Yukon Quest 2013 – Day 5
Today was a matter of waiting for people to file into Dawson for the 36 40 hour mandatory rest stop. They get to sleep, eat, and fix their sleds before heading out to take on the worst part of the trail.
It isn’t very likely that Lance Mackey will be joining them as he is down to 7 dogs. He is hanging in to make Dawson, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to attempt to climb Eagle Summit with a team of 7 dogs.
If he makes it to Fairbanks, Hugh Neff will receive four ounces of gold as the first into Dawson, but the prize stipulates that you have to complete the race to receive it. He now has a $6,500 reason not to scratch.
Update: Kelley Griffin (8) scratched after reaching Dawson. She spent minutes short of an entire day to get from Scroggie Creek, so the team was having some problems.
Update: Scott Smith is a Quest rookie with 4 Iditarod’s on his CV. He is talking about the heat being a major factor for a lot of people. It is colder now, but the early part of the race was like a marathon at 85° for the puppies.
The Standings at 9:30PM CST (7:30PM PST):
At Dawson
1 Hugh Neff (4)
2 Allen Moore (11)
3 Jake Berkowitz (20)
4 Brent Sass (18)
5 Scott Smith (23)R
6 Markus Ingebretsen (2)R
7 Abbie West (17)
8 Susan Rogan (10)R
9 Normand Casavant (7)
10 Dan Kaduce (15)
11 David Dalton (21)
12 Ed Hopkins (25)
13 Crispin Studer (26)
14 Denis Tremblay (13)R
15 Cody Strathe (5)R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
16 Brian Wilmshurst (1)
17 Lance Mackey (6)
18 Misha Pedersen (16)
19 Matthew Failor (14)R
20 Rob Cooke (3)R
21 Darrin Lee (24)R
22 Dyan Bergen (19)R
23 Randy MacKenzie (9)R
24 Christina Traverse (12)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, 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.
