60 Yukon 1000 By Ginny Farrell


Two intrepid Dartmouth pals risked their lives - and friendship - by signing up to a daring adventure in a rugged wilderness, which only the fittest survive. On their quest for adventure, bricklayer Solly Metchette, 25, and Brixham Fish Market auctioneer Tommy Stewart, 23, headed to a land where the sun never sets - The Arctic Circle - to take part in the gruelling Yukon 1000 race in July earlier this year.


T


housands enter the world’s longest and toughest paddle race annually but only a maximum of 30 teams are selected each year.


Te legendary and formidable challenge is set in a


remote and isolated 1,000 mile stretch of the Yukon River, between British Columbia, Canada and Dalton, Alaska. Competitors must possess the


physical and mental fortitude to cope with the staggering feat of paddling 18 hours a day for up to nine days to finish the race. Completely self sufficient, teams


sleep rough where they stop and must survive in a true wilderness where grizzly and black bears roam large. Dubbed the last frontier, more


months to train for the ultimate outdoor paddle challenge which urges competitors to ‘push your body and soul to the brink.’ Competing in the Yukon 1000 has been the most


“At the race briefing the director told us ‘complacency will kill you’ and I very quickly realised that was true. You are so far from anywhere that if something goes wrong you have to be able to survive.”


people have climbed Mount Everest than have travelled through the area. Solly and Tommy entered the race on a whim aſter just four hours kayaking experience, and had nine


intense period of Solly and Tommy’s lives, even though it was perhaps not the experience they had originally sought. “We were looking, really, to slow


down,” explained Solly. “Surfing was our escape and we’d try and find breaks no-one knew about. We didn’t find many, it was definitely more of a spiritual thing, a feeling of peace and escape. So many people have their heads in their phones and don’t actually see what’s going on around them. We wanted to find out what it meant to feel


alive.” Teir chance came aſter an impromptu 4km paddle


from Blackpool Sands to the River Dart on a borrowed canoe – the first they had ever done.


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