Yukon Quest

The Yukon Quest is known for excellence in canine care and fostering the traditions of northern travel by dog team. This epic winter sports event occurs every February at the “top of the world” and covers 1,000 miles between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory. The race has been called the "toughest race on earth," due to its rugged terrain and long distances between checkpoints. Much of the race follows the Yukon River, still frozen in February when the race is run. The record time of 10 days, 16 hours and 20 minutes was set in 1995.
The Yukon Quest Trail follows historic Gold Rush and mail delivery dog sledding routes from the turn of the 20th century.

Qualifying for this 1,000-mile race takes enormous resolve – winning it takes passion, strength, sensitivity to other's discomfort while ignoring your own, endurance, a deep love of animals, and an extremely high comfort level with both the wilderness and with being alone. There is an upper limit of 50 teams, but the number is usually close to 30 – one team for each 33 miles of trail!

There are 2 main factors that make the Yukon Quest the race it is – the small number of checkpoints (9, as compared to 26 in the Iditarod), and the summits climbed and descended. King Solomon's Dome is 3,800 feet high, Eagle Summit forces teams to climb 3,650 feet into notoriously bad snow and weather conditions, and American Summit, at 3,420 feet.

The Yukon Quest is a sleeping giant as far as collectibles are concerned, and now is a great time to start collecting before the pins become as pricey as the Fur Rondy and Iditarod pins. Below we have listed as much as know regarding the year of the events and what pins were released for each one.