Iditarod 2014 – Day 8
It’s the Aliy and Martin show with Aliy’s team posting faster times, but with fewer dogs on it. Dallas still needs to take the 8-hour.
At Unalakleet
1 Aliy Zirkle (10)
2 Martin Buser (36)
3 Sonny Lindner (70)
Beyond Kaltag
4 Nicolas Petit (29)
5 Jeff King (17)
6 Mitch Seavey (6)
7 Kelly Maixner (13)
8 Hugh Neff (61)
9 Aaron Burmeister (23)
10 Robert Sørlie (22)
11 Hans Gatt (58)
12 Ray Redington Jr (51)
13 Dallas Seavey (14)
14 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (47)
15 Jessie Royer (27)
16 Michelle Phillips (15)
17 Abbie West (69)Q
At Kaltag
18 Wade Marrs (67)
19 Paul Gebhardt (35)
20 John Baker (53)
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.
2 comments
Go Aliy!
Just checked the current statistics and Jeff King came in right behind Aliy about an hour apart into Shaktoolik. He must have been flying to have moved up that fast. He’s looking kind of determined!
Jeff was wearing a head camera from Rainy Pass to Rohn and filmed some of the more hair-raising parts of the run: Jeff King’s video. Tough ride!
I’m surprised the Committee didn’t have a rule against this type of thing. People might actually be able to see part of the Iditarod that they didn’t get a royalty on.
You know, I would never have known what these areas were like without your excellent descriptions, and this video just brings home how terrifying it can be. Good grief, Bryan. It just amazes me that anyone wants to do this really. And many of them are older than I am! I consider myself to be a fairly active person, but I can’t imagine attempting something this brutal. I’ll just keep to walking my dogs around and call it a day.
With the average snowfall and temperature, the worse of the trail is safely covered by a foot of packed snow. Without the snow to provide cushioning, it is a minefield. Second growth forest after a fire is just an accident waiting to happen.
It looks like respiratory problems from the warm weather seem to be the major reason for dropping dogs, but a few dogs did receive cuts and/or bruises on the trail. The humans volunteered, but the dogs didn’t.
They should have switched the trail.
Now they are saying the trail around the Norton Sound is bare of snow in many places. They are going to have to shift the race to a different month, or a different location. Climate change is making it unsustainable.
Aliy’s lead is only a minute at Koyuk, so climbing in the mountains looks to be the key.