Side Notes On The Quest
The current record of 9 days 23 hours and 20 minutes, was set last year by Sebastian Schnuelle on Day 11. At the rate the leaders are going they could knock almost a day off that record.
Gerry Willomitzer (5) decided to scratch because he couldn’t get the plastic runners [like skis] to fit properly on his sled. The runners are designed to slide on and slide off, so you can change them for different conditions. Apparently Gerry had either a bad set of runners, or his sled is warped, but in either case going on would have worn out the dogs for no good reason.
Many of the top mushers use the $3K+ aircraft aluminum sleds built by Hans Gatt, currently running third. This is not an inexpensive sport to enter, especially when you consider feeding up to 14 dogs for two weeks, as well as the $200/dog for harness, coat, and booties.
