Battling fresh snow on the trail, all 12 teams running in the Dog Powered Sports Association of the Yukon’s annual mid-distance race arrived at the checkpoint before 10 p.m.

The halfway point of the about 90-mile race and the site of a mandatory five-hour rest, Sky High Wilderness Ranch is perched just off the shores of Fish Lake.

Marine Gastard arrived first at 6:22 p.m., followed a minute later by Martine LeLevier.

They would bed their teams down, nestled amongst the ranch’s outcrop of buildings.

Teams would continue to arrive later into the evening, settling into their own patches of snow.

Cynthia Corriveau, the Granger Grind’s sole skijorer would arrive at 7:28 p.m., just over an hour after the first team.

After five hours rest, teams were able to start the return to Mount Lorne.

LeLevier had the fastest return time, three hours and 56 minutes, across Fish Lake, to Coal Lake, Friday Creek, down Alligator Lake Trail and McConnell Lake to the finish.

But he arrived two minutes too late, Gastard had beat him to the line.

The final team finished just before 9 a.m. on Sunday.

“Essentially the whole trail is mountain passes and mountain climbs,” race organizer Adam Robinson told the Star. “It’s very scenic.

“It’s one of the most beautiful trails that people are going to have the opportunity to run on.”

This was the first time in the DPSAY mid-distance race history that the event was held on these trails.

80 Mile Skijoring

1 Cynthia Corriveau

80 Mile Sled

1 Marine Gastard
2 Martine LeLevier
3 Gerry Willomitzer 4 Nathaniel Hamlyn
5 J.F. Bisson
6 Kristina Disney
7 Magnus Kaltenborn
8 Steve Gibbons
9 Amelie Janin
10 Krys March
Scratched Jean-Marc Champeval