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.
]]>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.
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