Posts from — February 2012

Allen is leading by 4 minutes over Hugh, while Lance has backed off a bit.

Michael Telpin made it in to Dawson at 9:22AM this morning, but he is not pushing his dogs and still has the entire team of 9 dogs he started with. Brent Sass is the only other musher that still has all of the starters on the trail.

Update: Hugh leads Allen by 3 minutes, but he has a 30 minute penalty to wait out at Braeburn for a lost axe, which is required equipment.

Marcelle Fressineau was also hit with a 30-minute penalty for a lost axe, and Misha Pedersen received a one-hour penalty for ‘interference in the Dawson City dog yard’. There is no information on what she did, but rules are tight in the dog yard. Most mushers just coming in are sleep-deprived and not exactly sane, so things are under tight control to prevent things from getting out of hand. Lance Mackey has often said that he has hallucinations at the end of long runs.

Standings at 8PM CST:

At Carmacks
1 Hugh Neff (6)
2 Allen Moore (1)
Beyond Pelly Crossing
3 Lance Mackey (16)
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
5 Brent Sass (10)
At Pelly Crossing
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
Beyond Scroggie Creek
8 Kristy Berington (2)^I
9 Abbie West (21)
10 David Dalton (4)
11 Kyla Durham (7)
Beyond Dawson
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Trent Herbst (22)^I
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
At Dawson
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

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.

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.

Last year it was a herd of caribou blocking the trail that stopped some teams at the end of the Quest and this year the Daily News Miner reports that Wolves and Moose are being annoying.

Note, the wolves are not attacking anyone, they are just stealing the trail markers.

They are probably not as dangerous as the media cars on the Tour.

Michael Telpin is bringing up the rear for a lot of reasons, but a big one is that neither he, nor his dogs have any experience moving through trees. He and they are from the high Arctic, and there are no trees up there. There are grasses and reeds in the summer, but lichens are the main plant life.

He makes his own harnesses using the traditional Chukchi pattern which distributes weight differently that the diamond web pattern that most teams use. You can’t change the harness design without training the dogs to accept it, and to ‘grow into it’ from puppies.

It isn’t stated in any of the interviews [he doesn’t speak English, so there haven’t been many] but he probably took the animals that provided the skins for his outer gear, as he is a subsistence hunter at home. People who live in the Arctic don’t waste anything, because there isn’t a lot to begin with.

Hugh Neff arrived at the Scroggie Creek Dog Drop first, followed by Lance and Allen, but they left in reverse order, so Allen Moore is still officially leading.

Marcelle and Michael are probably in Canada and approaching Dawson, but after you get off the mountain and into the Yukon River valley GPS gets flaky. Live Tracking shows Michael ahead of Marcelle, but her last position is from hours earlier.

Standings at 11PM CST:

Beyond Scroggie Creek
1 Allen Moore (1)
2 Lance Mackey (16)
3 Hugh Neff (6)
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
At Scroggie Creek
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
Beyond Dawson
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Kristy Berington (2)^I
10 David Dalton (4)
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Trent Herbst (22)^I
At Dawson
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
Beyond Eagle
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

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.

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.

I’ve been busy in real life, and restricted myself to the races, but things may have calmed down.

I missed posting on Queen Elizabeth’s 60^th anniversary of her ascension to the throne, and the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’s birth, as well as the death of the last person to serve in uniform during World War I, Florence Green.

I didn’t comment on the meaningless primary/caucus wins of Rick Santorum, made even more meaningless by the fact that none of the three states [Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota] actually awarded any delegates as a result of the events. I was amazed to hear people actually discussing the Colorado caucuses as if an event with no effect on the nominating process and involving something like 6% of the those eligible to participate was in some way crucial. Get a grip – it was another ‘none of the above’ indicator.

If things continue like this, you have to wonder if anyone will bother to vote in the actual election in November, not just Republicans, but anyone.

The latest thing is the absurdity of the Republican front group that calls itself the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops complaining that religion is under attack because all employers are required to cover contraceptives in the so-called Obamacare law. Since they didn’t say anything about the contraceptives issue during the Hedgemony and the Republican control of Congress, and this requirement has been in place since December, 2000 for all employers with 15 or more employees, it is obviously a partisan political attack which should be ignored … like the deficit.

The Catholic Church deserted the ‘moral high ground’ decades ago and demonstrated its total lack of a ‘conscience’ in its reaction to the pedophilia among the priesthood.

Michael Telpin left Eagle early this morning to climb the American Summit on the way to Dawson [with his GPS tracker working again]. Information gets very sparse for a few days. It is a long run between Eagle and Dawson, but the run from Dawson to Pelly Crossing is over 200 miles. The Quest is a test of winter camping skills.

