Iditarod 2011 – Day 7

They are watching for effects of the tsunami in the Norton Sound, but the Aleutians probably disrupted it and minimized any effect on the coast of the Bering Sea. White Mountain is the only checkpoint after Kaltag that isn’t on the coast, and, as a result of climate change, the villages are closer to the water than ever before.

It is hard to know where James Bardoner (57) is. He finished his mandatory 24-hour stop at McGrath early this morning, but they are still showing him there. The people who input the standings have a habit of not updating the back of the pack. [Update: they finally noticed he left.]

Update: Judy Currier (29) has scratched at Anvik. She has only had to drop three dogs, but they were her three leaders. The remaining puppies would have probably been happy to pull for a few hundred more miles, but they wouldn’t necessarily end up in Nome.

Update: Newton Marshall (6) and the Jamaican Dog Sled team have scratched at Anvik. He waited out the 8-hour mandatory to see if the puppies would perk up, but they didn’t want to play.

Note: John Baker is not “officially” in Kaltag, but when everyone in the Alaska media is reporting on his arrival, I thought I would risk it.

Beyond Kaltag

1 John Baker (53)

At Kaltag

2 Ramey Smyth (30)
3 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
4 Hugh Neff (35)
5 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
6 Sonny Lindner (52)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
8 Jessie Royer (58)

Beyond Eagle Island

9 Hans Gatt (23)
10 Martin Buser (11)
11 Sven Haltmann (45)
12 Lance Mackey (17)
13 Dallas Seavey (21)
14 Robert Bundtzen (10)
15 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
16 Aliy Zirkle (18)
17 Rick Swenson (49)
18 Ken Anderson (43)
19 Peter Kaiser (54)

At Eagle Island

20 Michelle Phillips (39)
21 Bruce Linton (13)
22 Robert Nelson (51)
23 Matt Hayashida (61)
24 Trent Herbst (4)
25 Kelley Griffin (20)

Beyond Grayling

26 Nicolas Petit (14)^R
27 Karin Hendrickson (37)
28 Allen Moore (5)
29 Kristy Berington (7)
30 Mike Santos (27)^R
31 Cim Smyth (59)
32 Kelly Maixner (55)^R

At Grayling

33 Ed Stielstra (56)
34 Lachlan Clarke (42)
35 Jodi Bailey (16)^R

Beyond Anvik

36 Paul Johnson (46)

Beyond Shageluk

37 Justin Savidis (63)
38 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)^R
39 Wattie McDonald (38)

At Shageluk

40 Cain Carter (48)^R

Beyond Iditarod

41 Billy Snodgrass (24)
42 G.B. Jones (40)

At Iditarod

43 Matt Giblin (60)
44 Kirk Barnum (47)
45 Angie Taggart (19)^R
46 Gerald Sousa (62)
47 Scott Janssen (32)^R
48 Heather Siirtola (50)
49 Ellen Halverson (26)
50 Brennan Norden (44)^R
51 Tom Thurston (25)

Beyond Ophir

52 Kris Hoffman (8)^R
53 James Bardoner (57)^R

• The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.
• These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.
• This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
• All posts on the Iditarod can be seen by selecting “Iditarod” from the Category box on the right sidebar.