This will depend on snow conditions and temperatures. During the first few years hardly any athletes took along snowshoes. However, climate change has arrived in the Yukon, too. “Warmer” temperatures, fresh snow and more wind than normal have sometimes caused trail conditions which were easier handled with snowshoes. Our trail crew does travel back and forth with their snowmobiles a lot. That helps to pack down the snow but if weather conditions are bad and/or it’s not cold enough, you may have soft trails over long distances. Therefore, just check out the weather forecasts prior to the race. If you already have snowshoes take them along. Just in case. If you do not have snowshoes, we offer a limited number for rent. Please make your reservation for rental snowshoes as soon as possible.

Obviously, if you are on fatbike soft trails are bad news. I would say, overall, at the YAU we have been lucky so far. In general, if you start doing your research about fatbiking and Arctic races, you will find out that pushing your bike over large distances can happen.

Athletes on skis are probably the only winners if the trails are soft. However, a lot of fresh snow will slow them down as well, because it’s tougher to pull the pulk sled.

One thing is for sure, you should take along as much water as you can. In the cold you dehydrate very quickly and melting snow takes a long time. Athletes often can’t be bothered to get out their stoves to get snow melted. They decide to go on without drinking. Depending on how long the distance to the next checkpoint is, this can cause serious problems, including frostbite and hypothermia.

If you take a hydration baldder you should carry it on top of your first layer of clothing and underneath any other layers you wear. The tube and the mouthpiece should be insulated. There actually are hydration bladders for winter sports but it is also possible to do the insulation DIY. Remember to blow any liquid out of the tube when you are done drinking. Also, make sure you don’t get boiling water into your bladder and that YOU, at a checkpoint, close the water bladder yourself.

You definitely need 3 litres of insulated thermos bottles (see also Rules). These are quite heavy but there is nothing like hot chocolate or tea when you are really cold. In addition you can try transporting coke in a plastic bottle and attaching a heat pad to it. If you wrap this in some piece of clothing, it will stay liquid for quite some time. But be careful. If it gets too cold the bottle may explode and get your gear wet.

Also, with the thermos bottle you use, make sure that when you close the lid, there is no water on it. Otherwise, your lid may freeze to the bottle and it will be impossible to open it. Should that happen, don’t just accept it and continue without drinking over long distances. You need to deal with the problem. Fire up your stove to unfreeze the lid – without melting it or burning your fingers in the process! Or see if having the bottle close to body heat will be sufficient to defreeze the lid. Or

The extreme temperatures go down to minus 50 degrees Celsius and colder. Don’t forget the wind chill, either. Minus 25 degrees and wind will make it extremely cold, too.

It does not have to be this cold for participants to get in trouble! Hypothermia is possible at plus 5° Celsius, too. Frostbite injuries will increase the more freezing it gets but can also happen in temperatures less extreme.

If you find yourself in a situation where you have to admit to yourself that you can’t handle the temperatures – whatever these may be – be smart, stay safe and don’t risk life and limbs! Hypothermia and frostbite can kill you. Frostbite on its own is a super nasty injury. Depending on how bad it is, it can take months to recover – months during which you can’t train and you may not be able to work. Surgery may be needed and thus you have a lasting impact on your life. It’s not worth it.

We have had athletes with serious frostbite and hypothermia. Never make the mistake of thinking it won’t happen to you. It can happen very quickly and it can happen to anyone. Some things to keep in mind:

