The Outdoor Channel, a US specialty TV channel, is seeking participants for a new reality series, “The Brigade: Race to the Hudson”.
The premise of the show is simple: Contestants will work cooperatively to traverse over 4,000 km from Portland, Oregon in the US, to York Factory, on the shores of Hudson Bay in Canada. There will be no eliminations — no voting off the island, or in this case, out of the canoe. All those who complete the journey within a set time win a share of the $1,000,000 prize.
Contestants will follow an original fur trade route, using the waterways once worked by traders and trappers beginning in the late 17th century to transport lucrative hauls of beaver pelts out of the continent’s interior. They will not be allowed fuel or a GPS, and will be forced to paddle most of the distance, breaking trail in spots and portaging around the more dangerous rapids. The competition’s finishing point is fittingly a key historical landmark for both the fur trade and the birth of Canada as a nation. York Factory is the former flagship settlement of the Hudson’s Bay Company, once the world’s largest landowner, and the dominant trader of pelts in the region right up until the 20th century, when it diversified its business and eventually closed York Factory in 1957.
To reach York Factory, contestants will journey through sparsely populated wilderness and have to self-navigate along waterways such as the Hayes River, connecting Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay, which is dotted with rapids ranging from Class I through Class IV.
The Outdoor Channel is looking for adventurers with extensive expedition experience and multi-disciplinary outdoor survival skills to take part in the show. The competition will run from July 1 to September 30, and applications are now open via their website, closing May 15.
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