The Fairbanks News-Miner had a couple of interesting articles on the effect of the super cold temperatures at the start of the race: Jeff Richardson’s Yukon’s extreme cold takes toll on people, dogs and John Schandelmeier’s
Why so many dropped dogs? Deep cold, risky strategy.

Jeff King’s scratch at Pelly Crossing highlights another issue – appetite. Jeff has been competing in 1000 mile races for decades, and certainly knows how to pack a sled for a run, but he was blind-sided by the change due to the cold. In a normal race each dog consumes about 25,000 calories per day and mushers load their sleds with that much plus a reserve. If you drop a dog, you have to leave at least 4 pounds of food per day for the dog to eat when it isn’t working.

Jeff left Pelly Crossing and got to the Scroggie Creek Dog Drop and saw that the dogs were eating much more than normal. At the stop he concluded he didn’t have enough food packed to ensure they were fed all the way to Dawson, so he returned to Pelly Crossing. There was no way for him to obtain the extra food he felt he would need for the trail to Dawson, so he scratched.
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Allen is closing on Brent on the way to Central. Allen tends to stick to his race plan for resting and running which seems to be working for his team. It is also easier for a team to chase than lead.

Hugh Neff has a tough call as he came in to Circle with 7 puppies pulling and 1 riding. The two big climbs, Eagle and Rosebud, are coming.

Rob Cooke and the Red Lantern are about 30 miles from Eagle.

Allen joined Brent at Central and Rob Cooke arrived at Eagle.

The Current Standings at 11:20PM CST (8:20PM AKST):

At Mile 101
1 Brent Sass (2)
Beyond Central
2 Allen Moore (1)
Beyond Circle
3 Ed Hopkins (20)
4 Hugh Neff (26)
At Circle
5 Damon Alexander Tedford (7)^R
Beyond Eagle
6 Normand Casavant (3)
7 Torsten Kohnert (14)
8 Dave Dalton (11)
9 Mike Ellis (22)
10 Brian Wilmshurst (17)
11 Jason Campeau (24)^R
12 Nicholas Vanier (5)^R
13 Ryne Olson (16)^R
14 Kristin Knight Pace (12)^R
15 Lance Mackey (8)
At Eagle
16 Rob Cooke (21)Φ
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