1. If you have problems with the blood circulation in your feet or hands the MYAU is not a race you should go to.
2. Don’t wait until you get cold. Do something before that happens, i.e. put on a layer, rest, build a fire, sleep, drink something hot, eat – depending on the circumstances.
3. It’s important that you don’t get hot either. If you sweat and then later on temperatures get colder your clothes will freeze solid.
4. In addition to having the right clothes for extreme temperatures, you might want to take along chemical heat pads. You can buy these in Whitehorse. They are not expensive and very good if your fingers or toes are getting cold.
5. If temperatures get too cold for moving to the next checkpoint, we recommend you make a fire. Building a fire will keep your body temperature up and the fire you can use to warm up and to melt snow/ice for a hot drink.
6. Melting ice is more efficient than melting snow. That means if you are near a creek or lake it may be worth your while getting ice. However, you will need someting to cut the ice, like a small axe.
7. You need to drink and eat well. Your body can deal a lot better with the cold if you take care of these basic needs.
8. Make sure you can operate your stove and other equipment with gloves on.
9. Under all circumstances try to avoid getting stove fuel on your skin when it is extremely cold. It can result in immediate frostbite.
10. Be prepared for life threatening situations like extreme cold and getting into overflow. Develop scenarios how you deal with these situations. What to do first? Where are my matches and stromproof lighter? Where are my clothes for changing?
11. Take along fire starter (several options available locally e.g. at Canadian Tire) in order to build a wood fire fast. Make sure you get it right the first time, i.e. use dry wood, don’t build the fire on a snow base (make a hole).
12. If you have a down sleeping bag, use a Vapour Barrier Liner. Also, look into buying Vapour Barrier liner gloves and socks.
13. If you borrow a sleeping bag or buy a used one, make sure it has kept its loft. A sleeping bag that was stored the wrong way may have lost a lot of its capacity to warm you.
14. Be very careful if you take your hydration bladder with you into the sleeping bag. Valves may defreeze and leak or the entire bladder bursts. Both has happened!

Yes, all checkpoints will have hot water, tea and coffee. In some cases also hot chocolate. Upon leaving a checkpoint we will provide water for you, enough to fill your 3 litres of thermos bottle capacity. At the remote checkpoints it is good to let staff/volunteers know when you will need water and how much, as water supply gets tight if everyone leaves at the same time and we don’t know about it in advance. We also ask athletes to mark their thermoses with their bib number. That way we can avoid mixing up thermoses while these are being filled. Finally, we ask athletes to close the lid on any hydration container themselves – to be sure it’s tight but not too tight and no water is caught in the lid. The latter could otherwise cause the lid to freeze shut, making it impossible to open unless warmed up.

Regarding food, there is one hot meal for every athlete and usually a small dessert at Brooks Brook, Ross River and Faro. You can have this meal when you arrive or before you leave but you can’t have two meals. All other checkpoints do not provide meals.

To complement the meals you get at checkpoints and for checkpoints without food, we recommend lightweight expedition meals. You only need to add hot water and within minutes you have a great breakfast, lunch or dinner. Also, keep in mind that you need extra food in case of an emergency and being stuck between checkpoint or if you get lost.

If a community has a restaurant, athletes are allowed to eat there at their own expense. Also, community supermarkets can be used to re-supply. However, please keep in mind that the stores and restaurants, if there are any, have regular opening hours, i.e. they won’t be open at night or in the early morning hours.

The trail is marked with wooden sticks that have fluorescent tape at the top. The new trail (since 2025) that is to a large part on the South and North Canol Road, is very obvious. There will be very few markers there.

It is difficult but not impossible to get lost. You will still need common sense at times, especially if snowmobiles have driven over sticks or new snow and wind are covering the markers or trails.

People have gone to sleep next to the trail and walked back south once they got up again. Dehydration and exhaustion are also likely to get you lost or in trouble, even if the trail is well marked. Please remember that.

Our trail crew will travel between checkpoints to bring crew members and material to checkpoints and back again. On the way, they will check on athltetes. If there are no such trips happening, there may also be routine checks during the daytime. However, it’s hard to say how often each athlete will be checked upon. Depending on when the athlete is moving or resting and how fast he/she is going, crew may see an athlete several times a day but it’s also possible that athletes can go for days without seeing crew on the trail, other than of course the checkpoint crews that are always there. Also, athletes will not see our guides out on the trail at night. There are no trail checks at night, nor do we respond SPOT “Help” messages at night.

• Please note the rules regarding drop bags.
• For the drop bags please use something that does not break easily and can be labeled well. Please do not use plastic bags. With all the loading and unloading they break and it becomes a big mess.
• When you label the bag please keep in mind that a tape put on the bag easily comes off (especially with the cold). Attach the label in a way that it does not come off when the bag is handled.
• The bags may be in the cold for a couple of nights, i.e. in an enclosed trailer. So, please don’t put anything in there that breaks or explodes (e.g. coke bottle) if it’s in the cold.
• Don’t put anything in there that is fragile, e.g. cameras, phones. We don’t throw the bags around but they will be transported in a pile.
• Don’t put fuel in your drop bags.
• Don’t put anything of great value in there (no passports, jewelery, cash). Your valuables should be with you or in the hotel safe.
• We try to bring the bags back asap but if athletes drop out early and the bags are already out there it sometimes becomes a challenge getting the bags back fast.
• The bags will be brought to the storage of the Sternwheeler Hotel – even if you are staying in another hotel.

