Posts from — February 2014

The leaders are in Dawson for 36 hours while everyone else is still camping out. The teams are spread out on about 150 miles along the path of the Yukon River.

Jerry Joinson has been penalized another 4 2 hours for failing to leave food for a dropped dog. When a dog is left at a checkpoint the musher is required to leave 4 pounds of food with the dog. There is food at the dog drops if a musher forgets, but it is the musher’s responsibility. He will be spending two full days 44 hours at Dawson instead of 36 hours. [Final penalty was 2 not 4 hours.]

Standings at 9:00PM CST (6:00PM AKST):

At Dawson
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Allen Moore (8)
3 Hugh Neff (14)
Beyond Eagle
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 Matt Hall (3)^R
6 John Schandelmeier (17)
7 Ken Anderson (6)
8 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
9 Dave Dalton (5)
10 Curt Perano (16)^R
Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
11 Hank DeBruin (18)
12 Jerry Joinson (4)
13 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
14 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
15 Tony Angelo (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.

Based on the arrival times at the YQ 300 Standings site, this the current order as of 4:30PM CST:

Finished At Central
1 Aliy Zirkle
2 Chase Tingle
3 Heidi Sutter
4 Sebastian Schnuelle
5 Ryne Olson
6 Jimmy Lebling
7 Amanda Gecas
8 Laura Allaway
9 Andrew Pace

Andrew Pace made it to the finish, while Simon McLoughlin scratched at Circle. Simon was crawling along from Central to Circle barely at walking speed for most people, so there was definitely something wrong.

The batteries on some of the tracking units would seem to have failed, notably Sebastian’s and Simon’s, so it hasn’t been easy keeping up with what is happening.

Brent is still leading, but Allen and Hugh are just behind him. Judging by past races, Hugh will make a move when it means money, so the run to Dawson should be a spirited race within the race. You have to finish to receive the Dawson prize, so a team can’t push too hard, even with 36 hours to recover.

Jerry Joinson will be sitting in Dawson an extra 8 hours as a penalty. He pranged his sled on the trail between Central and Circle and it was too damaged to repair. He will be using a replacement of the same size and weight, but the Quest penalizes the use of more than one sled.

Standings at 10:00PM CST (7:00PM AKST):
[Note: the current standings on the web site are wrong. These standings are based on the Tracking site.]

Beyond Eagle
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Allen Moore (8)
3 Hugh Neff (14)
At Eagle
4 Cody Strathe (10)
Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
5 Dave Dalton (5)
6 John Schandelmeier (17)
7 Matt Hall (3)^R
8 Curt Perano (16)^R
9 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
10 Ken Anderson (6)
11 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
12 Jerry Joinson (4)
13 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
14 Hank DeBruin (18)
At Slaven’s Roadhouse
15 Tony Angelo (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.

Aliy Zirkle and all 12 puppies made it to Circle just minutes after her husband, Allen Moore, pulled out. Allen left at 4:54AM and Aliy arrived at 4:57AM.

[My mistake – I forgot that they have a mandatory six-hour stop at Circle, and then head back to actually finish at Central and make the full 300 miles. Too much going on simultaneously, and the last time they ran this route was in 2012.]

Aliy crossed the real finish line at 10:32PM (7:32PM AKST).

Standings at 10:45PM CST (7:45PM AKST):

Finish At Central
1 Aliy Zirkle
Beyond Circle
2 Chase Tingle
3 Heidi Sutter
4 Sebastian Schnuelle
5 Laura Allaway
6 Jimmy Lebling
At Circle
7 Amanda Gecas
8 Andrew Pace
9 Ryne Olson
Beyond Central
10 Simon McLoughlin

Deke Naaktgeboren and Jesse Brattrud scratched at Mile 101.

They are leaving the road network behind today as the leaders head out from Circle on the Yukon River. In the winter transport is confined to sleds and aircraft. Normand Casavant made the decision to scratch at Central out of concern for his dogs. Some teams are fine but a good number are dropping dogs. The icy trail causes foot and leg injuries as the puppies want to run.

Mike Ellis and his Siberians have scratched at Circle. If you aren’t sure of your team, you have to stop at Circle, because after Slaven’s Roadhouse your team has to make it to Dawson. Eagle can’t take dogs due to a lack of transport.

