A minus-20 temperature, strong winds and large snowdrifts didn't stop runners and walkers from taking part in the Athletics Yukon's Winter Solstice Run on Dec. 21.
Thirty-three runners and walkers kicked off winter with a 10.4-kilometres jaunt, up and down Grey Mountain, climbing 420 metres in elevation.
“It was beautiful,” said Whitehorse’s Logan Roots. “I think I lost about five minutes tying my snowshoes.”
Roots was the fastest up and down, wearing snowshoes that helped him speed through high snowdrifts near the turnaround point at the top. He completed the run in one hour and five minutes. He was wearing the same snowshoes he won three gold and a silver in snowshoe races at the 2012 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse.
Roots was also the fastest in the Grey Mountain Summer Solstice Fun Run with a time of 45:39 in June.
“The first part was a little more packed, but then you got up to the part that was a little more windswept and it was really drifty,” said David Eikleboom, who was six minutes behind Roots. “If you stayed on the crust it was OK, but if you broke through you were thigh deep.”
No official results were kept from the event.