Update: Hopefully the current Chinook wind will die off so the weather can cool off. The current temperatures in Eagle and Dawson will create problems for working sled dogs and turn the trails to mush. When the trails re-freeze they will be hazardous for dogs’ feet and for sleds. Chinooks are like California’s Santa Ana winds, caused by the interaction with mountain ranges in the interior. While there are also winds called Chinooks along the coast, they are the result of different weather conditions. The interior form are dry, like Santa Anas, while the coastal form is a humid Pacific air mass.

Standings as of 9PM CST:

Beyond Dawson
1 Allen Moore (1)
2 Lance Mackey (16)
3 Hugh Neff (6)
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
5 Brent Sass (10)
At Dawson
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Kristy Berington (2)^I
10 David Dalton (4)
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Trent Herbst (22)^I
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Eagle
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

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.

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.

Defensive Sunbathing

I see you…

[Editor: ‘Toes’ is maximizing the available solar heating during our current cool spell. The live oak prevents an attack from the rear.

Friday Ark

Allen Moore (1) will start the second half of the race from the same position he started the first half – number one. He arrived at Dawson at 32 minutes after midnight PST [2:32AM CST] to be first in line for the four ounces of gold. [There’s a time zone change at the border from Alaska Standard to Pacific Standard]

Update: Michael Telpin (24), the Chukchi from the Chukotka, is having to move slowly because of ‘the heat’. His dogs are full coated for a winter of 100° below Zero on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and the current temperatures are very warm for them.

Official standings as of 9:30PM CST:

At Dawson
1 Allen Moore (1)
2 Lance Mackey (16)
3 Hugh Neff (6)
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Kristy Berington (2)^I
10 David Dalton (4)
Beyond Eagle
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Paige Drobny (12)^R
13 Gus Guenther (20)^R
14 Trent Herbst (22)^I
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
At Eagle
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

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.

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.

Everyone who started made it to the finish when Jimmy Lebling arrived with the Red Lantern at 8:28AM AKST this morning.

The Final standings are:

1. Josh Cadzow (52)
2. Rob Cooke (54)
3. Ava Lindner (55)
4. Luan Marques (51)
5. Ed Abrahamson (58)
6. Cindy Abbot (56)
7. Blake Matray (57)
8. Jimmy Lebling (53)

In addition to second place Rob Cooke was the Vet’s Choice for his care of his Siberians. He will probably be heading back to New Brunswick to locate a whirlpool bath for bruises sustained when he got dumped coming down the Eagle.

If coming down the Eagle is bad, trying to climb it with the patches of glare ice after more than 700 miles on the trail is much worse.

Nikolay Ettyne (14) returned to Circle and scratched. I think these turn arounds are more likely musher injuries from the Eagle descent. There has been enough time for the pain from getting mugged by the mountain to set in, and moving hay bales and feed sacks to be a real problem. The timing is right for the mushers to have made the decision at their first camp after leaving Circle.

Live tracking has Lance just across the Canadian border, but it also has Trent Herbst still at Slaven’s, so don’t put the rent money on it.

The standings at 9:30PM CST:

Beyond Eagle
1 Lance Mackey (16)
2 Hugh Neff (6)
3 Allen Moore (1)
4 Brent Sass (10)
5 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Kristy Berington (2)^I
8 Abbie West (21)
9 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
10 David Dalton (4)
11 Kyla Durham (7)
At Eagle
12 Paige Drobny (12)^R
13 Gus Guenther (20)^R
14 Trent Herbst (22)^I
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
18 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

The leaders are camped out on the trail to Dawson. The first team into Dawson that goes on to finish receives 4 ounces of gold. If you push your team to get into Dawson first, they may not have what it takes to finish the race, and the gold often goes to the second or third team to reach the city.

There are formalities when the teams cross the border, so they have to stop and produce ‘their papers’, even on a sled dog trail on the side of a mountain.

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.

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.

I told you about the FAA messing with a whooping crane recovery program because they used an ultralight aircraft to mimic a mother bird taking young birds south, now they seem to have it in for sled dogs.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the Yukon Quest has had to cancel its volunteer pilots program because paying for the fuel the volunteers use in support of the Quest makes it a commercial enterprise. That’s why there is no dog drop between Circle and Eagle.

Eagle is connected to the rest of the world by the Yukon River and bush aircraft. In the winter that means that you need sled dogs or an airplane to move. Using a snowmobile is very chancy on the frozen Yukon, and fuel is not cheap when it is available.

This year any dogs dropped at Eagle will be taken to Dawson, because Canadian pilots can make the trip with a Canadian field at one end, but they can’t fly to another Alaskan location that has a road connection.

