Endurance athlete Ross Edgley has now been formally ratified by each Guinness World Information and the World Openwater Swimming Affiliation for attaining ‘The Longest Distance Assisted Adventure Swim’ because of a monumental effort that noticed him journey down the Yukon river in June, 2024. His newest accomplishment is the results of a difficult prep course of, and a herculean execution. So, wanting to be taught extra, M&F sat down for an unique chat with the inspirational Brit.
Taking over a world report try akin to a long-distance swim, with just one month of prep is definitely not perfect, however this was the predicament that Ross Edgley, 38, discovered himself in.
“This is because, in May, I had a much leaner physique to tackle an ultra-marathon swim in Mallorca, Spain, where the water temperature was 82.4°F (28°C),” he explains to M&F. “So, we only had one month to put on as much fat for insulation as possible, which really isn’t a lot of time and was far from ideal!” The urgency to swim the Yukon was exacerbated by the actual fact glacial lakes above the famed river had been starting to soften into it. With temperatures hitting lows of 46.4°F (8°C), Edgley had no time to waste. “That meant I had to just eat and insulate as much as possible in the 4 weeks before we started back in June,” he shares.
Ross Edgley’s 4-Week Dietary Plan
“With more time, I would have loved to have added the fat more strategically, systematically and with cleaner foods that were calorie dense but equally nutrient dense,” explains the person from Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. “So, ideally, a lot of wholesome fat like coconut oil, nut butters, avocados, together with oats and fatty fish. Nonetheless, with such little time we had no selection however so as to add in some ‘dirty foods,’ that had been as calorie-dense as attainable.
He provides: “One of my favorite breakfasts was a massive bowl of porridge oats, a large bar of dark chocolate, huge scoops of peanut butter, all warmed-up in the microwave, with double cream poured over the top. What’s important to note is that I tried to avoid fried foods, since I didn’t want to cause unnecessary inflammation. But with so little time to put on fat it meant that I was eating all day, every day with no structure. Basically, if I was awake, I was eating… and was likely putting away 20,000+ calories each day.”
For the uninitiated, the Yukon river flows by the central territory of northwestern Canada after which centrally by the U.S. state of Alaska. It measures 1,980 miles (3,190 km) in whole. Edgley managed to cowl 317.232 miles (510.558 kilometers) of this big expanse — within the solo, assisted class. He did so by swimming the river from Decrease Laberge (61°23’32” N, 135°13’54” W) on the finish of Lake Laberge, all the way in which to the outcrop close to the Stewart River, the place it meets the Yukon River (63°21’05” N, 139°55’75” W), within the Yukon Territory of Canada. He achieved this in a time of 54 hours, 51 minutes, and 15 seconds nonstop from June 16 to June 18, 2024).
The Attainable Risks For Ross Edgley’s Historic Swim
This was no extraordinary swim, as Edgley explains. “With an event like this you’re operating outside of the realms of conventional swimming so you have to account for bears, wolves and bison,” he says, recalling the intense setting as by it had been simply one other day on the workplace. “Equally, we had white water rapids, which tested the durability of the ligaments and tendons in my shoulders. Obviously hypothermia was a constant threat since the water was so cold, since it comes from melting glacial lakes high in the mountains.”
He provides: “But, what’s also so interesting is that the flow of the current constantly changes, so you can’t rely on maps or charts. Instead, you have to learn to ‘read the river’ which was something my team were absolute experts at, since they’d grown up on the river and knew it better than anyone else in the world. Although it was a swim, it was also a masterclass in river navigation and survival by the Canadian team (Larry Bonnett, Brian Earl, Liam Parfitt, Stan Fordyce, Stephen O’Brien, Eric Bonnett, John Robertson, Raymond Kmyta, Shannon Kmyta and Sherrie Earl) and so without them a swim like this simply wasn’t possible.”
Ross Edgley selected the Yukon as the positioning for his record-breaking problem due to his love of the historical past and tradition of the realm. The thought initially happened “because there’s a famous canoe and kayak race every year called Yukon River Quest, and I just thought: ‘If you can canoe and kayak it, surely you can swim it.”
Nonetheless, It will turn out to be probably the most troublesome challenges that Edgley has dived into thus far. “Obviously, my previous (record breaking) swim around Great Britain (in 2018) was brutal, since 1,780 miles (2,865 kilometers) in 157 days could best be described as a war of attrition at sea, but that was a stage sea swim meaning you did it in segments. Because of the non-stop nature of this swim, it was very different, since sleep deprivation mixed with the threat of hypothermia, wolves, and bears meant that every member of the team had to be on high alert because things could go very wrong, very quickly.”
Happily, our man accomplished the duty in report breaking trend, that means that he has now taken data in extremely marathon, at sea, and within the river.
“It’s hard to describe the feeling,” says Edgley of his most up-to-date accolade. “The end represented the culmination of months of training and preparation, so it was joy mixed with relief, whilst sprinkled with a lot of gratitude that the Yukon and its inhabitants of bears, wolves and bison had allowed us to swim it! We shared that feeling collectively, since every member of the team had been awake for 60+ hours as well, whether driving boats, kayaking, filming, feeding or on medical duty. The heroics of the entire team were incredible, which is why at the end we all sat there for a moment of silence, just reflecting on what we had just achieved.”
Unbelievable Details About Ross Edgley’s File Breaking Swim
- The athlete maintained 50 – 61 strokes per minute
- He ate each half-hour (bananas, peanut butter sandwiches together with protein shakes, power gels, and electrolytes)
- A close-by hearth resulted in Edgely battling smoke inhalation
- He additionally contracted hypothermia through the swim
With this feat behind him, and his personal feat fully wrecked, Edgley and the gang celebrated by partaking within the native traditions. “We celebrated with bison burgers and moose soup, and the expedition leader Ger Kennedy, who’s one of the world’s greatest ice swimmers and a great friend, had the idea that as a team we should celebrate with a local tradition in Dawson City, which is to have a shot of whiskey with a frostbitten toe in it. Yes… it’s as random as it sounds!”
What’s something however random, nonetheless, is the planning and keenness that Edgley places into the execution of each problem. Whether or not he’s competing with sharks, or planning his subsequent endurance problem, the favored athlete leaves no stone unturned on the subject of finishing his epic challenges.
“My very good friend, Chris Morgan (who was the Olympic swim coach for Switzerland) has been with me throughout 2024, and has been such an important part of the team,” explains the trailblazer. “Not only did he kayak hundreds of miles down the Yukon river, by my side, feeding me bananas, he’s also great to share ideas, theory and philosophy on training, strength and conditioning, and one thing that’s so interesting is his ideas about periodising you’re training for large-scale swims like this. Since they place such a huge stress on the body, but equally with that stress comes an amazing training adaptation which is why we’re continuing to train hard and almost use the Yukon as a ‘training swim’ so that we can adapt and can then tackle even bigger swims in 2025.”
We salute you Mr Edgley!
