Information for Racers

Click here for answers to some Frequently Asked Questions

Information for racers

This race has a completely new structure that was not possible in the past. We rely on technology to make it possible to police the behaviour of teams without having to have a small army of volunteers. I know that people will have questions. That is what the forum is for. But I will try to anticipate some of the questions.

The Yukon 360 is structured like its big brother race, the Yukon 1000.  Race control will be almost totally virtual. Every team MUST carry a Spot device. And someone in each boat MUST press the OK button at least every 2 hours (except between 22:30 and 06:30). In addition, they must press the OK button before 22:30 in the evening and again at least eight hours later from the same location. This enables us to enforce a "no paddling at night" policy, and to track the progress of racers. The results page will be updated every 15 minutes to reflect any new information coming in. This will be displayed in three different ways.

First is that on the web page, teams will be displayed with their locations. The location will be given as dull latitude and longitude and as a distance before or after the nearest waypoint, e.g. "9.372 km before Hootalinqua". Teams will be displayed with the one furthest down the river listed first. There will also be a link to Google maps to show the location of the boat. Then there will be a link on the page that will download into Google Earth a file that displays the current location of all boats and their check in history.

To help people identify where these waypoints are, this is a link to a Google earth kml file that will show you the places we define: Waypoints or in text format, Waypoints as text Note that the coordinates are given as decimal degrees.

This should make this an exciting race to view over the web.

This race is designed to fit in the long August weekend.  With that in mind, the race start is NOON Saturday, and the checkpoint at the finish in Carmacks closes at NOON on Monday.  We expect most paddlers to finish that morning.

Note that the rules permit all sorts of boats.  There is nothing to stop a team showing up with an OC-6 for the open single blade class.

If there is bad weather or injury it is perfectly reasonable to teams to be delayed for a day or so. That is why we require teams to carry 4 kg of food per person: that translates into about 4 days food..

I am not going to tell you all the potential hazards on the river. I'm quite sure I don't know them all. But I will tell you a few that may surprise.

There are eddies caused by irregularities in the bank that can tip over a boat if you are unwary.  The river is characterised by "boils", which occur in the faster water and are caused by irregularities on the bottom of the river.  These can turn your boat and tip you if you are not paying attention.  There are no log jams, but there are log piles on the ends of some islands.  These are nasty enough as the water goes under them and your boat can get pinned against them.

The main risks are associated with the weather and your fitness.  If you get tired, you will get cold, and that can get unpleasant and become dangerous.  Monitor your health.  Pay attention to hydration and nutrition.

If you are planning on doing this race, you should pack as if you are doing a solo wilderness trip through very lonely, very exposed country. Because that is exactly what you will be doing.