More than 200 paddlers will dash to their boats on Wednesday morning and shove off into the current as the Yukon River Quest begins in Whitehorse, Yukon.
The racers are divided into 94 teams and come from 13 countries on five continents. From downtown Whitehorse, they’ll paddle downriver, nearly nonstop, 715 kilometres to Dawson City. Along the way they’ll navigate the vast open expanse of Lake Laberge, the churning water of Five Finger Rapids, the braided flows and gravel bars that proliferate as the river nears Dawson, and anything else the Yukon throws at them – hot weather, cold weather, mosquitoes, and more.
The crowd of boats leaving Whitehorse will include some previous top finishers. Veteran paddler Mike De Abreu of Ontario (team name “Mike and All His Friends”) will race in a solo canoe again this year. Last year, he was the fastest C1, fourth among all solo paddlers, and 15th overall. He also finished second overall in 2023, paddling in a tandem canoe, and first overall as part of a C4 team in 2022.
Racing in a solo kayak is Carling Zeeman of British Columbia. She’s a newcomer to the River Quest but not to high-pressure events: Zeeman is a two-time Olympian who represented Canada in single sculls rowing for both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. She finished in the top ten in the world on both occasions, and has also won two rowing gold medals at the Pan American Games and a silver at the World Rowing Championships.
Joining her in the K1 category is Australia’s Esther Wheeler (team name “Yukoned Me Into It”). In 2022, Wheeler raced down the Yukon in a C1, finishing an impressive ninth among all solo kayaks and canoes, and first among all female solo racers, including SUPs. This year she’s back, in a kayak, and says she hopes to finish “fast as possible!” Longtime YRQ veteran Stephen Mooney will also be racing in a solo kayak this year – he says he’s hoping to be in Dawson City in time for Friday Happy Hour.
Meanwhile, 2024 runner-up Jake Paleczny, who was one half of last year’s overall second-place team in a C2, has paired up with one of his top competitors: Crispin Studer finished fourth overall last year, paddling a C2, and was also part of a voyageur team that made it to Dawson second overall in 2022. Now teamed up under the name “Rage Against the Current,” they’ll definitely be a boat to watch. On the women’s side, Emily Carty and Cecily Dawson have teamed up as “Muskoka Gold,” and they’re hoping to be the fastest boat in their division. Carty is a paddling coach back in Ontario, and Dawson is a second-generation marathon paddler: her father holds the C2 course record for the Muskoka River X race. (Carty and Dawson won the women’s C2 category in that race back in 2017.)
In the C4 class, veteran racers Pauline and Alice Frost, a mother-daughter duo, will paddle alongside an experienced pair of Belgians under the team name “Mooseskin.” Peter Van Den Berg and Danny Veys were half of the C4 team, racing under the name “Spirit of the Yukon,” that finished seventh overall and first among C4s in 2023. (In 2024’s abbreviated race they were seventh overall again, and second among C4s.)
And there will be some familiar faces in the voyageur class. “Team Ts’alvit,” led by Jim and Pam Boyde, is always a threat – they finished ninth overall in their last race, in 2023. Meanwhile, “Stix Together” has been the fastest women’s voyageur team for several years running.
Of course, it’s much too soon to say who will win, who’ll meet or exceed their personal goals, and who will be out on the water the longest. Anything can happen over several days and hundreds of kilometres of wild river! The start horn will sound at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning at Rotary Peace Park in downtown Whitehorse. Join us to see the paddlers off, and follow their trackers at yukonriverquest.com.