Yukon Quest 2011 – Day 6
The second half of the race began at 3:35AM PST at Dawson when Hugh Neff headed out again. Only the first nine of the teams behind him are within 12 hours of his lead, and Hans Gatt is two hours and 41 minutes behind, but this is the worst part of the trail, and ultimately it is up to the dogs, which is why it is called a “sled dog race”.
It is about 150 miles to Eagle, Alaska on the other side of American Summit. There is a four-hour mandatory lay-over in Eagle, and you hope that you don’t have to drop any dogs, because the only way to get to Eagle in the winter is by dog sled or aircraft, there is no road.
Update 11:30PM CST: Christine Roalofs (9), the current Red Lantern, has apparently stopped for a break about 40 miles from Dawson. The GPS showed her moving earlier in the day, but her position hasn’t changed in the last couple of hours. She left Scroggie Creek with 10 dogs at 8PM CST on the 9th.
Beyond Dawson
1 Hugh Neff (8)
2 Hans Gatt (13)
3 Ken Anderson (18)
4 Brent Sass (22)
5 Sebastian Schnuelle (11)
4 Brent Sass (22)
5 Sebastian Schnuelle (11)
6 Allen Moore (24)I
7 Wade Marrs (15)I
8 Dallas Seavey (3)I
9 Dan Kaduce (10)
10 Kelley Griffin (1)At Dawson
11 Joshua Cadzow (16)
12 Jodi Bailey (17)R
13 Mike Ellis (5)
14 David Dalton (23)
15 Johannes Rygh (6)R
16 Clint Warnke (25)I
17 Tamara Rose (12)I
18 Jerry Joinson (21)R
19 Didier Moggia (7)
20 Kyla Durham (14)R
21 Hank DeBruin (19)IBeyond Scroggie Creek
22 Christine Roalofs (9)R [earlier report of arrival was in error]
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.
Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.
4 comments
Wow, look at all the rookies still hanging in there. That’s great to see. In the “degree of difficulty” department, how does the Yukon Quest compare to the Iditarod?
I’ve been fairly tied up lately with some new additions to our family! If you have a minute, take a look: Puppies
More Puppies
That is a large puddle of puppies, Juanita. You have the start of a team.
The easiest way of comparing the two is to look at Lance Mackey in 2007. He won the Yukon Quest with a winning time of 10 days 2 hours 37 minutes. Two weeks later he started the Iditarod, which is about 100 miles longer, with essentially the same team and won in 9 days 5 hours and 9 minutes. Now, he started the Iditarod with a team of 16, while the Quest is run with 14.
The Quest has about half as many check points and it means more camping, which also means carrying the extra supplies to do it. The Quest only allows one sled – if it breaks, you patch it.
I think the Quest is a tougher race for a lot of reasons, and, the current run from Whitehorse to Fairbanks is the toughest of all. That double climb around Mile 101 is a nightmare, coming at the end of the race, with musher and dogs tired. That part of the trail is just evil, especially at night, or in blowing snow.
Goodness, just having half the checkpoints would make it plenty harder, wouldn’t it? More stops for a little rest, hot food, and hot drinks make a lot of difference between the two runs. At least to me, I like my little comforts. But then, I could never do this stuff which is probably why I’m so fascinated with it. Every year I’ve followed the Iditarod, I wonder: how in the world can they do this, and many of them, year after year?
And yeah, Bryan, I certainly do have a puddle of puppies. And they’re beginning to …um…puddle all over. Quite the job. Got the mother from the local Animal Shelter – pregnant at the time. I agreed to take her if one of the local animal welfare groups would take the puppies. Our PAWS group agreed, so I’ll only have them for another 2-3 weeks. As much work as they’ve been, I’m really going to miss them!
The main problem is the weight of the sled. Without the check points, the teams have to carry straw bedding and dog food in the sled sufficient to make the next checkpoint where they have food bags. If there are a lot of checkpoints, the team can disperse its food at them, and only carry emergency rations in the sled as they race. A sled dog team can go through a 50 pound bag of food in no time on the trail, so being able to pull into a checkpoint where fire and water are already available, instead of starting a fire to melt snow, saves a lot of time and energy. That 200 mile run into Dawson is done with a very heavy load.
You don’t need television or computers if you have puppies getting into everything and leaving reminders all over.