The field has decreased again this morning with Paige Drobny (65) scratching at Carmacks, while her husband, Cody Strathe, made his big move in the standings for the 1000. Paige was running fourth when she made the decision. Meanwhile Aliy and her husband, Allen Moore, as sitting in second in the two races, and Michelle’s husband, Ed Hopkins, is having trouble reaching his stride.

Update: Aliy and Michelle are sprinting on the ‘loop’, the stretch of trail beyond Pelly where you go out and come back to finish at Pelly Crossing checkpoint. The finish will probably show seconds between them when they cross the line.

Standings at 10:30PM CST:

Beyond Pelly Crossing
1 Aliy Zirkle (56)
2 Michelle Phillips (58)
At Pelly Crossing
3 Jerry Joinson (55)
4 Marcelle Fressineau (54)
5 Yuka Honda (53)
Beyond Carmacks
6 Gaetan Pierrard (60)
7 Tamra Reynolds (51)
8 Olaf Thurau (59)
9 John King (57)
10 Jennifer Levy (63)
11 Ryne Olson (65)
12 Jonathan Lucas (62)
13 Colin Morrison (52)
At Carmacks
14 Debbie Knight (61)
Beyond Braeburn
15 Lucy Tyrrell (68)

Hugh is at the Stepping Stones Hospitality Stop on his way to Dawson. This leg is over 200 miles, so changes at the front will have to depend on Live Tracking. Satellites are the most reliable mode of communications in the area. The only ‘grid’ in this area is on maps.

At the temperatures now on the trail, the more teams that run over any section of trail, the worse it becomes. The teams at the back are fighting ruts dug by the runners of the teams ahead of them. If the ruts are deep enough the sled will bottom out.

The Standings at 11PM CST (9PM PST):
Beyond Pelly Crossing
1 Hugh Neff (4)
2 Allen Moore (11)
3 Jake Berkowitz (20)
4 Brent Sass (18)
5 Scott Smith (23)^R
6 Kelley Griffin (8)
7 David Dalton (21)
8 Normand Casavant (7)
9 Lance Mackey (6)
10 Susan Rogan (10)^R
11 Abbie West (17)
12 Markus Ingebretsen (2)^R
13 Cody Strathe (5)^R
14 Ed Hopkins (25)
15 Crispin Studer (26)
At Pelly Crossing
16 Denis Tremblay (13)^R
17 Brian Wilmshurst (1)
18 Dan Kaduce (15)
Beyond Carmacks
19 Darrin Lee (24)^R
20 Rob Cooke (3)^R
21 Matthew Failor (14)^R
22 Misha Pedersen (16)
23 Dyan Bergen (19)^R
At Carmacks
24 Randy MacKenzie (9)^R
25 Christina Traverse (12)^R
26 Ed Abrahamson (22)

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, and the small “R” indicates a 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.