, she has no way of arriving in Carmacks in time.
The last few days have been “interesting”. After a much needed first cold spell the temperatures in Whitehorse warmed right up again. Instead of snow, we have been faced with rain, a lot of rain … Consequently, significant sections with overflow have formed on the Yukon and Takhini River. Now, with temperatures getting colder again, there is a lot of ice, also in Shipyard’s Park, which is were we normally start the race. Earlier today, the Yukon Quest decided to move away from Shipyard’s Park for their start. In a statement that was released, it says:
“The [Yukon Quest] Race Officials unanimously agreed that the icy conditions would put mushers and teams, volunteers, officials, and the public in danger if we continued to hold the start there. The transitions to the river were deemed unsafe as well, which added to the decision … “
That decision is totally understandable as dog teams right after taking off, have enormous power and speed. Ice would make this a very dangerous undertaking. For the Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra things are different. Our athletes can move over solid ice in a safe way by putting traction products on their shoes – like Kahtoola MICROspikes or EXOspikes. Skiers may have to take off their skis and have traction for their boots. Bikers either have tires with spikes or need they need to push and use traction for their footwear, too.
Obviously, any visitors who want to see us start February 4th, 10:30am at Shipyard’s Park face the same problem. We really look forward to have people join us for the start of the 20th edition of our race but if you do join us, use traction on your footwear! Otherwise you risk falling and seriously injuring yourself!
For all those of you who can’t be with us but want to follow us, we will frequently update our Facebook group, Instagram page and website. There will be a results table that will show “in and out” times of checkpoints and an embedded tracking map (link not active, yet) that shows our athlete’s progress almost in real time.
