Comments on: End Game

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:42:17 +0000

The trail committee can’t make up their mind on what to modernize. You are only allowed one sled on the Quest, but the Iditarod allows 3 without penalty.

The Quest allows you to use a regular GPS, but doesn’t have a tracker, while the Iditarod has the tracker, but you can’t have a regular GPS.

Global climate change has made the races bigger gambles than ever. Last year it was overheating, but this year it was an Arctic gale.

By: JuanitaM

JuanitaM — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:06:11 +0000

Oh yeah, I agree. The dogs are the main athletes here. At one of Mackey’s check points, he remarked on the run as being one of the most difficult of his career, but they said his dogs arrived with tails wagging and looking fairly energetic. Amazing animals.

On the GPS, having an emergency signal probably wasn’t on their list of marketing needs.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:26:10 +0000

The real athletes are Maple and Larry on Lance’s team and Finn on Sab’s team. If the leaders don’t want to move, you end up like Dr. Packer.

I’m surprised they didn’t have an emergency signal as part of the GPS tracker they are using. Maybe next year.

Oh, the GPS trackers are part of the marketing scheme of the trail committee. They charge a fee to be able to follow the teams.

By: JuanitaM

JuanitaM — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:25:16 +0000

Congratulations, Lance! What an amazing team he has, and I heard that four of his dogs are rookies, too.

I didn’t get to follow the race as closely this year as I would have liked. We got a contract on our house (yippee), and are right in the middle of moving (not so yippee), so I’ve only had a few minutes a day to check in.

But I did have a chance to read your link on Dr. Packer. Good grief, what a tragedy. Reading this article made the hair stand up on my neck. I guess Dr. Packer and his wife think the GPS system was well worth whatever was spent for it. Without being able to see how slowly he was going, they might have waited just a little longer to search for him with the result being losing more dogs at the very least, but in the worst case it could have been the loss of a musher, too.

What peculiar weather this year… from being too warm for the dogs to being too cold to survive. If you count the wind chill factor, it was a stomach lurching slide of 70+ degrees.

Once again, thanks for your posts on this. It’s always an excellent synopsis of each day of the race. Not only do you update the standings of everyone but also add those little daily stories of interest. That’s at the heart of what makes the Iditarod more than just a set of statistics of who’s winning and who’s not.

I just noticed Jessie Royer came in 8th at 5:07 a.m.! One of the ladies in the top 10 – that’s great. Even more so in this brutal weather. Of course, it’s amazing to me that anyone ever makes it. For sure, I couldn’t do it. These are some of the toughest athletes on the face of the earth. Period.