How should I plan my arrival and departure dates?
If you do not have prior cold weather experience do not forget to include the training course in your travelling schedule. It always takes place before race start in Whitehorse. If you do attend the training course, it’s a good idea to arrive at least one full day before. If you don’t do the training course it still makes sense to fly in a couple of days early. That way you can acclimatise and do last minute shopping without too much stress. And most important of all you won’t have to “freak out” if your luggage does not make it right away.

IMPORTANT: it always happens to some athletes that gear does not come on the flight from Vancouver to Whitehorse. The good news is, in all these year all gear has always made it in time for race start. It may be a good idea to pack some vital gear in your suitcase rather than in your bulky luggage (i.e. with the pulk) and some extra clothing in your carry-on.

For departure don’t plan your schedule too tight, either. We have scheduled transfers from Faro which normally take place on the cut-off day. So, if you arrive before that you will likely have to wait for the transfer. Sometimes all finishers are early or we have someone driving back early. However, athletes can’t plan with that.

Last but not least, when you do plan your flight back, consider that you may be very exhausted. It is always recommendable to put your feet up in a hotel room for at least a day before you go back and have to sit in a plane for hours and hours.

Athletes can expect to be able to go online in Ross River and Faro. Remote checkpoints, if they have Starlink or similar, may allow for the checking of messages and emails but it’s better not to count on it.

Athletes who want to get a message or photo across to media that are following their progress, can get in touch with me (info@thegreatoutdoors.de) and we can find a way to send emails for you.

Friends and family will be able to see the participant’s progress through the SPOT tracking map, the results table and our news updates. Other ways to get news are our facebook group and instagram page.

Athletes can sleep inside at Ross River and Faro. At all other checkpoints, sleeping is outside. If you are a light sleeper it is sometimes better to rest before or after a checkpoint. Since at checkpoints there are often people coming and going, eating, sorting kit, etc. So, there is a certain noise level.

It depends. I would say more than 80% of our participants prefer the combination of a sleeping bag with a bivvy bag. It’s faster, weighs less and is less trouble in general. Of course it also protects less from the elements. Therefore, without a tent you need to make sure you pick a good spot for your rest, e.g. not in the middle of a river or lake.

I know that for normal expeditons in Arctic regions, tents are a must. But these expeditions normally have a totally different rhythm. They rest a lot longer in which case it does of course make sense to stay in a tent. Also, Arctic expeditons often cross landscapes that are very exposed.

For our new trail (from 2025 onwards), we will give out a GPS-track. It will become available once the last pre-race check of the route has been done, i.e. about 1 week before the race start. However, it remains important that athletes do follow the physical trail markers as crew may be forced to leave the planned route to avoid dangerous spots.

For a long time now the YAU has been working with SPOT satellite tracking devices and services provided by Trackleaders.com. It is mandatory for all distances. As with any technology, there are pros and cons. But overall the positive aspects are more than the negative ones.

If the tracking function is active, a SPOT regularly sends its position via satellite. Thus we know where athletes are and so do their family members and friends back home. During the race a link to the map will be placed in a prominent position on our website.

In addition the SPOT allows athletes to send a “Help“, “911“, “OK” and a “Custom” message. The main reason we have SPOTs is for their 911 function. And thankfully, so far it has only been used a few times. The 911 button to us means there is an absolutely life threatening situation. This also means if there is no life threatening situation, IT CAN’T BE PUSHED! The cost for a 911 rescue operation can be enormous and it has to be paid by participants or their insurance. Obviously, if life is at risk, it just has to be done. But if athletes are lost, tired, exhausted or have any other problem that a good rest and common sense can solve, the 911 button must not be pushed.

If a good rest is of no help, there is a button on the SPOT that is called exactly that: „Help“. It is a signal to the race organisation that athletes have a problem and want to end their race then and there. But otherwise they are fine and will wait for us to come. We do not come out to get athletes who send a help message at night. They are expected to stay where they are and we come as soon as possible the next morning.

