Distance swimmer Ross Edgley (@rossedgely) discussed his Yukon River Swim – and various musing and reasons why he does what he does – with fellow freestyler Rich Roll (@richroll) on the Rich Roll Podcast.

His Yukon River Swim was an adventure of extreme proportions in an unforgiving land.

He talked about swimming among eagles, moose, and bears.

Edgley eloquently explained that the logistics and mental challenges and physical obstacles behind the 510 km downstream river swim held in the remote western regions of Canada near Alaska. The Yukon River Swim was a massive undertaking that could have gone pear shaped in an instant, but his operations team headed by Ger Kennedy and Chris Morgan – who stayed awake for over 60 hours with Edgley – helped steer clear of possible dangers while minimizing the inherent risks of swimming in remote locations.

Listen here to the 1 hour 45 minute podcast or watch below.

https://youtu.be/6E_MLdtYrIw

One of Edgley’s reasons for doing what he does in the open water was profoundly interesting. “The struggle alone is enough to fill my heart.“

In our contemporary society, it is not often that we can push ourselves to the extreme – in extreme locations far away from all the modern-day comforts of retail stores, supermarkets with ready-to-eat food, convenience stores, electric vehicles, and all the modern appliances of heated homes.

While many (most?) marathon swimmers are traditionalists who focus on swimming long distances in cold water by swimming near an escort boat in bodies of water that have been crossed many times by many others, there are other type of open water swimmers who love the adventure and uncertainty of challenging themselves in different ways:

• Shorter and colder swims – like ice swimmers do
• Shorter and faster swims – like Olympic 10K marathon swimmers do
• Shorter and slower swims – like recreational swimmers in mass participation events, sometimes with fins and a wetsuit, do
• Longer and warmer swims – like Walter Poenisch with fins did
• Longer and colder swims – like wetsuited Ross Edgley does

In the far reaches of the Yukon Territory, life is never easy or convenient. The Yukon is a wild, mountainous and sparsely populated part of western Canada with animals not normally seen by open water swimmers, from caribou to bears along the Yukon River.

The Yukon River is where the 38-year-old Edgley attempted – and completed – his adventure swim, a 510 km non-stop assisted  marathon swim between June 16th and 18th where he was in the water for 54 hours 45 minutes.

During each minute of his 54 hour 45 minute Yukon River Swim, Edgley averaged a speedy distance of 107 meters.

For over two days, Edgley managed swimming along the fast-flowing river where the water temperature ranged from a low of 8.6°C and a high of 15.1°C while the air temperature ranged from 6.5°C to 29.9°C throughout the swim. He managed those temperatures by wearing a 7 mm wetsuit with a neoprene hoodie on his head, neoprene gloves on his hands, and neoprene booties on his feet.

A large team (see upper photo) escorted him on three boats and included Irish ice swimmer Ger Kennedy who served as the expedition leader and as an WOWSF (World Open Water Swimming Federation) observer, American Olympic coach Chris Morgan who served as the escort kayaker and an observer, Italian marathon swimmer Thomas W. Kofler who served as an observer, Canadian escort boat captains Larry Bonnett, Brian Earl, Liam Parfitt, and Stan Fordyce, physician Dr Tom Hall, cameraman James Perrett, and support crew members Scott Edgley, Hester Sobery, Stephen O’Brien, Eric Bonnett, John Robertson, and Raymond Kmyta.

The start coordinates were 61°23’32″N, 135°13’54″W at the Lower Laberge on June 16th at 08:23 am in 9.1°C water, and the finish was at 63°21’05″N , 139°55’75″W near the outcrop near the Stewart River meets the Yukon River on June 18th at 3:14 pm. The data was obtained from the Compass app on the observers’ iPhones.

