Hi everyone,
in case you have not read it already, you will find my final report on this year’s race on arcticultra.de.
Dates for the YAU 2009
For all of you interested in the YAU 2009 I have the dates! We start Feb. 15th at 10.30 in Whitehorse. Those of you interested in dog mushing will once again be able to witness the start of the Yukon Quest the day before. It’s a great experience to see all these dog teams taking off into the wilderness.
I will soon have a booking reference number if you want to stay at the HCI. It will get you a discount and a breakfast included in your room rate. Since the Quest is in town I recommend you book your accommodation as early as possible. The same goes for flights. The earlier you book the more money you can save!
When you make your travel plans, please keep in mind that you need to participate in our training course if you have no prior extreme cold weather experience. This course will take place Feb. 13th to 14th. But even if you do not participate in the training course I recommend you travel a couple of days early. It will enable you to adjust to the climate and time difference and it will give extra time if your luggage is lost. As far as the latter is concerned it happens almost every year to some athletes. The good news is that in 6 years all lost luggage has always been found and delivered in time for the race. Still a bit of safety margin won’t hurt.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with myself or with your country representative (see Application section on arcticultra.de).
Filming/Media in 2009
I would like to try and get an independent filming crew to the YAU next year. If you want to participate and think TV stations in your country may be interested in showing a short documentary of your adventure, please get in touch with me.
If you are a journalist or you want to take a journalist/TV Crew along who will write about/film your adventure, please let me know. Tourism Yukon will give financial support to any media who guarantee good coverage in the primary target markets.
What do we do if it is -40 again at the start?
Some people have asked me what we will do if it is – 40 again at the start. The answer is we will start the race. The only thing that may make us delay the start is if it is that cold and there are considerable winds.
The difference will be that next year we will decide the weeks before the race (depending on snow/trail conditions) where an alternative route would take us to. It could be the out-and-back we had or it may be other trails that allow us good access by road.
In general I hope that the lessons learned this year help us avoid some of those frostbites. I will soon work on something in the FAQ section that will help you being prepared.
Gear for the YAU 2009
I will soon have some used gear of this year’s race available for purchase on racelite.com.
If you are uncertain about what you need, you will also find a useful gear list on that website (which I will update still in March).
I also appreciate any feedback from past races, e.g. if you were really happy with a certain piece of kit or you found out that something did not work at all (especially in the extreme temperatures).
R’ADYS Trophy – Adventure Racing Series by the Great Outdoors
Some of you may know it already. In the summer time I organise Adventure Races in the Alps. This year there are 4 races as part of our series. The English part of our website is not up and running, yet. However, if you check radys-trophy.com in the next week or so, you will find all information there.
I always recommend Adventure Racing as a great way of training endurance as there usually is quite some elevation and the races are up to 24 hours.
the Great Outdoors
Robert Pollhammer
Ludwigstr. 9
82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Germany
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