Fulda Challenge in the Yukon

Minus 48 degrees

For years the German tyre manufacturer Fulda has sought to demonstrate the qualities of its winter rubber in the inhospitable Yukon. The destination of the thousand kilometre expedition is Dawson City, the Gold Rush township where both man and machine must endure extreme cold. (Susanne Kilimann, Florian Maier , 23.01.2012)

The long arm of the law

Constable Andrew West of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a serious young man, devoted to his profession. The Mountie is responsible for safety on the highways of the Yukon Territory, in the far north-west of Canada, where human beings are sparse on the ground, outnumbered by bears, caribous and wolves. Constable West is no fan of tourists who throw tit-bits of food out of their cars in order to lure animals to come close enough to be photographed for the holiday album. “A fed bear is a dead bear”, the law enforcement officer emphasizes, explaining that feeding the wildlife trains them to be dangerous. For when Mr Bear comes too close to humans the result can be a fatal shot for self-protection. Constable West is also not fond of drivers who exceed the speed limit on the Canadian highway where a 90 kilometres an hour maximum allowed.

A bridge across the frozen Stewart River.

Here, however, encounters with other traffic are rare on the 713 kilometres of the Klondike Highway. From Whitehorse, the town in the south of the Yukon Territory with a population of twenty-five thousand, to the former prospectors' settlement which became Dawson City is a distance of over five hundred kilometres. The convoy of SUVs wearing Fulda tyres meets no more than a dozen other vehicles… mostly trucks and few pick-ups… during the entire expedition. But when a big rig does approach from the opposite direction there are moments of real tension… because the snow is extremely dry the wheels of a truck whip up an impenetrable whirlwind of frozen cloud.

At Braeburn Lodge Steve has huge hamburgers and other nourishing foods for his customers.

Soul food

About an hour north of Whitehorse the traveller chances upon Braeburn Lodge. This simple inn was, like so many roadhouses in the Yukon, where mushers and coachmen paused for a while on their way to Dawson City. Steve, the proprietor, looks a bit like Santa Claus with his shoulder-long silver grey hair and curly beard. But there are no reindeer to be seen here, the rotund sixty-something is a Harley fan. While his mount must spend the long winter months indoors its rider enjoys the peace and quiet of the well-heated blockhouse. Only once a week does he take to the road in his Dodge to do his shopping in Whitehorse, so that his trucker customers can be assured of finding Steve’s specialities available… coffee, cinnamon rolls which are as big as cakes made to feed an entire family, hearty and rather salty soups and gigantic hamburgers.

The frozen Yukon can be crossed in Dawson City on this ice bridge.

For hours the setting sun bathes the snow-covered landscape in almost gentle pastel coloured light. As far as the distant horizon there are white hills. In the roughly five hundred thousand square kilometres of the Yukon Territory there are said to be a good few thousand wolves. But from the highway there are rarely any animals to be seen… just mile after mile of road lined by Alpine firs, their boughs less and less opulent the further north one goes. And the temperature continues to drop. After a relatively mild winter with moderate minus temperatures the forecasters now speak of a serious freeze… minus 48 degrees Celsius is promised overnight in Dawson City.

Already in Whitehorse the bitter cold was painful… and there it was twenty degrees warmer than here in icy Dawson City.

Ice fever

It is already dark when the Kia off-roaders reach the prospectors’ township on the banks of the Klondioke and Yukon rivers. Even for the short distance from the cars to the hotel the drivers do not fail to don warm headgear, Polar jackets and thick gloves. Already in Whitehorse the bitter cold was painful… and there it was twenty degrees warmer than here in Dawson City.

In the town founded by the prospectors there are today just over a thousand permanent residents. At the beginning of the last century there were about forty times more. Hundreds of thousands of chancers from all over the world found their way here in 1897 when the news that gold had been found in the northern Canadian wilderness at the Klondike spread across the continents. The prospectors faced daunting challenges to even arrive here… on foot they had to cross the White Pass at an altitude of a thousand metres on the border of Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia. The alternative route was the notoriously treacherous Chilkoot Trail. Of those who actually reached their goal many found that they had come too late. When they arrived at the Klondike the stakes had already been claimed. But of those who worked their claims… fuelled by their dreams and the hope that the permafrost hid riches… only a very few were fortunate and became wealthy. By 1902 the boom was over and most of the prospectors abandoned Dawson City.

The ‘Kristall Control HP’ tyres deliver the grip so badly needed on the icy trails.

Extreme conditions

A museum in Dawson gives visitors an insight into the time of the Gold Rush and memorializes some of the heroes of the era. Even today there are a few hopeful prospectors to be found. But the residents make their livings now mainly from tourism. During the summer there are many visitors to the little town with its fascinating wooden buildings from the Gold Rush days but in winter the place seems almost deserted. Anyone planning to use their automobile the next day needs to have kept the motor running throughout the previous night. It is entirely possible that oil lines will burst when hydraulic fluid freezes in the cold Polar night. The mechanics in Dawson City know the problem well and those travelling with the Kia contingent have their hands full in the pitch darkness every morning to keep the twenty SUVs in running order. But finally all of the off-roaders are ready to move off and the tyres… warped and deformed in the extreme cold… are up to their task again after the first few driven metres.

Already in Whitehorse the bitter cold was painful… and there it was twenty degrees warmer than here in icy Dawson City.

At the radar checkpoint at Stewart River almost all the drivers of the black SUVs are waved through. Only once was there a mild reprimand for a slight breach of the speed limit. At the end of the over thousand kilometre expedition the organizers are entirely satisfied with the performance of the autos and of the tyres ‘made in Germany’… and in all probability Constable West breathed a sigh of relief that all had gone so well.

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On the way to Dawson City on the Yukon Highway. Picture 1 of 15