The Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra 2019 is over. This is the final video with more impressions from Dawson City and our athletes on those long last miles to the finish line:

This great video features some of the remotest parts of trail and the final leg towards Dawson City. You will also see the Indian River wall tent checkpoint where Stewart and Anja have been taking great care of all athletes coming through. Last but not least, you can share the emotions with us of seeing our first finishers in the city of the gold rush.

As always, a video full of emotions. Featuring the section from McCabe Creek, where Kathy and Jerry Kruse host us every year, all the way to Pelly Crossing and Pelly Farm. The latter is a real favourite amongst MYAU athletes as they are welcomed right into Sue’s and Dale’s home, with a treatment like no other and the legendary Pelly Farm lasagne.

“Baby it’s cold outside” (BICO) is an online awareness and educational program about hypothermia and cold injuries developed for professional Search & Rescue responders.

This program is so informative and important that I decided that all future MYAU participant need to do it as part of their preparation.

Even though athletes are not the primary target group of this training, there is a lot to be learned. It will help MYAU athletes better understand some of the things that will happen to their bodies out there in the cold. And of course there always is the possibility that an athlete becomes a first responder when encountering another athlete in trouble on the trail. If the trouble is cold related, this training will help in taking the right steps.

BICO has got several advantages which make it great for athletes:

• It’s an online program and thus available for anyone with internet
• It’s free of charge
• It deals with all relevant cold weather issues and rescue scenarios in an easily understandable way
• It’s divided up in several chapters and does not all have to be done at once
• It’s just the right amount of information
• At the end of it you get a certificate and thus can proof that you did the training
• You can repeat that training as much as you want

So, any MYAU participant is asked to go to bicorescue.com to register and do the program. Upon completion please either email me the certificate to info@thegreatoutdoors.de or print it out and take it with you to the Yukon to hand in when we deal with any paperwork pre-race.

I do suggest you don’t do the training too soon or that you repeat it a week or two before the races. That way your memory of the program is still fresh when you are at the start line in Whitehorse.

The MYAU marathon participants ran approximately 780 km this year. As promised, per km 1 CAD goes to Little Footprints, Big Steps. I have rounded up the total and just made a donation of CAD 1,000. I am sure Morgan and her team can do many useful things with this money. Thank you to all marathoners for contributing with your great effort on February 1st!