Iditarod 2011 – Day 8
John Baker starts his day still in the lead and with $2,500 in gold nuggets for the Gold Coast Award given to the first team to the Norton Sound.
Ramey seems to have a faster short distance team, but they take longer to recover, so his chance to win is dependent on luck as much as strategy.
DeeDee keeps getting mugged by the trail. She got bounced and rolled on the Steps, and then she found a hole in the ice entering the Yukon and was thoroughly soaked. The cold doesn’t make the bruises feel any better, and once you get wet, you need a complete immersion in a hot tub for about a week to get warm again. She’s hanging in there at 7th.
Ramey cut John’s lead to 41 minutes, but he did it by not resting his team. He might catch up, but I’m not sure that he can stay up with John’s team. It is 58 miles to Koyuk.
At Shaktoolik
1 John Baker (53)
2 Ramey Smyth (30) +0:41
3 Hans Gatt (23) +0:45
Beyond Unalakleet
4 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
At Unalakleet
8 Sonny Lindner (52)
9 Dallas Seavey (21)
10 Jessie Royer (58)
11 Lance Mackey (17)
Beyond Kaltag
12 Martin Buser (11)
13 Aliy Zirkle (18)
14 Sven Haltmann (45)
15 Robert Bundtzen (10)
16 Peter Kaiser (54)
17 Ken Anderson (43)
18 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
19 Rick Swenson (49)
20 Michelle Phillips (39)
21 Bruce Linton (13)
22 Robert Nelson (51)
At Kaltag
23 Trent Herbst (4)
24 Kelley Griffin (20)
25 Karin Hendrickson (37)
26 Matt Hayashida (61)
27 Nicolas Petit (14)R
28 Cim Smyth (59)
29 Kristy Berington (7)
30 Allen Moore (5)
31 Kelly Maixner (55)R
Beyond Eagle Island
32 Mike Santos (27)R
33 Lachlan Clarke (42)
34 Jodi Bailey (16)R
At Eagle Island
35 Ed Stielstra (56)
36 Paul Johnson (46)
37 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)R
Beyond Grayling
38 Wattie McDonald (38)
39 Justin Savidis (63)
40 Cain Carter (48)R
At Grayling
41 Billy Snodgrass (24)
Beyond Anvik
42 Matt Giblin (60)
43 Kirk Barnum (47)
At Anvik
44 Gerald Sousa (62)
Beyond Shageluk
45 G.B. Jones (40)
At Shageluk
46 Angie Taggart (19)R
47 Heather Siirtola (50)
48 Scott Janssen (32)R
49 Ellen Halverson (26)
50 Tom Thurston (25)
Beyond Iditarod
51 Kris Hoffman (8)R
52 Brennan Norden (44)R
Beyond Ophir
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.
2 comments
I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to fall through the ice in Alaska…she must have decided to continue on because it’s showing her at 8th place this morning at 9:00. Just checked the news after reading your blog and noticed the Alaska Dispatch called it the Idita-a-swim. Cute. Let them try it.
It’s hard to believe it’s already the last leg of the race. John Baker had a substantial lead earlier in the race, but now it’s only 50 minutes ahead of Ramey Smyth. Might be an exciting finish this year!
You wear a waterproof layer, Juanita, but you have to change everything else, and dry out what you can.
A dipping is what got Hans Gatt on the Quest, and the cause of his second degree frostbite, but that was a lot colder weather.
The pros know to keep things in waterproof containers on the sled, but the straw for dog bedding would have been a block of ice by the time she reached the next checkpoint.