The Iditarod ‘Air Force’ has an exemption in place for a couple of more years, then they will have to jump through the hoops that the Quest is facing.

This is like requiring that the guys who drive the vehicles that pull floats in local parades have commercial licenses with a bus endorsement because there are people on the floats. Hell, with Mardi Gras floats you are lucky to find someone who isn’t too drunk to drive.

Jason Weitzel (9) who was collecting for the Wounded Warriors charity on his rookie run has had to scratch at Circle because of injuries sustained on the trail. If you can’t take care of the dogs, you can’t continue.

Everyone has been getting their teams vet checked in depth at Circle, because there is no ‘dog drop’ at Slaven’s this year, so you only want to take dogs that you feel will make it all the way. Small problems get larger when you are 160 miles from a vet.

Update at 7PM CST: Maren Bradley (23) returned to Circle and scratched. As she was on the trail for over 14 hours, it sounds like she or the dogs weren’t feeling good.

Update at 11PM CST:

Beyond Eagle
1 Lance Mackey (16)
2 Hugh Neff (6)
3 Allen Moore (1)
At Eagle
4 Brent Sass (10)
5 Abbie West (21)
6 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
7 Sonny Lindner (3)
8 Kristy Berington (2)^I
Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
9 David Dalton (4)
10 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
11 Kyla Durham (7)
12 Paige Drobny (12)^R
13 Yuka Honda (19)^R
14 Gus Guenther (20)^R
At Slaven’s Roadhouse
15 Trent Herbst (22)^I
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Circle
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Nikolay Ettyne (14)^R
20 Michael Telpin (24)^R

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.

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.

At 8:35AM CST [5:35AM AKST] Josh Cadzow and 7 puppies pulled into the Central checkpoint to win the 2012 Yukon Quest 300 after just under 10 hours on the trail.

The standings as of 11PM CST are:

At Central [finish]
1. Josh Cadzow (52)
2. Rob Cooke (54)
3. Ava Lindner (55)
4. Luan Marques (51)
Beyond Circle
5. Ed Abrahamson (58)
6. Blake Matray (57)
7. Cindy Abbot (56)
8. Jimmy Lebling (53)

Luan is impressive, not just because she is a rookie from a moderate to tropical environment, but she has been running alone and doing well, with all 12 puppies still on her team.

Rob Cooke ran races in Europe, and Ava grew up with mushing, but Luan has done this mostly on her own – a pure rookie.

At 8PM CST Josh Cadzow has about a half hour to go on the mandatory six hour stop in Circle before he hits the trail back to Central and the finish. He left Central about 3 hours before Ava, so he is sitting on a comfortable lead. The sky is clear and there is a nearly full moon, so it should be a good run.

These are the official standings at 10PM, but they don’t update the 300 very often.

At Circle
1. Josh Cadzow (52)
2. Rob Cooke (54)
3. Ava Lindner (55)
Beyond Central
4. Ed Abrahamson (58)
5. Luan Marques (51)
6. Jimmy Lebling (53)
7. Blake Matray (57)
At Central
8. Cindy Abbot (56)

Rob picked up more than an hour on Ava, due in some part to having 10 dogs versus Ava’s 8, on the trail to Circle. If Josh doesn’t have any ‘adventures’ on the trail, he should win handily.

Lots of reordering today, but first a correction. The start differential was adjusted at the first 4-hour stop at Mile 101 or Central, and the current positions are real time. Last year they waited until Dawson.

Mike Ellis had to scratch at Central because of shoulder injuries in a fall at the foot of Eagle Summit. The most most beautiful dogs in the race [show quality purebred Siberian Huskies] are out. [Ronn Murray Photography on Facebook has a picture of the team at the start posted on his ‘Wall’.]

Misha Pedersen lost a half day waiting for an ‘escape artist’ to return to the team at Eagle Summit, but she is racing again.

Maren Bradley did not scratch, as had been reported earlier, but is still racing.

At 11PM CST:

At Slaven’s Roadhouse
1 Brent Sass (10)
2 Hugh Neff (6)
3 Allen Moore (1)
4 Abbie West (21)
5 Sonny Lindner (3)
6 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
7 Lance Mackey (16)
8 Kristy Berington (2)^I
Beyond Circle
9 David Dalton (4)
10 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
11 Kyla Durham (7)
At Circle
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Yuka Honda (19)^R
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
15 Trent Herbst (22)^I
16 Jason Weitzel (9)^R
Beyond Central
17 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
18 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
19 Maren Bradley (23)^R
20 Michael Telpin (24)^R
21 Nikolay Ettyne (14)^R
22 Misha Pedersen (5)^R

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.

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.