Temperatures did go down to – 37 degrees Celsius in some places last night. As always this does cause problems for the athletes. Things that normally are not much of an issue turn into very big challenges. That is on top of the fact most of them have a lack of sleep and days on their feet, fatbikes and xc-skies are long. Therefore, we have had quite a few athletes having to call it a day. The good news is that there are no serious issues. We have had stomach problems, mild frostbite, hip issues and problems breathing.

Rejean Moreau is one of the athletes who had issues with his stomach and he was brought to Whitehorse by crew member Glenn Toovey. All other guides are bringing everybody else to Braeburn as I write this and for the rest of the day. These athletes are: Peter Mild, Nikolaj Pedersen, Jonathan Kattenberg, Torben Jensen, Thomas Zimmermann and Gavin Clark. I have two more on my list but I still need confirmation. Depending on how things go some of them may also stay in Dog Grave Lake.

In the meantime German fatbiker Bernhard Hasenbalg seems unstoppable. He is having a great time and may have us leaving for Carmacks tonight if he does not rest.

We had a really great first day! Cold but beautiful. The start was in time at 10:30 AM Shipyard’s Park.

Congratulations to all marathon winners and finishers! Local athlete Brendan Morphet came in at 14:13 and took first place. He was followed by Kevin Embacher (at 14:16) who is also from Whitehorse and Corey Nislow (at 14:18) who is from Vancouver. Overall rank 4 goes to Kristin Daniel (at 14:33) who was also the 1st woman in the marathon to arrive at Rivendell Farm.

For the athletes on the way to Dog Grave Lake and Braeburn the temps went down to – 30 degrees C. So far we have nobody else who needs to scratch. Fingers crossed it stays that way. Bernhard Hasenbalg arrived in Braeburn late last night. And I thought he “just” wants to finish and take it easy. Oh boy … I was wrong. Good thing we have had crew in place at Braeburn Lodge and already are set up in Ken Lake. I am in Whitehorse and with a group of volunteers will hopefully leave in about 3 hours to be at the 100 mile finish line. Most of the action will be in Dog Grave Lake today. More news once I am set up in race HQ.

We did have three athletes who unfortunately had to stop their adventure. That’s Anton Hierschläger, Andrzej Gondek and Kim Walker. They are all fine. Dissapointed of course but no serious injuries or anything like that. Both Anton and Andrzej had problems with a recent injury coming back. Kim was very exhausted. All are in Whitehorse and recovering.

We already have a lot of photos and some videos in our facebook group. If you do not use facebook, we will also feature these photos and videos on here. It just takes us a bit longer.

Just a reminder that all athletes who bring their own SPOT should create and save a separate “Message Contact Profile” for MYAU. Under that contact profile, we recommend you do not include family at home on either type of distress message (Help & SOS) as they may worry when there is nothing to worry about. Inclusion of family on the Check-in /OK message is fine. Within the contact profile you need to define and include recipients for the Check-in / OK message, which in the past has been, “Still smiling” (this is best programmed to send only to email); Custom Message, which has been used for, “I’m taking a bivy” (email only as well); “Help” should be both email and text. SOS has no email option. You program a phone number only. Primary contact email is jodavies33@yahoo.co.uk and secondary contact email is info@thegreatoutdoors.de.

IMPORTANT: There is a notes section for SOS, and it should read like this: “User is part of a human-powered race on the Yukon Quest Trail. If SOS is being transmitted, please phone the primary SOS contact directly, as for the purpose of the race, use of SOS is defined to mean life or death. Race central # (contact = Jo Davies) at 1-867-668-2777. Race director, who will at times be out of cell phone range on trail cell phone = 1-867-334-7629. NOTE: 1-867-334-6129 = Cell for secondary Diane Patrick.”

If you are using a private DeLorme inReach please implement as much of the above as possible – whichever part can be used as input in their system.

Regarding fuel pick-up at the Coast Mountain Sports, staff is ready now to help any MYAU athletes. Who needs liquid fuel can pick up 2 litres. You just need to bring your own bottles please! If you think you need more, please purchase the rest. You can put fuel in drop bags. Just make sure that the bottles you use are absolutely leak proof. Primus winter gas is available, too. Please everyone who needs it take two canisters. They have the small and the large size. You can take either one. When you go to Coast Mountain Sports for fuel, please go to the counter and tell them you are with MYAU (do not just pick the fuel off the shelves, as only staff knows what was allocated to us).

Paperwork

A large number of local athletes so far have only sent in their paperwork via email. This is just a quick reminder that we need the originals of all forms on February 3rd between 11:00 – 15:00 when we deal with paperwork, hand-out of maps, race bibs, etc. at Coast High Country Inn (Room: B1).

That of course also goes for all other athletes who yet have to hand something in.

Luggage

For those of you who yet have to pack their luggage and are flying the next couple of days. Please put a bit of clothing in your carry-on luggage. Most things have arrived with the athletes at Whitehorse airport so far but there are some exceptions. And even though Air Canada has managed to get the missing luggage to Whitehorse pretty quickly it’s good to have some clothes for changing and whatever else you need right there with you.

Please note that all rental gear will be handed out February 2nd from 5:00 to 6:00 PM in a room on the ground floor in the Coast High Country Inn (please ask at reception, which room it is exactIy). Some of you already informed me that you can’t be there and we arranged for another time. I also don’t mind handing out gear before that. In case you run into in the hotel, please feel free to ask and we can see if we find a time.

