Watch: Teams race across Yellowknife in Prospector Challenge

The annual Prospector Challenge sends members of Joint Task Force North running, canoeing, and portaging around Yellowknife. Come along for the ride.

Eighteen military teams participated in the 2024 event, with teams of two sorted into categories based on their cumulative age: Whippersnappers (combined age 60-70), Midlife Crisis (combined age 70-80) and Old and Bold (combined age 80-plus).

The 23.2-km route was broken into eight segments, alternating between stretches of ruck march (walking or running while carrying 20 lbs), canoeing and portaging.

Teams also had to complete physical tests at checkpoints, such as doing squats or running 20 laps around their canoes, while collecting objects along the way like small flags from the ski club and the top of Pilots’ Monument.

While other military bases around the country have similar annual challenges, Ariel Whaley – one of the event’s organizers – said the Prospector Challenge is unique.

“It’s just to build up camaraderie,” Whaley said.

Whaley participated in the challenge for the past two years, so this was her first year as a volunteer. It’s a “different stress level being a volunteer, because you’re waiting for people to come back, and you’re making sure that people have come through your checkpoints,” she said.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the race, organizers made it harder than ever. The route has typically been 18 km but this year, they added an extra five-kilometre ruck march around Frame Lake at the end.

At the finish, teams had to pick their canoe back up from beside Frame Lake and carry it over the line.

Daniel Beaudoin and Aric Henry were the winners of this year’s race, finishing the route in a time of three hours, 36 minutes and 18 seconds. In second place were Luke Spooner and Devon Allooloo with a time of 3:45:27. Third place went to Vincent Lemelin and Dane Zelenski with a time of 3:48:58.

Beaudoin said he and Henry started “at a quicker pace than what we were hoping for.”

Once they had their pace, their attitude “was just the idea of just keeping moving… it didn’t have to be the fastest in the world. We just had to keep that consistent pace going and just know that it was all for fun,” Beaudoin said.

After the race, Beaudoin said, he felt “great” other than some general stiffness.

“I’m sure tomorrow our muscles will be more fatigued than they should be.”