Standings at 10:30PM CST (7:30PM AKST):

Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Hugh Neff (14)
3 Allen Moore (8)
At Slaven’s Roadhouse
4 Cody Strathe (10)
5 Dave Dalton (5)
Beyond Circle
6 John Schandelmeier (17)
7 Matt Hall (3)^R
8 Ken Anderson (6)
9 Curt Perano (16)^R
10 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
At Circle
11 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
12 Jerry Joinson (4)
13 Hank DeBruin (18)
14 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
Beyond Central
15 Tony Angelo (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.

The Yukon Quest 300, this year from Fairbanks to Circle, started yesterday at 3PM AKST [6PM CST] with 16 teams.

As of 10:30PM CST the standings are:

Beyond Central
1 Aliy Zirkle
2 Chase Tingle
At Central
3 Heidi Sutter
4 Sebastian Schnuelle
5 Amanda Gecas
Beyond Mile 101
6 Laura Allaway
7 Jimmy Lebling
8 Andrew Pace
9 Ryne Olson
At Mile 101
10 Deke Naaktgeboren
11 Simon McLoughlin
Beyond Chena Hot Springs/Two Rivers
12 Jesse Brattrud

Peter Klesper made it to Two Rivers and scratched. Jim Burton returned to Fairbanks and scratched, while Lisa Joinson scratched at Two Rivers. Shaynee Seipke scratched at Mile 101.

The teams from the Yukon Quest and YQ300 will be mixed for a while, as the Quest teams have to pace themselves for about a thousand miles of icy trail.

It’s decision time for the four-hour stop. Brent Sass has chosen Central by blowing through Mile 101, but most will probably rest their teams before scaling Eagle Summit.

If the trail is mostly ice, the descent from the top of Eagle is going to be really nasty, more of an uncontrolled slide with no sure footing for the dogs, and not much control of the sled.

Jean-Denis Britten has scratched at Mile 101. He had already had to drop 2 puppies, so I’m guessing he’s concerned that the team may have health issues. Respiratory illnesses pop up in warm weather, even among dogs.

Standings at 10:30PM CST (7:30PM AKST):

Beyond Central
1 Allen Moore (8)
2 Cody Strathe (10)
3 Dave Dalton (5)
4 Hugh Neff (14)
5 Brent Sass (2)
6 Matt Hall (3)^R
7 John Schandelmeier (17)
8 Ken Anderson (6)
9 Normand Casavant (1)
At Central
10 Mike Ellis (7)
11 Curt Perano (16)^R
12 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
13 Hank DeBruin (18)
14 Jerry Joinson (4)
15 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
16 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
Beyond Mile 101
17 Tony Angelo (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.

It’s Groundhog Day and some of the militant marmots object to being disturbed.

If they were looking for bad weather advice, instead of annoying hibernating rodents, they should just ask the current governor of Georgia. [/snark]

February 1, 2003

Commander:
Rick Douglas Husband, Colonel, USAF

Pilot:
William C. McCool, Commander, USN

Payload Commander:
Michael P. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Mission Specialist:
Kalpana Chawla, PhD
David M. Brown, MD, Captain, USN
Laurel Blair Salton Clark, MD, Captain, USN

Payload Specialist:
Ilan Ramon, Colonel, Israel Air Force

The race is starting today about an hour and a half after sunrise, which gives the first team out 5½ hours of light. The moon is a 6% crescent and will set at 8:44PM AKST, so it is all headlamp and the aurora at night. The temperature is back to seasonally cold, but there wasn’t much snow this year, and a lot of it was melted during the Chinook wind in January.

The teams leave with a three minute spacing between them, and that is equalized at the first mandatory 4-hour stop.

Update at 11:00PM CST (8:00PM AKST):

At Chena Hot Springs/Two Rivers
1 Hugh Neff (14)
2 Normand Casavant (1)
3 Jerry Joinson (4)
4 John Schandelmeier (17)
5 Dave Dalton (5)
6 Mike Ellis (7)
7 Brian Wilmshurst (9)
8 Hank DeBruin (18)
Beyond Fairbanks
9 Brent Sass (2)
10 Matt Hall (3)^R
11 Ken Anderson (6)
12 Allen Moore (8)
13 Cody Strathe (10)
14 Mandy Nauman (11)^R
15 Tony Angelo (12)^R
16 Torsten Kohnert (13)^R
17 Jean-Denis Britten (15)
18 Curt Perano (16)^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.