As always, it has been an incredibly busy winter for us. The Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra in Canada was especially brutal this year. Almost every night, temperatures plummeted to –40°C. We welcomed 46 athletes from 11 different nations at the start line, yet only six managed to reach the finish. Here are some striking moments captured by Mark Kelly:
After a brief “break,” we headed straight into the Bright Equipment Lapland Arctic Ultra. On March 2nd, 55 athletes from 14 countries hit the trails with us in Överkalix, Sweden. Fortunately, the weather was far kinder than in Canada, resulting in a significantly higher finisher rate. Here are some highlights, beautifully photographed by Isak Sandling:
Immediately following our winter ultras, we shifted gears to plan for next winter. That process is now complete. Start dates are set, and the necessary paperwork for both races is in place.
Now, our focus turns to our upcoming ultras in Brazil and Bhutan.
First off, we want to apologize for not sharing more updates over the last few months. The intensity of our winter events kept us fully occupied.
The big question is whether we will gather enough athletes to launch the Rainforest Ultra successfully from August 29th to September 9th. At present, we don’t have enough participants registered to make it viable. The uncertainty lies in how many athletes are still planning to sign up but haven’t done so yet – and how many we can reach before the entry deadline on July 31st.
One of our biggest challenges is timing. We can’t, and don’t want to, cancel at the last minute – it wouldn’t be fair to those who have committed early, planned their trips, and possibly even booked flights. At the same time, we recognize the growing trend of last-minute travel decisions. So, we’ll tackle this the way an ultra-athlete approaches a race. Step by step.
Step #1 will be to try and find 20 athletes by the end of April. Should we fail at that, we will likely cancel the Rainforest Ultra 2025 and give it another go for 2026. If we get 20 athletes by April 30th we will initiate Step #2, which is to keep planning with a 2025 Rainforest Ultra and to continue reaching out to see if we can get a full race roster. A total of 40 athletes is our goal.
If you believe in what we do, we’d love your help in spreading the word! If you’re interested in participating, please reach out. And even if this year doesn’t work for you but you’d like to join us in 2026, let us know – we value any feedback that helps us bring the Rainforest Ultra to life.
