Back to civilization

Yukon Arctic Ultra 2015, it was extremly tough and incredibly beautiful at the same time. Yukon was nice to us and showed us everything on its menu. From very cold temperatures droping to -50°C to mild -10°C, from snow and wind to sunny days. Scary and huge wolves track, northern lights, frozen lakes and rivers, challenging overflows, moments of pure happines and moments of pure exhaustion and fear. The goal was 700km for me and 160km for my wife. The day D came and we almost missed the start, but being late by couple minutes on race that takes days is not big deal. First 160km was part of our honeymoon so we walked together with my lovely wife Petra. And it was crazy cold, -43°C in the morning so we better kept moving. First day passed away pretty easy. Well, I mean "easy" in Yukon way. Petra was having big troubles with her hips so we decided to bivvy down and take some rest. We were affraid of cold but we zipped two sleeping bags together and biological heat worked well so we were cold only little bit and slept. Unfortunately Petra´s hip got worse so we pushed another whole day and once we reached check point at 100km she decided to scratch. Very hard, but wise decision. And I am very proud for her!! Her hips hurt already from the start, but she didn´t tell me and pushed through. From 100km check point I kept going solo. Another night on the snow in -46°C. I got frostbites on my fingers, but fortunately I fought back and saved my fingers. It was long haul through the night and morning before I reach Braeburn, 160km mark. There I met my wife again. I ate and rest little bit and it was so hard to say good bye and kept going. There was another 75km before next check point and I knew it will take me whole night. I felt exhausted and sleepy. it is funny how body reacts to extreme conditions. I felt great for couple hours, pushing hard and everything was ok and than I felt like crap and at the bottom. later that night when I was on frozen lakes I saw track of wolf for the first time. With wolves in my mind I bivvy down for a while. It warmed up to -26°C and it was windy and snowing. I reached Ken lake, 240km mark around midday. Bit of sleep and food and ready for another push, 60km to Carmacks. In the last three nights I slept only 6 hour altogether so my mind was playing games. Pushing through the night is very mentaly difficult and I saw scary creatures, weird shapes and objects in snow covered trees. I got used to it, worse was when I started to have hearing halucinations. This night was the worst, walking in the dark forest with fresh wolves tracks all over the trail. many wolves were around me and they were following. I was so scared and exhausted, because I was affraid to stop and rest. Long scary night, but 5am I made it to Carmacks. I needed better sleep and rest. And I also needed to start traveling more during the day. Next 55km was on softer snow and my achilles were giving me troubles, it was never ending and I had to cross few over flows, but it went quite ok and I made it to McCabe. from there long and straight stretch to Pelly crossing. I traveled mostly over the day and I made it to Pelly crossing later evening. Over 400km behind me and I was happy I made it to here. My achilles were still in pain, but I hoped good rest will help. Finally we got some sun and warm -10°C. 53km to Pelly Farm went very well and pretty fast, so early in the evening I made it to Pelly Farm. My tendons were on strike so I made decision I will wait the night and see what will happen in the morning. Next morning my achilles was swollen and I tried to walk, but with big pain so I made very hard decision to turn around and walk back to finish shorter distance. It is always very hard to make important decision, and now I am very happy I made this decision. So last 53km back to the finish line of shorter distance. I took it easy and around 9pm I made it back to Pelly Crossing, 512km behind me. Health is most important for me and I am very happy with the result. and my decision.  Thank you Yukon for being nice to us!!!!

Breaburn to Carmacks

Jan just left Carmacks and heading up to McCabe creek. He was absolutely exhausted when he came and said that these days were the worst! Tracks of wolves scared him so much so he decided not to sleep. In 3 days he slept around 7 hours Emotikona frown
Now he had got good sleep and left in so much better condition. We will see him again in 12 hours. I will post some video soon, but I am not able to add subtitles - but basically he is talking about how hard it was!!!

From Breaburn to Ken Lake

 I just received call from Jan, he is feeling great. Night was quite scary because he saw tracks of wolves. There is a small cabin at the Ken Lake where he will take a rest and around 5pm will keep going to Carmacks. We will meet him there in the morning so later on I will post more pictures and video. Jan is very grateful for your support!!!

Petra had to finished on 100 km, Jan is freshly going to another checkpoint

An amazing experience, extreme cold, Jan was a big support and I had to let him go to another checkpoint with tears in my eyes. He is going further to another checkpoint with all respect to Yukon wilderness. We should see him in 2 day at Carmacks. Thank you for big support. I am ok, I have to gave up after 100km because of hip problems and I was slowing down Jan, which was dangerous in this extreme weather. We experienced below -45°C

It is coming....brrr

Two nights to go and it is getting pretty busy. One would think that everything is under control, but instead we are researching, speculating, exploring, inspecting, packing and unpacking................racing will be easy, but pre race rush is the worst thing :) Yukon is showing her best and today morning it was -42°C a with windchill it got to -50°C. When we went out in the morning for the coffee our face and hairs were frozen in a minute. We tested our sleds later today......and hell, they are heavy, we will have to re-select what we are going to take :) Tomorrow (Saturday) it is going to be busy day, but we hope we will get a chance to see the start of Yukon Quest. Temperatures on Sunday will be very cold, but we can´t expect Hawaii, so go hard or o home.

CBC radio interview

If you didn´t have a chance to tune in live, here is a podcast for our CBC interview. Get ready for our "czenglish" Emotikona smile Starts after minute 19´

http://www.cbc.ca/nxnw/podcast/2015/01/31/saturday-january-31/index.html#.VM25P6kwlro.facebook

Waiting for snow

We were waiting for the snow the whole night and night after that, but in vain. Well, lets go for coffee........