Iditarod 2015 – Day 3

by Bryan

8 comments

1 Badtux { 03.11.15 at 11:58 am }

Ouch. He should have bought the Nano, which is just a music player. Sigh.

2 Bryan { 03.11.15 at 4:02 pm }

That bit of confusion came with an about $40K fine, the cost of running a team in the Iditarod. He could have won the race, his team is ready, as he showed in the Yukon Quest. It’s not like there is much WiFi to be found outside of Fairbanks. Actually there is little in the way of any utilities in the small Native Alaskan villages that the race passes through this year. This is satellite country for any form of reliable communications and most people can’t afford it.

3 Badtux { 03.11.15 at 5:29 pm }

I doubt that half the people who own an iPod Touch even know it has WiFi. Nevertheless, it does.

4 Bryan { 03.11.15 at 9:18 pm }

Hell, there are people with home laptops who have no idea how they connect to the ‘Net because someone else set up their system.

5 JuanitaM { 03.12.15 at 9:34 am }

What a shame! Does this rule seem as absurdly restrictive to you as it does to me? Perhaps this is just one more way the Iditarod committee keeps a clamp on all information. But really, out in the middle of nowhere, how often are they going to hit a signal where they can “leak” information out?

Ah well, Zoya has scratched in Manley. Always disappointing when she has to drop out, she has such an interesting team. I don’t think she’s finished a race since her rookie year, maybe 2009 or so, but she’s very careful with her dogs. I haven’t heard what happened. Just too bad.

Glad to see Jim Lanier is back, he’s another one I like to keep up with. I’d guess he’s the oldest one in the field at 74. Pretty amazing.

6 Bryan { 03.12.15 at 4:07 pm }

The rule is a ‘tradition’ and traditions are not required to make sense, because they are ‘the way we have always done things.’ Most people miss the connection that WiFi is a two-way system, as they are generally down-loading things.

If you want information for a ‘competitive advantage’ all you need is a receiver and an outside source of information. The Tracking GPS will provide all kinds of information on the other teams, and a few people on snowmachines can give you nearly real-time information on the trail in front of you. Since the teams can carry GPS devices they can warn you of exact locations of bad spots. The problem is that the terrain often blocks even satellite communications.

Jim Lanier is definitely the oldest musher on the trail at 75 and he is still running a predominantly all white dog team. This is his 18th race and last year was his first scratch, because of an injury.

I figure that Zoya scratched because of illness or injury to herself, or her sled broke. The team had a very nice run into Tanana – almost 9mph, so the dogs seem happy.

7 JuanitaM { 03.13.15 at 10:13 am }

“The rule is a ‘tradition’ and traditions are not required to make sense”

So funny, and true! Could be said about a lot of things…like daylight savings time (which needs to die, by the way). There’s maybe 10% of people that like it holding the other 90% hostage twice a year. But that’s another post, sorry, I digress…

I noticed that Jim Lanier was in 41st place this morning. That’s not too shabby for a field of 75 mushers. Aaron Burmeister is in the lead now, but he hasn’t taken any of his layovers, so it really doesn’t count all that much at this point. Dallas is next, and a rookie named Thomas Waerner is third. Rookie’s doing himself proud.

I did notice that Jeff King has had both of his layovers already. He’s a sly one, and I wonder if there’s a hidden strategy in all that. I know mushers have been known to sleep while the dogs run, but I question how good a thing that is. If the musher’s tired, probably the dogs are, too. He talks a lot about caring for his dogs, but there have been a couple of times I thought his competitive nature might have caused him to push his dogs extremely hard. Then again, what I’ve learned about mushing could be put in a thimble, so what do I know?

8 Bryan { 03.13.15 at 11:09 am }

Brent Sass fell asleep in the Quest last year and ended up with a concussion when he struck head after falling off. People don’t plan to fall asleep on the runners, but it happens. Generally the musher is slowing the team down to keep them healthy. The dogs will go all out if you don’t watch them. If you get a clear trail during the day, the dogs will respond with a burst of speed, especially if another team has passed over the trail recently. The dogs can be more competitive than the people.

That bit about traditions is a Terry Pratchett insight which I found to be very true from being in the military and law enforcement.