Iditarod – Day 5
The field is smaller this morning. The Anchorage Daily News has reported on four more scratches at Rainy Pass, in addition to Pat Moon. Michael Suprenant and Zoya DeNure both have medical problems, Karin Hendrickson has a busted sled, and Kirk Barnum scratched because his dogs were too tired to race.
Zoya, along with Colleen Robertia, run “rescues, runts, and rejects” on their teams, and it’s a shame that the dogs can’t do what they have spent months training for.
Kirk is from Seeley Lake, Montana, and his dogs just didn’t like the trail. He had already dropped 4 dogs when he decided to scratch. It’s a long drive from Seeley Lake, and the dogs apparently didn’t acclimate to the new conditions.
The area around Rainy Pass eats sleds and mushers, especially without a lot of snow as a cushion. Generally the sleds don’t track well and slide into trees and boulders.
Jeff King took the Spirit Award for being the first into McGrath, but it is Hans Gatt, the current Quest winner, who is Ophir at the lead this morning.
The mass of teams at Takotna are taking their mandatory 24-hour stop.
Current standings [11:00PM CST] below the fold:
Beyond Ophir
1 John Baker (8)
2 Dallas Seavey (19)
3 Martin Buser (37)
4 Bruce Linton (65)
5 Robert Nelson (32)
At Ophir
6 Hans Gatt (20)
7 Cim Smyth (3)
8 Ramey Smyth (21)
9 Michelle Phillips (36)R
At Takotna
10 Jeff King (15)
11 Mitch Seavey (41)
12 Sebastian Schnuelle (35)
13 Hugh Neff (56)
14 Sven Haltmann (42)
15 Lance Mackey (49)
16 Gerry Willomitzer (55)
17 Zack Steer (47)
18 Aliy Zirkle (50)
19 Sonny Lindner (44)
20 Paul Gebhardt (7)
21 Ray Redington, Jr (9)
22 Ryan Redington (25)
23 Rick Swenson (57)
24 Ken Anderson (51)
25 DeeDee Jonrowe (31)
26 Jason Barron (71)
27 Jim Lanier (43)
28 Jessie Royer (6)
29 Gerald Sousa (48)
30 Dan Kaduce (64)R
31 William “Middie” Johnson (16)R
32 Michael Williams, Jr. (59)R
33 Quinn Iten (28)R
34 Judy Currier (72)
35 Peter Kaiser (67)R
36 Allen Moore (54)
37 Cindy Gallea (39)
38 Kristy Berington (38)R
39 John Stewart (69)R
40 Lachlan Clarke (63)
Beyond McGrath
41 Dave DeCaro (52)R
At McGrath
42 Linwood Fiedler (2)
44 Thomas Lesatz (62)
45 Blake Freking (11)
46 Warren Palfrey (27)
46 William Pinkham (40)
47 Matt Hayashida (12)
48 Colleen Robertia (61)R
49 Tom Thurston (68)
50 Justin Savidis (10)R
51 Scott White (13)R
52 Newton Marshall (14)R
53 Chris Adkins (33)R
Beyond Nikolai
54 Karen Ramstead (29)
55 Tamara Rose (26)R
56 Wattie McDonald (4)R
57 Hank Debruin (45)R
58 Art Church, Jr (24)
59 Trent Herbst (60)
At Nikolai
60 Billy Snodgrass (70)
61 Sam Deltour (66)
62 Jane Faulkner (22)R
63 Celeste Davis (58)R
64 Ross Adam (18)
65 Emil Churchin (53)R
Kathleen Frederick (46) scratched at Rohn, apparently another busted sled, and Ross Adam (18) has been moved to the bottom of the standings, even though he is at Nikolai, which is usually indicative of a scratch, but no confirmation.
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, 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 Iditarod can be seen by selecting “Iditarod” from the Category box on the right sidebar.
