Iditarod XL Day 3
The ‘Burn’ on the trail to Nikolai is on tap today. Hopefully the snow has covered the worst of it and there won’t be any injuries to dogs, people, or sleds this year.
The standings as of 11:30PM CST: [There was a traffic jam at Nikolai as the first 6 teams wanted to leave at the same time]
Beyond Nikolai
1 Aliy Zirkle (14)
2 John Baker (11)
3 Jeff King (10)
4 Lance Mackey (18)
5 Mitch Seavey (35)
6 Hugh Neff (27)
7 Paul Gebhardt (25)
8 Dallas Seavey (34)
9 Ray Redington Jr (2)
10 Aaron Burmeister (44)
11 Gerry Willomitzer (23)
12 Rick Swenson (60)
13 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
14 Kelley Griffin (20)
15 Michael Williams Jr (51)
16 Ramey Smyth (21)
17 Brent Sass (50)Q
18 Cim Smyth (8)
19 Tom Thurston (5)
20 Josh Cadzow (55)Q
21 Ken Anderson (39)
22 Jodi Bailey (6)
23 Nicolas Petit (9)
24 Ryan Redington (67)
25 Colleen Robertia (42)
At Nikolai
26 Sonny Lindner (59)
27 Michelle Phillips (26)
28 Peter Kaiser (28)
29 Jake Berkowitz (29)
30 Sigrid Ekran (24)
31 Bruce Linton (36)
32 Wade Marrs (7)
33 Justin Savidis (38)
34 Jim Lanier (3)
35 Martin Buser (41)
36 Anjanette Steer (32)R
37 Rohn Buser (62)
38 Gerald Sousa (58)
39 Mike Santos (22)R
40 Curt Perano (61)R
41 Zoya DeNure (53)
42 Braxton Peterson (63)R
43 William Pinkham (4)
44 Trent Herbst (16)
45 Kelly Maixner (12)
46 Lachlan Clarke (66)
Beyond Rohn
47 Ryne Olson (46)R
48 Karin Hendrickson (43)
49 Ed Stielstra (45)
50 Scott Janssen (37)
51 Kristy Berington (31)
52 Anna Berington (33)R
53 Travis Cooper(19)R
54 Pat Moon (15)R
55 Hank Debruin (48)Q
56 Karen Ramstead (56)
57 Michael Suprenant (13)
58 Matt Giblin (52)
59 Jaimee Kinzer (30)R
60 Art Church Jr (64)
At Rohn
61 Kirk Barnum (47)
62 Matt Failor (57)R
63 Silvia Furtwдngler (54)R
64 Jan Steves (40)R
65 Bob Chlupach (49)
66 Dan Seavey (65)
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, while italics indicates Yukon Quest winners. The numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers. The small “R” indicates a total rookie, while the small “Q” indicates an Iditarod rookie who has completed a Yukon Quest.
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.
4 comments
Noticed Colleen dropped a couple of dogs in Rohn but don’t know why.
I don’t know much about Kelley Griffin – she hasn’t been on my radar much in the past, but she’s only about an hour behind Colleen. Still, I noticed she’s down to 13 dogs at this point. That doesn’t sound great as there’s an awful long way to go yet.
Most of the “top ten” still have all or most of their dogs including Lance who’s hanging in there at #10. Wonder who’s leading the team for him this year?
Actually, Pat Moon only started with 12 dogs, and they are all going, and I think Kelley started with 14. 16 is the maximum, but it’s not required.
Normally, they are dropped for paw injuries. Even with the booties, a dog can get cut or bruised on the ice chunks. People will drop dogs quickly in the early part of the race, some just because they are slow, because it also reduces the amount of food and bedding you have to carry, as well as the time it takes to care for them.
I assume Maple is up front. She led his Quest team, and was the leader on his last win. Her one noted drawback is that she doesn’t like crowds. Lance is having a much better run than he had on the Quest, which makes me think that he has mixed in some veterans with the young dogs.
The next big decision will be where to take the 24-hour stop. Takotna is the most popular spot, as it has the best facilities.
Thanks for the info on the dogs, Bryan. Somehow I thought they ALL started with 16 dogs. Oh well, another case of making a wrong assumption! But yeah, I can see that each individual would have their own strategy about that.
And I’m completely with Maple on that crowd thing myself…
The norm is 14 dogs in the Quest, but Michael Telpin, a Chukchi from Siberia, started and ended with his every-day 9 dog team.
I would think that lighter mushers would opt for fewer dogs, but if they own kennels, it helps to have dogs that finished the Iditarod.