Posts - Page 65 of 287 - Christof Teuscher

Another day on the Yukon! More endlessness, more wind, more relentless moving. After leaving McGrath, I had created a virtual Magdalena that would always be 100 feet ahead of me, moving in her infamous Duracell Bunny style. Each time I had to stop, I saw her virtual double disappear quickly, which was a reminder for me to be efficient in my stops and everything else I did. A minute wasted here and there quickly adds up over a day and becomes an hour. And an hour quickly adds up to a day. Wasting an hour in each official ITI checkpoint would literally lead to an extra day on the trail. It pays off to be organized and efficient.

The sun was out and the trail was quite fast. Besides the wind and the cold, it was a day of good moving. It was sometime around 3pm when I spotted Galena ahead of me on the opposite side of the Yukon. I thought I’d be there in 20min. It took almost two hours. This time I found the checkpoint, another B&B, without problems. To my surprise, two athletes, who were more than a day ahead of me when I left Ruby, welcomed me. I learned that they suffered from some serious food poisoning since yesterday, and have been unable to continue so far. Thankfully, they were on the mend and were also planning to leave Galena in the early morning hours.

A little later that night, Iditarod veteran Matthew Failor’s dog team was attacked by an aggressive moose just outside the Galena Iditarod checkpoint. Matthew shot and killed the moose to defend himself and his dogs. A kick of a moose can easily kill a dog. This was a stark reminder that moose really do need to be taken very seriously, especially on the river where there is nowhere to find protection.

I left the checkpoint before everybody else and continued my journey. It was going to be a solid ~50mi stretch to Nulato, population of 239. My goal was to be there in the evening and to get some sleep in the Iditarod checkpoint.

Just another day on the Yukon.

Just before sunrise (~8:50am), the temperature usually drops to new lows. The drop can be quite brutal.

#iti2022 #iditarodtrailinvitational #ultrarunning #nome #alaska

After the never-ending hills and difficult trail conditions, I was very much looking forward to the next section: the Yukon river. I was greeted by terrible winds. Thankfully not directly into my face. I wasn’t going to be able to hammer out the 52mi to Galena in one shot because I didn’t get enough rest in Ruby. My plan was to bivy and get sleep as soon as I could find a good spot. That turned out to be rather impossible on the exposed Yukon. You can’t just walk to the shore and find shelter in the trees. As soon as you take a step off the trail, you’ll generally find yourself in deep and soft snow that makes moving quite impossible. And even if you’d make it to the shore, it would probably be impossible to climb the often massive river banks.

It is hard to describe the Yukon with words and to capture its scale with pictures. It’s massive and endless. And that’s a total understatement. It can be brutally cold on it and it’s almost always brutally windy. I spent the next 3 days getting to know it better. As you can imagine, I was looking forward to getting off the river as much as I was to getting on it initially. Such is life.

I desperately tried to find a bivy spot that was somewhat protected from the terrible wind. Just as I was about to give up hope, I found a decently sheltered spot behind a big island in the middle of the river. I was in my cozy -40F sleeping bag just in time to watch the sunset. The next thing I remember is waking up at 1am with my sunglasses still on. I watched several mushers silently float by under the northern lights. Pure magic. More sleep ensued. I ended up sleeping for a total of 7h. Apparently, I was tired. When I got up my thermometer indicated -31F (-35C). You don’t dally when it’s that cold. Every second counts. The sooner you can move and generate heat, the better.

I felt well-rested and was in good spirits. Onward!

Staying warm and avoiding frostbite on your face is a constant struggle in these conditions. And when you are wrapped up like that, drinking and eating enough poses an additional challenge.