The information below was documented by the observers and witnessed by the escort crew. It indicates the distance swum in kilometers, latitude, longitude, water temperature in °C, air temperature in °C, wind speed in km per hour, and stroke rate (strokes per minute):

• Hour 0: 0.0 km, 61°23’32” N 135°13’54” W, 9.1°C, 17.6°C, 0.0 kph, 60 spm
• Hour 1: 8.2 km, 61°26’46” N 135°10’33” W, 8.6°C, 21.4°C, 0.0 kph, 60 spm
• Hour 2: 17.0 km, 61°28’20” N 135°6’44” W, 8.8°C, 21.6°C, 0.0 kph, 60 spm
• Hour 3: 25.0 km, 61°31’32” N 135°8’31” W, 9.3°C, 17.6°C, 0.0 kph, 55 spm
• Hour 4: 33.5 km, 61°34’54” N 135°4’16” W, 9.3°C, 29.2°C, 0.0 kph, 60 spm
• Hour 5: 42.3 km, 61°33’31” N 134°57’55” W, 9.8°C, 29.9°C, 0.0 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 6: 51.0 km, 61°36’3” N 134°53’11” W, 10.9°C, 26.7°C, 2.7 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 7: 61.0 km, 61°39’44” N 134°50’27” W, 11.0°C, 26.8°C, 1.9 kph, 59 spm
• Hour 8: 70.5 km, 61°55’41” N 134°74’21” W, 11.0°C, 25.6°C, 1.5 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 9: 80.1 km, 61°76’28” N 134°99’50” W, 12.0°C, 26.4°C, 1.4 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 10: 90.2 km, 61°80’21” N 134°39’55” W, 12.0°C, 26.5°C, 1.6 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 11: 102.5 km, 61°86’8” N 134°56’35” W, 12.0°C, 20.0°C, 1.8 kph, 56 spm
• Hour 12: 112.5 km, 61°92’30” N 135°02’35” W, 12.0°C, 21.0°C, 2.8 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 13: 122.3 km, 61°94’33” N 136°15’71” W, 12.1°C, 21.6°C, 1.6 kph, 56 spm
• Hour 14: 132.1 km, 61°96’37” N 135°30’93” W, 12.2°C, 19.6°C, 1.8 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 15: 142.7 km, 61°99’30” N 135°27’59” W, 12.2°C, 15.2°C, 1.0 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 16: 152.5 km, 62°2’52” N 135°33’60” W, 12.2°C, 12.6°C, 0.1 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 17: 161.5 km, 62°2’42” N 135°43’27” W, 12.1°C, 11.4°C, 1.9 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 18: 172.3 km, 62°1’45” N 135°51’39” W, 12.1°C, 12.1°C, 0.9 kph, 61 spm
• Hour 19: 181.7 km, 62°2’41” N 135°57’20” W, 11.9°C, 12.3°C, 0.9 kph, 60 spm
• Hour 20: 191.2 km, 62°2’51” N 135°67’20” W, 12.0°C, 12.0°C, 1.0 kph, 59 spm
• Hour 21: 200.1 km, 62°05’62” N 136°16’00” W, 12.1°C, 9.3°C, 0.0 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 22: 209.2 km, 62°13’1” N 136°23’4” W, 12.2°C, 6.0°C, 0.0 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 23: 218.0 km, 62°09’99” N 136°28’1 W, 12.1°C, 11.1°C, 0.9 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 24: 228.2 km, 62°30’2” N 136°33’0” W, 12.1°C, 14.7°C, 1.2 kph, 52 spm
• Hour 25: 232.8 km, 62°27’2” N 136°30’0” W, 12.0°C, 14.1°C, 1.0 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 26: 247.0 km, 62°25’34” N 136°31’0” W, 12.4°C, 16.8°C, 1.6 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 27: 256.5 km, 62°30’72” N 136°34’9” W, 12.5°C, 19.5°C, 0.7 kph, 56 spm
• Hour 28: 267.5 km, 62°34’58” N 136°49’5” W, 12.8°C, 20.0°C, 1.0 kph, 56 spm
