CANADA

Each year in the height of summer, a surreal challenge unfolds on the third longest river in North America. The Yukon River Quest is an annual ultra-marathon paddling race across SUP and various other disciplines, taking place in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Teams from around the globe come to challenge themselves in this self-supported, non-stop paddling odyssey through some of Canada’s pristine and untouched wilderness.

Words  Chris Couve  //  With  Bart de Zwart  //  Photos  Trevor Tunnington

Bart de Zwart  won the 2019 Yukon River Quest, completing the 444 mile expedition race from Whitehorse to Dawson City in a winning time of 56 hours 47 minutes and 47 seconds. This is Bart’s account of this year’s epic. 

“After some intensive training in the past 2 months, with plentiful hours on the water and many early mornings, I felt well prepared when I travelled to Whitehorse, Canada.

Although I felt confident in my preparation, I was not without concern about the weather as it showed a northerly wind brewing for the first day which can make for a treacherous paddle across the lake.

My support member, Kalin Palet, helped by holding my board steady – the new All Star 14 x 24.5 with all the obligatory gear – on the river’s edge as the race begins with a 400 meter run to the board. I had an excellent start, of the 125 teams I was the first on the water. I knew that multi-person canoes would soon fly by but my intent was to have some distance on the SUP racers in the first few hundred meters with whom I was competing. This sounds weird for a 715 km race but once I have a gap I often won’t lose that until the finish – it’s a mental thing – so starts are important even in a race like this. But you will always be chased.

After three hours we hit the lake and pretty soon a small storm came up. It only lasted a few hours but created chaos and hardship for the stand up paddlers and many canoes. I beat through it and after a few hours, things calmed down. After nine hours I was back on the river with the current now helping me along in the right direction. A little bit tired from fighting the winds and chops, I slowed down a little and paddled without much trouble through the night. I realised it was starting to get cold every time I [stopped and] sat down on the board to grab some food. Later I heard many people stopped because of hypothermia. I had put on just enough clothes and I knew that if I kept paddling hard enough I would stay warm.

A day and an hour later, I made it to the 7 hour compulsory rest checkpoint. I was quite beat up and tired but the rest and sleep meant an almost full recovery for me. I started back on the river in the evening knowing that I had 1 hour and 45 minutes on my next competitor, Peter Allen, a good paddler who I knew wouldn’t give up after the first fight.

I passed through the next section in good spirits and piloted through the small navigational challenges well. I thought I had made up for lost time on the windy lake and was going to make good time until a strong headwind picked up. Suddenly my advantage and good mood disappeared and I was fighting to keep the nose of the board into the wind. I planned to be at the next 3 hour rest stop in six hours. This ended up being over eight hours of battling the wind with no end in sight.

At Coffee Creek, the next rest stop in the middle of nowhere along the river’s bank, only accessible by helicopter or boat, I was done, toast, and really looking forward to a break. All my muscles were hurting. Three hours of food and sleep is not much but it did wonders, I felt great again.

During the next twelve hours on the water I found a fast but steady pace and was quickly going towards Dawson City where the finish was. After getting passed by many kayaks and canoes into the tough headwind I made up ground and regained some places. This didn’t matter for my SUP category ranking but helped a lot mentally.

As I neared the finish a beautiful midnight sun shone with a sunset which lasts many hours in this part of the world. I passed the last difficult sections of the Yukon River – where many make navigational mistakes – without any problems. At 6.49 am I passed the finish in Dawson, not a record time due to the conditions but in first and happy with my performance.” ^{SUP International}

Men’s Top 5 SUP finishers: 

1st: Bart de Zwart: 56 hours 47 minutes (Starboard)

2nd: Peter Allen: 59 hours 22 minutes

3rd: Shauna Magowan: 62 hours 3 minutes

4th: Brad Friesen: 65 hours 28 minutes

5th: Mike Procter: 70 hours 39 minutes

5th: Ben Ashwell: 70 hours 39 minutes

5th: Christopher Parker: 70 hours 39 minutes