Regarding the rental procedure there is one small change this year. Generally, I have to say that almost all athletes do take very good care of their rented products. However, there are exceptions to the rule and it is of course a bit complicated to deal with afterwards. That is why any rental gear will now be handed out with a form that needs to be filled in and signed. In this form it will be recorded that the gear given out is 100% without fault. And if a sled bag would have a hole that has been repaired it will also be written down. Kind of like when you rent a car and confirm the state you receive it in. If there is a new damage it will depend on how bad it is as to how much I will charge. The most costly one would be a hole in your sleeping bag. So, please be careful when resting or sleeping next to a wood fire. You will find more useful care instructions on the form and I hope you agree with me that this makes sense. Not only in your interest but also in the interest of all athletes who will rent the equipment after you and also will want it to be in perfect condition.

Talking about rental gear, please take great care when you are handling your SPOT, e.g. when you attach it to something or take it off and how you attach it. On a couple of occasions athletes lost their SPOTs. Luckily so far these always have been found. If SPOT can’t be found again, the full RRP would have to be paid by the athlete.

Thanks to the support of Primus and Coast Mountain Sports we can once again offer free fuel to all MYAU participants. You just need to go to Coast Mountain Sports and there you can choose between Primus Winter Gas cartridges and the liquid Powerfuel.

Please note that the Primus Winter Gas is recommended for temperatures down to – 22° C, a range which is very remarkable for gas. You just need to be aware that if temperatures are below this level you will likely experience difficulties. In that case you need to be set-up well for building a wood fire and heating water or preparing a meal on it. On their website Primus have also put together a great source of information regarding the different types of fuel, cooking in winter and many other important info if you are using stoves in the outdoors. So, please check it out.

Those of you renting a Primus stove kit which includes the OmniLite Ti multi fuel stove, you will get 2 fuel bottles together with the stove and can get these filled at Coast Mountain Sports, too.

Just a quick reminder to all participants to send in the originals of ALL/any missing paperwork by mail (not email) before January 20th. Please send it to

Robert Pollhammer
Isarstr. 23
82499 Wallgau
Germany

Keep a copy of everything and take it with you to Whitehorse just in case something gets lost in the mail. The reason why I ask you to do this rather than bringing the originals of everything to Whitehorse is that it’s stressful for both you and the organising team to deal with paperwork issues at such a late point in time. Especially with such a full race roster.

Cancellation Fees

Several cancellations have reached me over the last few weeks. Sports injuries and changed work committments being the main reasons. Everybody who still is on the race roster but considering to cancel, plese keep in mind that there are now cancellation fees. The closer we get to the race, the higher the fees. Not paying the final invoice does not equal a cancellation! If you do not participate I need a written information on it. Or a phone call.

Schedule

If you had a look at the schedule you may have noticed that not all activities will be at the Coast High Country Inn this time. You will find the schedule in the Race Info section.

Please note that our race chaplain Pat Cooke-Rogers will hold a prayer meeting on Feb. 4th at 14:00 in the Coast High Country Inn. People from all faiths are welcome to attend.

Dr. Mathias Steinach will be back to conduct a study among MYAU athletes for the third time. He will study the effects the race has got on 430 mile runners and he is looking for participants. He already came for research in 2013 and 2105. In 2017 he will be back to get more data.

Mathias works for the renown Center for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments Berlin which is part of the University there. Athletes who participate not only help understand better what extreme environments do to us humans in general. They will of course also gain very interesting insight on how our race affects their body. The study so far has gone really well. Mathias found a way to get all the data necessary without interfering with the race rhythm of the participants.

Mathias will once again co-operate with Robert H. Coker from the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Robert H. Coker, PhD is an Associate Professor at UAF and has over 17 years of experience studying the regulation of metabolism during exercise under a variety of different physiological scenarios.

They are looking for 8 to 10 athletes who would like to be part of this. So, if you are interested, please send me a quick email (info@thegreatoutdoors.de) and I will get you in touch with Mathias. He can then provide you with a full outline of the study and answer any questions you may have.

Our world can be a strange place. The current US election results, climate change, wars, refugee crisis, … Anybody in their right mind sometimes has to wonder. So, it’s great to see that there are people who care about others and help. Despite all difficulties.

Many athletes dedicate their participation in the MYAU to a good cause. In 2017 and hopefully beyond I would like to help with the MYAU as well. Obviously, there are many causes worth supporting. However, one charity has really inspired me and even has a connection with the Yukon. It is called Little Footprints, Big Steps.

Morgan Wienberg left the Yukon at age 18 to help people in Haiti after the devastating earth quake in 2010. What was meant to be a short trip changed her life and that of countless others. In 2011 she co-founded Little Footprints, Big Steps and has been part of it ever since. At a time in life when most people think about studies, career and all kinds of other things, Morgan decided to help rescuing children from situations of abuse, slavery, homelessness or severe neglect. Little Footprints, Big Steps do this by reuniting families, supporting education and opportunities for self-sufficiency and dignity through their programs and services and collaborations.

A big advantage of Little Footprints, Big Steps is that it is a small charity with limited bureaucracy. So any support really ends up where it should. As you will know from the news Haiti this year once again has been hit by natural disaster. The funds we can generate will be used for agricultural restoration for families who live in more rural communities. Which is where the hurricane completely wiped out all agriculture crops. Little Footprints, Big Steps will buy gardening materials, compost, seeds/plants/baby trees and hire a local agronomist to guide the families. Also Morgen and her team will have the kids in their safehouses involved in doing reforestation projects. What MYAU will do is to pay CAD 1 per every kilometer run by our marathon participants. And we will think about other ways to generate more contributions. Ideas welcome! Of course any ultra-athlete who wants to join in the effort is more than welcome to do so.

More news on this project will follow.