The Yukon River Quest is changing its start date. The race will now paddle off July 4. The 2022 race started June 22.

Deb Bartlette, president of the Yukon River Quest (YRQ) explained why they made the change.

“We’re really wanting to reduce the uncertainty around potential flooding. So for the last two years, as we all know, it’s been very high water and potential flooding that creates uncertainty for us … we don’t just consider the actual river. We have to consider the communities along the race route as well and how that affects us.

“The issue with the earlier start is that at that time historically the water levels are very volatile. They can change – like, we all know from watching the results that happened at that time of the year the water levels can change in a matter of hours, particularly depending on what the weather is doing. Moving the date should – again there’s no guarantees, but our goal is to try to reduce the uncertainty.

“By early July, water levels have stabilized. They may still be high, but there’s less likelihood that it will be changing on an hourly basis by July and that makes less uncertainty for us as organizers but also for our volunteers, for the communities that host us and for the racers, especially for those coming from out of town.

Bartlette added “What the experts – the hydrologists, the meteorologists are telling us that what seems to be changes in our weather patterns here in the Yukon – those are just going to be more frequent … it seems that these high-water years are going to be more frequent so what we’re trying to do is lower the risk, lower the uncertainty about what’s happening around water levels by moving the race date a little bit.”

Bartlette was asked if they’d had input from the communities.

“Well, we certainly have been in touch,” she responded. “We moved the start day from a Wednesday to a Tuesday which means that people will be checking out of their hotel rooms on Saturday morning, because that does help even out the demand a little bit for hotel rooms in Dawson. Summer weekends are very busy in Dawson and if we could just move a little bit to help with that. We have a lot of great support from the communities but at the same time, last year, it was, luckily, things stayed stable enough with water levels that we were able to continue the race but if a community has to be evacuated because of flooding, we can’t stop there. And so, if we’re reducing that risk, it helps everybody.”

Bartlette said they’re not sure if this a permanent change.

“Will it be a later date every year going forward? (We) don’t know. Over the year … we’ve had requests from people to run it after the … K-12 school year is done, so that makes it a little easier for families to travel or for people who are teachers or otherwise work in the system to come and participate. That’s not the major driver behind this. The water levels are but it’s a possible plus.

“We still have enough light to start the race on July the 4th,” Bartlette added.

There will still be civil twilight (when the sun’s centre is 6° below the horizon) on July 4.

“We can’t go too late, because we don’t want people paddling in total darkness,” said Bartlette.

She said they aren’t currently working with risk management consultant Jon Heshka.

“Not right now. We certainly learned a lot from him last year in terms of how to do risk assessment and risk management. And that’s formed the way we go forward with all aspects of the race … there may be things in the future but we don’t have anything planned as of right now with him.”

When asked if there were any other changes planned, Bartlette responded “It’s not really a change. We did the half-race, which we’re calling the YRQ 300, from Whitehorse to Carmacks. We did have that last year. I think we just had four or five teams and we’re wanting to have a few more teams in that for the upcoming year. So we’re hoping for up to 25 teams in that race and a maximum of 125 in the full race.

“That half-race is a great opportunity for people who don’t want to do the full race – maybe they haven’t done it before and they want to try it out, or maybe they’ve done the full race and they don’t want to do it anymore but they’d still like to race.

“Much like the dog Quest with their shorter race, it’s a really good chance to try it out or just participate but not commit to the whole thing.”

Bartlette said there aren’t really any other changes planned.

“We tried out several different things in this past race and are in the process of doing an evaluation. There’ll be some tweaking no doubt. There always is when you’re trying something new. But for the most part, we’re anticipating 2023 will be very similar to 2022. We’re just hoping with water levels that are high and fast but not in flood.”

Registration for the 2023 Yukon River Quest will be taking place Feb. 1.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at Sport Yukon. There will be a Zoom option. According to Bartlette, a link for that should be posted within the next month or so.

Bartlette added “We’re really hoping that 2023, which is our 25th anniversary, will be another great year.”