• Hour 29: 277.6 km, 62°23’9” N 136°35’32” W, 12,8°C, 27.3°C, 4.1 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 30: 287.0 km, 62°17’11” N 136°40’45” W, 13.3°C, 25.5°C, 3.5 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 31: 295.0 km, 62°30’5” N 136°44’36” W, 13.5°C, 25.8°C, 5.0 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 32: 303.6 km, 62°33’40” N 136°49’20” W, 13.6°C, 22.6°C, 7.5 kph, 56 spm
• Hour 33: 313.4 km, 62°36’37” N 136°56’40” W, 13.8°C, 22.8°C, 2.9 kph, 56 spm
• Hour 34: 322.5 km, 62°39’14” N 137°10’11” W, 14.2°C, 20.1°C, 6.4 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 35: 323.5 km, 62°41’14” N 137°5’11” W, 14.1°C, 21.1°C, 6.0 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 36: 341.8 km, 62°46’0” N 137°19’30” W, 14.3°C, 22.7°C, 4.0 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 37: 350.0 km, 62°48’1” N 137°26’47” W, 14.3°C, 23.5°C, 2.0 kph, 59 spm
• Hour 38: 361.2 km, 62°49’10” N 137°37’37” W, 15.1°C, 21.0°C, 0.3 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 39: 370.6 km, 62°48’17” N 137°46’38” W, 15.0°C, 18.5°C, 3.5 kph, 58 spm
• Hour 40: 379.0 km, 62°47’22” N 137°55’15” W, 15.1,C, 19.9°C, 1.0 kph, 53 spm
• Hour 41: 388.0 km, 62°48’29” N 138°4’17” W, 15.0°C, 18.8°C, 5.5 kph, 53 spm
• Hour 42: 397.0 km, 62°48’15” N 138°14’22” W, 14.8°C, 15.8°C, 2.2 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 43: 406.5 km, 62°46’43” N 138°23’34” W, 14.8°C, 15.8°C, 0.9 kph, 50 spm
• Hour 44: 416.0 km, 62°49’47” N 138°30’33” W, 14.7°C, 14.6°C, 2.8 kph, 53 spm
• Hour 45: 425.0 km, 62°52’5” N 138°38’23” W, 14.9°C, 10.5°C, 1.6 kph, 53 spm
• Hour 46: 433.0 km, 62°52’1” N 138°46’20” W, 14.9°C, 13.8°C, 0.9 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 47: 442.1 km, 62°53’4” N 138°55’58” W, 14.5°C, 14.2°C, 0.0 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 48: 451.4 km, 62°55’5” N 139°5’22” W, 14.9°C, 14.8°C, 0.9 kph, 57 spm
• Hour 49: 460.0 km, 62°56’20” N 139°14’4” W, 14.6°C, 16.5°C, 0.3 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 50: 472.0 km, 62°59’4” N 139°19’46” W, 15.0°C, 16.8°C, 0,6 kph, 53 spm
• Hour 51: 482.0 km, 63°11’46” N 139°37’55” W, 14.3°C, 20.2°C, 0.9 kph, 52 spm
• Hour 52: 487.0 km, 63°53’54” N 139°50’60” W, 14.2°C, 20.2°C, 0.8 kph, 51 spm
• Hour 53: 495.9 km, 63°11’89” N 139°50’07” W, 14.6°C, 18.4°C, 0.6 kph, 54 spm
• Hour 54.45: 510.558 km 63°21’05” N 139°55’75” W, 14,6°C, 18.0°C, 0.6 kph, 50 spm

The World Open Water Swimming Federation defined the Yukon River Swim as an assisted, escorted, non-stop marathon swim due to use of performance-enhancing, non-standard equipment (i.e., wetsuit, neoprene hoodie, neoprene gloves, and neoprene booties) that benefitted his speed, aided in his buoyancy, and increased his heat retention throughout the swim. The performance-enhancing non-standard equipment was necessary for safety purposes – but the elements still took a toll on his body.

Edgley consumed a pre-event meal suitable for the Yukon Territory (caribou and bear):

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