I’ve been fielding questions from a number of teams who are preparing for the Yukon 1000, so I thought I’d organise my thoughts into a single download. It’s a rapid brain dump so take everything I’ve said as input and run it through the filters … Continue reading Yukon 1000 Resources
June 1st 2026 Kate and I sat down to watch “Push Past Impossible”, Craig Sawyer’s 2023 Yukon 1000 documentary. The documentary had finally been made available for viewing in Australia, so we were seeing it for the first time. My god, were we really that … Continue reading 2026 Yukon 1000
In 2025 we – Kate and Steve Dawson – entered the Yukon 1000 for the third time. There’s a fairly extensive blog from 2024 that describes our approach to the race after withdrawing in 2023 and details our relatively conservative plan to finish in the … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 Index
Start Time: 17/07/2025 05:38:33 Location: 66°6’36.0720″N 148°38’49.9200″W Rest Time: 05:58:45 We were sitting in the boat, ready to go, when our timer ran down to 6 hours. It was one of the few times we’d adhered to the minimum 6-hour stoppage. Having spent the night … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 8 – Thursday
Start Time: 16/07/2025 05:42:14 Location: 66°35’42.6120″N 145°48’51.4800″W Rest Time: 06:43:43 We’d had a poor nights sleep between going to sleep shiveringly cold, having a puddle of water dribbling around the floor of the tent, and spending the night on a makeshift pillow fashioned from a … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 7 – Wednesday
Start Time: 15/07/2025 05:41:55 Location: 65°29’11.6160″N 143°40’38.1000″W Rest Time: 07:03:46 Twas a dark and stormy night… Well… not dark, because we were now well above the Arctic Circle, where the concept of night only exists if you are prepared to accept that for a new … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 6 – Tuesday
Start Time: 14/07/2025 04:59:00 Location: 64°38’17.9160″N 140°52’58.3320″W Rest Time: 06:39:40 The kayak record for the Yukon 1000 is 5 days 11 hours set by Daniel Staudigel, Jason Magness in 2022. Bob McLachlan and Gordon Townsend – Best Foot Forward NZ – were currently on track … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 5 – Monday
Start Time: 13/07/2025 05:11:24 Location: 63°28’7.6440″N 139°43’35.0760″W Rest Time: 07:11:40 I woke at midnight having somehow rolled on top of my wrist. I think I was already sleeping fitfully because of a constant splashing only a few metres from the tent. We’d later realize that … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 4 – Sunday
Start Time: 12/07/2025 04:40:58 Location: 62°37’45.1200″N 137°0’52.2000″W Rest Time: 06:39:44 – needed time for my wrist to come down Before turning in at the end of day 2, we’d laid our paddling gear out on the boat, hoping it would have a chance to dry … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 3 – Saturday
Start Time: 11/07/2025 04:39:17 Location: 61°45’52.4520″N 134°57’28.1160″W Rest Time: 06:04:27 There’s no room for social graces when it comes to exchanging warm dry clothes for wet paddling gear. The objective is to keep the dry gear – sleeping bags and thermals – dry despite the … Continue reading 2025 Yukon 1000 – Day 2 – Friday