If the “OK” button is pushed, it means exactly that, too. Participants show us that they are fine and are having a good time. There is no limit to how often that button can be pushed.

Last but not least, the “Custom” message. It MUST BE PUSHED if athletes have a longer rest between checkpoints. It shows us that athletes are fine, even though they are not moving.

The cons of the SPOT are that of course sometimes athletes use the „Help“-button when they really could have solved the problem themselves. Or they decided to use that button rather than going back to a checkpoint. Mind you, if athletes can’t walk pain-free anymore, that’s fine. But being tired is no reason. If that’s the case, we ask athletes to take a good rest and decide then. Because if we have to „rescue“ someone who is actually perfectly fine and at the same time something serious happens, it is bad to have resources bound.

Another con is that it’s technology and it does not always work. Usually this is due to not operating the SPOT correctly. But it also may be technical failure. Often it’s the wrong batteries. It means we don’t get a signal and people back home start to worry. In most cases race headquarter knows what’s going on, e.g. because we got in-/out times of a checkpoint or just recently had contact with the athlete.

To sum it up, the safety that SPOT brings to the race make it worth its while. The rental fee (tracking service, shipment and set-up included) is EUR 50.00/CAD 70.00 per unit. Batteries are not included. For the SPOT to work athletes we recommend buying two sets of 4x AAA Energizer Lithium Ultimate (model # L-92).

For athletes who bring their own SPOT, there is a set-up fee of EUR 20.00/CAD 29.00 per unit. All athletes who bring their own SPOT need to let us know by end of December at the latest. If we have not heard from otherwise, we will assume the athlete needs a rental unit and we will order one.

All athletes who bring their own SPOT please note that you should create and save a separate “Message Contact Profile” for YAU. Under that contact profile, we recommend to 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 athletes 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. It requires a phone number only. IMPORTANT: There is a notes section for SOS, and it should read like this: “User is part of a human-powered race on wilderness trails in the Yukon Territory. 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 = Race Headquarter) at tbc. phone number.” You do not want GEOS emergency response center to waste time calling family. You want race central to be the first call.

If athletes are bringing your own SPOT we will need to get their ESN-Number which is in the battery compartment and the URL to your shared link page.

One of the things anyone preparing for the MYAU should do, is to read some of the great literature that is out there. There are a couple of books that actually deal with the race itself (the ones written by Mark Hines and David Berridge) but there is also a lot of reading material on winter survival, expeditions in cold regions and so on. I asked in our facebook group, what books people found useful when getting ready for their MYAU or other Arctic adventures. Here are some of the suggestions:

• Wintersurvival – Überleben in Eis und Schnee (German only), by Fabian Schmitz
• Alone at the Top: Climbing Denali in the Dead of Winter, by Lonnie Dupre and Pam Louwagie
• Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth, by Ranulf Fiennes
• Paradise Below Zero, by Calvin Rutstrum
• Yucan: Achieve any Big Goal using the 7P formula for success (English Edition), by Neil Thubron (winner MYAU 300 mile race, foot category, 2015)
• The Yukon Arctic Ultra: Ultra Marathon Adventure Racing Across Canada’s Frozen North, by Mark Hines
• Fartleks & Flatulence, by David Berridge
• Lure of the Quest: One Man’s Story of the 1025-mile Dog-sled Race Across North America’s Frozen Wastes, by John Balzar
• 8,000 Miles Across Alaska: A Runner’s Journeys on the Iditarod Trail, by Jill Homer and Tim Hewitt
• Into the North Wind: A thousand-mile bicycle adventure across frozen Alaska, by Jill Homer
• Ghost Trails: Journeys Through a Lifetime, by Jill Homer
• Canyons and Ice: The Wilderness Travels of Dick Griffith, by Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan
• Trails That Never End, by Tim Kelley
• Performing in Extreme Environments, by Lawrence Armstrong
• To Build a Fire, by Jack London
• South Pole Epic: First Bike Expedition to the South Pole, by Daniel Burton
• Alone in Antarctica, by Felicity Aston
• 300-Mile Man, by Phillip Gary Smith
• Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic, by Jennifer Niven
• On Thin Ice, by Eric Larsen