Posts from — March 2013

The majority of the field is settling in at Takotna and McGrath for their 24-hour stops, but Lance is continuing to Iditarod, which is a long run for the Iditarod.

Currently Martin Buser, Matt Failor, David Sawatzky, and Gerald Sousa have all finished their 24-hours and will be moving through the ranks towards the top while the competition rests.

Weather becomes really important after Ophir, as a strong wind coming up can make the trail impassable and extremely dangerous. A two-hour lead can become a two-day lead if you are ahead of the wind.

Lance is already down to 13 puppies on his team. He still hasn’t found a team to replace the group that retired after carrying him to 4 Iditarod and 4 Quest wins. Martin still has all 16 dogs in harness, and they have shown themselves to be very fast indeed. Jake Berkowitz still has his entire team in harness and he got to Ophir more that 4 hours before Lance.

At this point Martin Buser’s strategy is looking good as he has at least 8 hours on everyone at Takotna. If the weather holds for him, he may be the second 5 time winner, but there is a lot of trail between him and Nome.

Update: The Alaska Dispatch reports that the weather is going to get nasty. A warm front is moving in from the South and will bring high winds, higher temperatures, and rain or snow to the trail. Those who can’t stay ahead of the front can’t be competitive. At best there will be whiteout conditions, at worse the snow will turn to slush, which is terrible for the dogs [and not a lot of fun for the mushers.]

Beyond Ophir
1 Lance Mackey (5)
2 Sonny Lindner (67)
3 Jeff King (18)
At Ophir
4 Jake Berkowitz (44)
5 Nicolas Petit (16)
6 Jim Lanier (59)
7 Jason Mackey (12)
8 Martin Buser (2)
9 Jodi Bailey (4)
At Takotna
10 Aaron Burmeister (24) [Read more →]

The lead is changing and the field is mixing as people make it over the Alaskan Range.

Scott Janssen (3), the Mushing Mortician, scratched at Rainy Pass. The heat got to his team, with one dog falling and four more dehydrated, Scott pulled out. There is too much trail left to try it with 11 dogs, and the dog passing out from the heat shook him up. It is difficult for people to understand that these dogs don’t run well above 20°F. Heat is a big problem for them because they are cold weather experts. They have evolved to retain heat so they can function in the bitter cold, and they generate a lot of heat when they are running.

Martin Buser probably set a record for his run from Willow to Rohn, but he is staying at Rohn to recover. Matt Failor, running Martin’s second team, was also quick considering that he started 2 hours after Martin. His kennel definitely has depth in fast dogs, but that speed takes a toll on dogs, mushers, and equipment.

Update: Martin has decided to take his 24-hour stop at Rohn, which will make a lot of people nervous when they find out. He and the team can certainly use the rest, but it is a long way to Nome.

Beyond McGrath
1 Aaron Burmeister (24)
Beyond Nikolai
2 Aliy Zirkle (27)
3 Mitch Seavey (36)
4 Lance Mackey (5)
5 Paul Gebhardt (11)
6 Jake Berkowitz (44)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (28)
8 Jessie Royer (30)
9 Michelle Phillips (7)
10 Peter Kaiser (10)
11 Sonny Lindner (67)
12 Ray Redington Jr (52)
13 Dallas Seavey (19)
14 Ken Anderson (6)
15 Joar Leifseth Ulson (32)^R
16 Justin Savidis (34)
17 John Baker (13) [Read more →]

Lots of changes this morning as people start to sort out the long haul running order. Martin has two hours on the Mackey brothers and Matt Failor, and tends to use it to get the best, and safest passage through the Stepping Stones and Dalzell Gorge. Getting by those two with a minimum of damage to your team is worth a lot at the end of the race.

Matt Failor made a major move to get to the front, but if he didn’t over-stress the puppies, it will be worth it in the long run.

Beyond Rohn
1 Paul Gebhardt (11)
2 Aliy Zirkle (27)
At Rohn
3 Martin Buser (2)
4 Matt Failor (61)
5 Lance Mackey (5)
6 Jason Mackey (12)
7 Jessie Royer (30)
8 Aaron Burmeister (24)
Beyond Rainy Pass
9 Gerry Willomitzer (21)
10 DeeDee Jonrowe (28)
11 Jeff King (18)
12 Michelle Phillips (7)
13 Justin Savidis (34)
14 Sonny Lindner (67)
15 John Baker (13) [Read more →]

The real racing got under way at 2PM AKST [5PM CST] at Willow with teams leaving on at 2 minute intervals. The teams have to take a 24-hour break on the trail, an 8-hour break on the Yukon, and a final 8-hour break at White Mountain. The start time differential is corrected as part of the 24-hour break.

Dalles Seavey won last year by treating the race as a series of sprints, while John Baker won the year before by maintaining a consistent marathon pace. The weather and trail conditions will govern the most successful strategy.

Only 65 teams will be racing as Ed Stielstra (41) scratched at Campbell Airfield at the end of the parade. He was injured in a training run in late February and knew he couldn’t make the entire race, something he has done 7 times before. Ed is from McMillan, Michigan, so I assume he had already paid for everything and wasn’t going to get his money back, so now he can watch in comfort.

Please note that I have made the decision not to be an ‘Iditarod Insider’, which, among other things, would give me access to the GPS tracking. The Iditarod is very corporate, and the information they provide through their ‘Insider’ is certainly encumbered with non-disclosure and a lot of legal barriers. I follow the race in a blog. If I can’t put what I find out on the blog, it is worthless to me. They would probably want a licensing agreement and controls on what I do with the information. Not going to happen.

All 65 teams are on the trail as of 4:10PM AKST [7:10PM CST]: [Read more →]

The 2013 Iditarod started at 10AM AKST [1PM CST] with Jan Newton as the Honorary Musher/parade marshal for the procession out to the Campbell Airstrip 11 miles away.

The teams will then take their puppies to Willow for the start of the real race tomorrow, with Martin Buser leading off. Bib number 1 is permanently assigned to Susan Butcher and is only worn in the parade by the lead team with the Honorary Musher. The racing bibs start at number 2 and run to 67 this year for the 66 teams entered.

The winner of the Yukon Quest, Allen Moore, and the YQ 300, Michelle Phillips, are both in the field, as well as more than a half dozen former winners of the Iditarod and/or the Quest. Since Lance Mackey made it clear you could run both races and be competitive, there are a lot of people who do it.

I see that Mikhail Telpin of the Chukota Peninsula has entered the Iditarod this year. Mikail is a subsistence hunter and trapper, and runs the native sled dogs of his area. He finished the Yukon Quest last year, but had problems with all of the trees. He will be much happier with the route of the Iditarod, although the temperature is a bit warm for him.

After the fold, the starting order for the parade and race: [Read more →]

It’s the southern route that includes the namesake ghost-town of Iditarod as the midpoint. The Stepping Stones, the Burn, Rainy Pass, the Glacier, all of the hazards of the first half are still part of the race, as well as the long open stretch between Ophir and the Yukon.

The day is about 10 and a half hours at Anchorage and the moon is waning with the last quarter on March 4^th. The temperature is in the lower 30s in Anchorage, which is warm for the puppies, so people are going to want to run at night and sleep during the day.

Things start off tomorrow, Susan Butcher Day, with the ‘parade’ from Anchorage to the airport. The actual racing starts on Sunday at Willow.

[Read more →]

Queuing

How long is the wait?

[Editor: Ms Blue is the littermate of the tuxedo, Junior. She was waiting for dinner.]

Friday Ark