Iditarod Update – Race Day 5 Late Night
The first 11 are in Cripple, the rest are on the trail between Ophir and Cripple. Those in bold have completed their mandatory 24-hour stop.
1 DeeDee Jonrowe (39)
2 Paul Gebhardt (69)
3 Zack Steer (26)
4 Martin Buser (13)
5 Ed Iten (32)
6 Ken Anderson (9)
7 Silvia Willis (40)
8 Hugh Neff (16)
9 Aliy Zirkle (17)
10 Rohn Buser (37) [rookie]11 Jeff King (11)
12 Cim Smyth (2)
13 Jon Korta (71)
14 Jason Mackey (36)
15 Kjetil Backen (42)
16 Lance Mackey (6)
17 Hans Gatt (38)
18 William Kleedehn (66) [rookie]
19 Rick Swenson (61)
20 Gerry Willomitzer (7)
21 Sebastian Schnuelle (68)
22 Jim Lanier (4)
23 Aaron Burmeister (14)
24 John Baker (67)
I did this because the guys in bold are the real leaders at this point. The others are all going to be forced to take their 24-hour stop and will be left behind.
Rachael Scdoris (55) is still 72nd place at McGrath, and may be taking her 24-hour.
Jason Barron (41) scratched at McGrath. I haven’t seen the reason, but based on the earlier scratches it is probably the condition of his team due to the weather.
Kim Franklin (79) has been at Rohn since 3/05 2:12 AM. Since she hasn’t scratched, I wonder if a piece of equipment broke, and she is waiting for a replacement to arrive.
Apparently Paul Gebhardt had more problems than getting lost on the way to Cripple. Jon Little reported that Gebhardt said that his team really lost a lot of weight in the slushy trail conditions, and he doesn’t feel he can push them in any way. He apparently had to put a dog in his sled just outside of Ophir, and was carrying that extra 60 pounds on the route.
When Jeff King arrived he said the trail conditions were much faster than they had been earlier, thanks to lower temperatures. Taking his 24-hour stop when he did paid off in a better trail, much easier on his team.
Update: Sigrid Ekran (24) is back at 26th place and Jessie Royer (3) is an hour+ behind at 28th place, both having finished their layovers.
