The story
Yukon Quest in Fairbanks
The Yukon Quest is a long-distance sled dog race founded in 1984 that historically ran 1,000 miles between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, alternating direction each year. Since 2022, the U.S. and Canadian sides of the race have operated separately, with the Alaska side run as a shorter multi-distance event along the historic trail rather than a single continuous international crossing.
The idea for the Yukon Quest originated in April 1983 during a conversation among four Alaskans, LeRoy Shank, Roger Williams, Ron Rosser, and William 'Willy' Lipps, who proposed a thousand-mile sled dog race between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, to commemorate the historic mail and transportation routes of the Klondike Gold Rush era.