Courtesy: Yukon Quest
WHITEHORSE, YT – With the recent melt and subsequent freeze up this week, the Yukon Quest had been forced to change the location of their starting line to the Suncatcher Inn Cattery on Takhini River Road. That’s had a ripple effect on race operation logistics, with race lengths adjusted and changes to the number of dogs allowed per team at the starting line.
‘We’ve effectively shaved off 30 miles of the trail. So, for those competitors in the YQ100 category, their race is now 70, and so on down the line. We have actually taken the decision to start all teams with a maximum of eight dogs, that just helps the mushers when the dogs are fresh off the start line to just have a little bit more control’ – Abi Horobin, Yukon Quest Race Operations Manager
Abi Horobin, Yukon Quest’s Race Operations Manager, says once the mushers are underway they’ll have the option to swap out their dogs at each checkpoint based on their own discretion, this ensures the sleds aren’t overpowered for the slick and icy trail conditions, and that the dogs on the teams are always well rested and ready to go.
‘We just come out of a musher’s briefing and there was obviously a lot of questions regarding the route. The dogs are at the foremost thoughts of the mushers. They want to know that they’re good to go and they’re not putting their dogs at any risk. So we had a very thorough briefing, we were able to show them the map of the trail and highlight some of the hazards that have been identified by the Rangers.’- Abi Horobin, Yukon Quest Race Operations Manager
The Canadian Rangers have been busy identifying hazards and making sure the route is fit for purpose, but Abi says there’s still a couple tricky spots to watch out for, including a stretch near Pelly Crossing where river ice has diverted the originally planned route.
‘Normally they can go along the river there to ‘stepping stone’, but this year there is so much jumble ice on that river that they’ve had to divert up onto the Pelle Farm road. Other than that there’s a few glacial areas on the trail that have been highlighted as mushers will need to take care, slow down and, hopefully skirt around or just slow down as they’re approaching those.’- Abi Horobin, Yukon Quest Race Operations Manager
