Iditarod 2014 – Day 11
I’m going to let Craig Medred explain how Dallas Seavey won his second Iditarod in record time while Aliy Zirkle is second for the third year in a row – it’s complicated. Jeff King scratched, as did Kelly Maixner.
Update: Now Hugh Neff has scratched. It must be something with the puppies, because he will usually continue when personally injured, but not if the puppies are unhappy.
Finished at Nome
1 Dallas Seavey (14)
2 Aliy Zirkle (10)
3 Mitch Seavey (6)
4 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (47)
5 Sonny Lindner (70)
6 Martin Buser (36)
7 Jessie Royer (27)
8 Ray Redington Jr (51)
9 Hans Gatt (58)
Beyond White Mountain
10 Aaron Burmeister (23)
11 Michael Williams, Jr. (7)
12 Ken Anderson (65)
At White Mountain
13 Peter Kaiser (43)
14 Richie Diehl (11)
15 Matt Failor (57)
16 John Baker (53)
17 Wade Marrs (67)
18 Nathan Schroeder (25)R
19 Abbie West (69)Q
20 Michelle Phillips (15)
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.
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6 comments
That is one crazy story, Bryan!
I haven’t had much time to follow this year’s Iditarod (life just kept getting in the way), but I did happen to read one article in the Miner, I believe it was, where Allen Moore was commenting on Jeff’s tactics vs. Aliy’s. He made mention of the fact that he believed Jeff’s style could cause his dogs to shut down near the end which is why Aliy wasn’t rushing to keep up with him in the early going. He wasn’t dogmatic about it (pun intended) but just mentioned that it would remain to be seen which approach worked. So, that could have been what happened.
But Jeff scratching is even more surprising in some ways than Dallas winning. And second place for Aliy isn’t too shabby considering the conditions.
I notice that Mitch Seavey is looking to be in 3rd place at this point, so the Seavey’s will be having a good year. Someone named Ulsom is in 4th place. Haven’t heard that name before. Just checked his bio, and he’s from Norway.
Strange doings. Noticed in one of your prior posts that life seemed to be getting in the way for you, too. Hope everything is going okay. I just wish I could split into two people like an amoeba.
The dogs have been going great on Jeff’s team, but out on the ice they may have encountered a strong wind in their face, and sled dogs instinctively want to put their backs to the wind in cold temperatures. It is a semi-automatic survival mechanism in the Arctic. You need a solid weather-leader to keep the team moving. Brent Sass’s Silver was one of the best ever, which is why there is an award on the Quest named for him. He was capable of leading, not only his team, but other teams following in bad weather and getting people out of very dangerous/potentially fatal situations. Aliy and Allen have good weather leaders, Lance Mackey has always had good ones. John Baker’s team trains in these conditions, and wouldn’t even have paused.
As near as I can tell, Jeff skidded on glare ice due to the wind and ended up in some driftwood. He would have had to stop to sort that out, and the dogs would have circled after stopping. They would have probably continued running without the stop, but once they stopped, you would play hell convincing them to start again. That’s why Dallas didn’t stop at Safety, he didn’t want to take the chance on not being able to move into the wind after stopping. Aliy knows her team and herself, and made the right decision. I’m not sure she would have wanted to win the race that will have as many asterisks as this one.
There are five Norwegians and a Swede running in this race.
The number of seasoned veterans that have scratched in this race has to be a record, I would think. What a shame for Hugh, he got all the way to White Mountain.
Well, here’s an update from his girlfriend, Nicole. Apparently, it was worse than first thought:
Just got off the phone with Hugh in White Mountain, he will be there for one more night as the planes aren’t flying but i expect him to arrive tomorrow. We would both like to thank Dave Branholm, a snowmachiner who rode out to find Hugh on the ice. He had been blown a mile off trail and was stuck in 50/60 mph winds, and his emergency button was malfunctioned. Dave basically saved his life coming out there to find him and i was fortunate to meet Dave here in Nome today and gave him a teary bear hug.
The dawgs are all doing good, 3 are here with me. Jewel Cohiba and Yukon. The other five are resting in White Mountain with Hugh. Words cannot describe my gratitude to this man for finding Hugh. He and the dawgs are my everything, bless you Dave, you are a guardian angel and Laughing Eyes will always be grateful to you.
The trail beat up people who never quit. They had to withdraw Karen Ramstead because she wasn’t ready to scratch with a badly broken hand that had swelled to the point she couldn’t get it into her gauntlet, much less a glove or mitten. The officials don’t like to do it, but they base their judgement on the ability to do the dog care.
Jim Lanier’s first scratch ever, Dede scratching – a lot of veterans got mugged, but only 2 rookies. I feel really bad about Cindy Abbott having to scratch, but the Gorge was really vicious this year.
This is why the GPS locators are important, because that’s how they found Hugh. The Arctic is a very unforgiving place.
In the beginning of the race there was one musher that complained about the GPS saying they didn’t need them as there was always someone coming by.
This was as good an example as you can get where it may have saved a life. Apparently, the blizzards were so bad that teams were passing each other and didn’t even know it due to the level of wind noise and not being able to see beyond their lead dog.
The arctic is an unforgiving place…indeed.
That was John Schandelmeier, Zoe DeNure’s partner, who ran the Yukon Quest for the first time in years. He was reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ and complaining about the kids and their video games. He remembers when the Quest was the only thing going on in the winter in the little settlements along the trail before satellite TV and telephones. This was the first time he used a GPS and he didn’t like it.
It would be pretty hard for me to follow the race without the tracker, but I only use it to see if anyone is stuck. That’s how I spotted Cindy Abbott in trouble on the Yukon River in the Iditarod. She had been making good times, and then stopped. The Iditarod waited a hell of a long time before saying anything. Without the trackers it would have been possible that a couple of people could have died on the Quest this year, and one of them was at the back of the race with no one behind him.
Some people just don’t like change, even if it helps. Hugh Neff hated the introduction of the trackers on the Quest, then they helped to find him on Eagle Summit during blizzard conditions. Sled dog racing has enough problems with global climate change, they don’t need dogs and mushers dying.