RACE TO ALASKA IS A PROJECT OF NORTHWEST MARITIME
The marina began to leak signs of life around 4:00 a.m., mostly in the form of errant headlamp beams swinging across the dark and the low, desperate hiss of camp stoves trying to coax water and coffee grounds to a boil. Point Hudson was a dense packing of hulls that had no business sharing the…
Race to Alaska started this morning under suspiciously cooperative skies. Warm. Calm. A formal sendoff from a plane overhead. The vessels slipping out of Port Townsend into water so flat it was almost an insult. This is the Proving Grounds. Victoria, BC in 36 hours or go home. The inside passage doesn’t care how nice…
The lighthouse at Point Wilson is just the sort of lighthouse a lighthouse should be. White walls. Red roof. Standing out at the end of a finger of sand beyond a handful of wind-tortured trees suggesting all manner of unpleasantness. On nasty days it’s gray and cold and wet. The wind howls. Sea foam and…
Long before phones, comments sections, or anyone got mad about a halftime show, Race to Alaska’s troglodyte origins were born, a couple poorly-prepared Homo erectus maniacs chasing the same mammoth. No rules. No help. Just a pointy stick and a very large dinner on the line. The first one to get there eats. Second place…
R2AK Tracker Nation! It’s been a decade since R2AK’s first hold-my-beer and cross-your-fingers hoo-rah, where the rapscallion fringe launched into Alaska, history, and glorified oblivion. It was epic, again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and Covid, and Covid, and again, and again. What did we do to celebrate our 10th…
Dear adventure artists, tracker hounds, dreamers of terrifying dreams, As you know, we, the cobblers’ children of Race to Alaska, pride ourselves on delivering an experience that’s as unpredictable as Johnstone Strait winds and makes failure but a tasty appetizer to triumph. With that spirit in mind, we’re announcing the next evolution of our beloved…
Let’s start with the facts. Forty-four teams started with dreams of glory and sea spray, fears of the rugged places, and pedaling-induced injuries. Of those, 32 aimed for the whole enchilada: the 750-mile gut-punch to Ketchikan. And to start the thing off, the Proving Ground didn’t disappoint. A perfect blend of (almost) Coast Guard-free waters…
Upon the news of the final finish, a sad foghorn was heard somewhere north of Bella Bella as the Grim Sweeper gave up its chase. Yesterday, two incredible solo teams etched their names into the R2AK annals with finishes that exemplified tenacity. Ohad of Team Spirit of Nevetz, on his XCAT (which received its share…
The good folks of Bella Bella are advised to keep off the water as the Grim Sweeper passes through sometime this afternoon. Team Outtaspace arrived in Ketchikan last night at the precise hour of “We’re not tired; you’re tired.” The trio of Caleb (son), Carlin (mom), and Olin (other guy), hit the finish line with…
The Grim Sweeper will pass near Port Hardy around noon today. We hear it’s been blasting Norwegian Black Metal on its unholy sound system. Day 17 of R2AK 2024, and the race continues. Yesterday, Team Victory Oar Duff rowed their way into Ketchikan, grabbing the 22nd finishing spot with a time of 16 days, 10…
From the depths of the R2Archives, we present a Daily Update written in 2018, updated for modern times. (Hey, you’ve read Siddhartha a half dozen times, perhaps you may not have squeezed all the juice out of our written words.) — We’re keeping busy, thanks for asking. The following is an excerpt from a fictitious…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 16: Talking To Ourselves, a Wood Stove Finish
Grim Sweeper Update: By noon today (June 27), the nasty fumes of the GS will reach Comox. Yesterday in Ketchikan was the first 24-hour stretch with no racer arrivals since Team Malolo rolled into town. The lull sent everybody’s minds and tracker screens back down the course to check in on the five remaining teams:…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 15: Metal on Metal, Mid-channel Napping
Greetings, race viewers and tracker fans! Brianna, from Team Sail Like A Mother, here for a friendly Daily Update takeover. We thought you might like to see a snapshot of the finish line from a racer’s perspective. First, let’s set the scene: the home stretch. Racers have been crammed together aboard a small vessel for…
Ketchikan. The city where “done” lives isn’t just a place; it’s a whole freakin’ vibe. Equal parts Wild West and Disney Funland, it’s a town where summers are measured in numbers of tourists (1.5 million a year), pounds of salmon candied (a bunch), First Nation totem poles (over 80), and amount of rain—measured in feet…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 13: City of Fish and the Glory of 19th
R2AK and the Pacific Crest Trail are two grueling endurance events where ambition defies comfort, and participants trade soft beds for whatever flat surface they can find. Both start with a spark of inspiration, a mess of logistics, and the struggle to fit big dreams into small lives. Gear is bought, plans are shuffled, and…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 12: Sun-Squinting; Soloing an Oval
Halfway point, folks. The moment where some next level magic happens, or the gremlins in the gears start dancing. It’s at this point minds begin to wander back to the start in Port Townsend, even as their eyes stay glued to the Ketchikan finish line. Sitting somewhere in a dark corner, perhaps an old woodshed…
[record scratch] Here on Day 10, the sequitur-less stylings of the masked scrivener of R2AK must give way to my far less metaphorically-driven reportage. Notice a shift: less meandering BS, more facts. And maybe a couple hundred fewer words. —Race Boss [resume play] The happenings on day nine of this Alaska Race provide a punctuative…
Continue Reading Stage 2, day 10: Racing because of things; Dynamite Required.
Like the difference in the water between calms and storms, R2AK can be drastically different experiences—even in the same year, even in teams finishing close to one another. Day Eight’s finish line proved a study in stark contrasts. We can’t make this stuff up. The Kids. In the three hours between 06:00 and 09:00 local…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 9: The Kids, the Stench, and the Comfort
The finish line was active for roughly the last 36 hours between Team Stranger Danger’s Day 6 finish and the early morning finishes of the High School Armada. (They got in too late to make the press deadline, more on them tomorrow.) Working backward from time of arrival, here are the rest: Day 7, 22:43,…
Hey, you with the screen. Before you plunge brains deep into this latest update, think about this: this update and this race, are created by a team of Top Ramen and coffee-fueled humans who work long into the night to keep the racers safe and the story factory churning. There’s no paywall because we love…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 7: Cash, Knives, and Two Buckets of Nothing
