Iditarod 2011 – Day 9

James Bardoner (57), the doctor from Tennessee, scratched with all 16 puppies at Iditarod. As the Red Lantern he was ploughing snow that was churned up by more than 50 teams in front of him.

Ramey is slower than John. Ramey was 41 minutes behind John leaving for Koyuk, but arrived an hour and 42 minutes after him. He is, again, cutting rest time to stay close, which is fine for him, but the puppies need rest. John’s puppies can smell home, because they live in Kotzebue, on the coast North of Nome. Ramey’s puppies are from Willow, the start of the race.

Update: John raised the stakes by anticipating Ramey’s move, and going through Elim towards White Mountain without taking a break. There is a mandatory 8-hour stop at White Mountain. Ramey’s best chance would have been to catch John at Elim and move through to White Mountain where his team could recover. Ramey’s team has been slower than John’s or Hans Gatt’s team, and he has only maintained second by cutting his rest periods.

Update: Brennan Norden (44) scratched at Shageluk for pretty much the same reason as James Bardoner, the puppies were not happy acting like snowplows.

Update: John is at White Mountain for the 8-hour stop.

At White Mountain

1 John Baker (53)
2 Ramey Smyth (30) +0:51
3 Hans Gatt (23) +3:30

Beyond Elim

4 Dallas Seavey (21)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
7 Ray Redington, Jr (3)

At Elim

8 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)

Beyond Koyuk

9 Jessie Royer (58)
10 Sonny Lindner (52)
11 Peter Kaiser (54)
12 Sven Haltmann (45)
13 Aliy Zirkle (18)
14 Ken Anderson (43)

At Koyuk

15 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
16 Lance Mackey (17)
17 Michelle Phillips (39)

Beyond Shaktoolik

18 Robert Bundtzen (10)
19 Martin Buser (11)
20 Robert Nelson (51)
21 Bruce Linton (13)
22 Rick Swenson (49)

At Shaktoolik

23 Karin Hendrickson (37)
24 Trent Herbst (4)
25 Matt Hayashida (61)
26 Allen Moore (5)

Beyond Unalakleet

27 Kelley Griffin (20)
28 Nicolas Petit (14)^R
29 Cim Smyth (59)
30 Kelly Maixner (55)^R
31 Kristy Berington (7)

At Unalakleet

32 Ed Stielstra (56)
33 Lachlan Clarke (42)

Beyond Kaltag

34 Jodi Bailey (16)^R
35 Mike Santos (27)^R
36 Paul Johnson (46)

At Kaltag

37 Justin Savidis (63)
38 Wattie McDonald (38)
39 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)^R
40 Billy Snodgrass (24)
41 Cain Carter (48)^R

At Eagle Island

42 Gerald Sousa (62)
43 Matt Giblin (60)
44 Kirk Barnum (47)
45 Angie Taggart (19)^R
46 Scott Janssen (32)^R
47 Tom Thurston (25)
48 G.B. Jones (40)
49 Heather Siirtola (50)

Beyond Grayling

50 Ellen Halverson (26)
51 Kris Hoffman (8)^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.