Yukon Quest 2015 – Day 5
Brent can’t leave Dawson until after 5PM CST, but he has a 6-hour lead on Allen. Both of them arrived at Dawson without having to drop a dog, and the temperature is back to a more seasonable -15°F, a balmy day in this part of the world.
Brent dropped a dog at Dawson. There is no place to drop a dog between Dawson and Slaven’s Roadhouse because there are no roads near Eagle.
The Current Standings at 11:30PM CST (9:30PM PST):
Beyond Dawson
1 Brent Sass (2)
2 Allen Moore (1)
At Dawson
3 Hugh Neff (26)
4 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (18)
5 Ray Redington Jr (19)R
6 Ed Hopkins (20)
7 Cody Strathe (4)
8 Normand Casavant (3)
9 Damon Alexander Tedford (7)R
10 Torsten Kohnert (14)
Beyond Pelly Crossing
11 Lance Mackey (8)
12 Rolland Trowbridge (13)R
13 Brian Wilmshurst (17)
14 Mike Ellis (22)
15 Dave Dalton (11)
16 Jason Campeau (24)R
17 Ryne Olson (16)R
18 Magnus Feren Kaltenborn (23)R
19 Rob Cooke (21)
20 Nicholas Vanier (5)R
21 Kristin Knight Pace (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 clicking on the sled dog or selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.
2 comments
“…-15°F, a balmy day…”
Riiiight! The teams left must have some mighty tough dogs. It was too bad that Tamra Reynolds dropped out, but I know she has to do what’s best for her dogs. She’s not signed up for the Iditarod, so that was her last chance for one of the really big races this year, I guess.
I’m really surprised more people didn’t drop out at those temperatures.
It depends a lot on where teams live and train. John Baker, who won the Iditarod a few years ago, would have had no problems with the cold, on this Quest. He lives and trains North of Nome where these temperatures are normal. The teams from the Anchorage area OTOH, are not used to these conditions.
Mikail Telpin, who ran the Quest, is from Siberia and would have thrived at -50°F. His problem was trees, neither he nor his team was used to moving through trees and had to keep speed down to avoid collisions.
Malamutes are happy at very cold temperatures, but other breeds are not. These races are really about the puppies, not the people. If the puppies aren’t happy, they are not going to run. They have excellent senses of survival, and there is no point in trying to convince them that they will enjoy pulling a sled at these temperatures when their genes are screaming don’t do it.