Category — Iditarod

Justin Savidis (63) lost two places in the run from White Mountain to Nome, but that has been the only change in positions overnight.

Ellen seems to have a bit more speed than Heather, and may be planning to “lose” the Red Lantern after White Mountain, but Heather will surely notice her action. There is a full moon and obvious trail, so racing is still possible at this point, even though the teams are tired. Update: They are two minutes apart at White Mountain. Ellen really doesn’t want a second Red Lantern.

Nicolas Petit (14) literally limped in to win the rookie race. He broke a bone in his foot on the trail before Unalakleet.

Robert Nelson (51) made it into the top 20 with his right arm strapped to his side after he dislocated his shoulder on the trail before Eagle Island.

He was followed in by Rick Swenson (49) who has been wrapped like a Christmas package after breaking his collarbone on Happy River Steps.

When G.B. Jones gets in it is hoped that his right eye is looking a lot better that it did in Nikolai. He “kissed” the ice on the “Glacier” outside of Rohn.

At Nome

33 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)^R
34 Paul Johnson (46)
35 Cain Carter (48)^R
36 Wattie McDonald (38)
37 Billy Snodgrass (24)
38 Gerald Sousa (62)
39 Justin Savidis (63)
40 Matt Giblin (60)
41 Tom Thurston (25)
42 Scott Janssen (32)^R
43 Angie Taggart (19)^R

Beyond White Mountain

44 Kirk Barnum (47)
45 G.B. Jones (40)

At White Mountain

46 Heather Siirtola (50)
47 Ellen Halverson (26) Φ [Read more →]

Everyone is traveling West on the northern coast of the Norton Sound and the weather continues to be good.

While everyone talks about John Baker breaking the overall record for the race, few have noted that he smashed Doug Swingley’s 1995 record for the Southern Route: 9 days 2:42:19. Breaking John’s new record on the Northern Route is very possible, but the record on the Southern Route should stand for quite a while.

Ellen Halverson (26) may get an unwanted record as the only musher to win the Red Lantern twice, but she may also beat Celeste Davis’s record for fastest Red Lantern time: 13 days 5:06:40. This has been a seriously fast race.

At Nome

25 Trent Herbst (4)
26 Kelley Griffin (20)
27 Ed Stielstra (56)
28 Nicolas Petit (14)^R
29 Kristy Berington (7)
30 Kelly Maixner (55)^R
31 Jodi Bailey (16)^R
32 Lachlan Clarke (42)
33 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)^R
34 Paul Johnson (46)
35 Cain Carter (48)^R
36 Wattie McDonald (38)

Beyond White Mountain

37 Justin Savidis (63)
38 Billy Snodgrass (24)
39 Gerald Sousa (62)
40 Matt Giblin (60) [Read more →]

We start the day with all of the remaining teams on the coast of the Norton Sound.

Nicholas Petit (14) will take took the rookie race this morning and Jodi Bailey should has completed her Quest-Iditarod rookie runs later today.

Ellen Halverson (26) is looking good to enter the record books as the first musher to win the Red Lantern twice.

The “unkindest cut of all” – Karin Hendrickson (37) has scratched at White Mountain. She dropped three dogs when she came in, and has been waiting at the checkpoint beyond the 8-hours. She was probably hoping for the puppies to improve after extended rest, but decided to scratch. So close, and yet so far.

The first 17 teams made it to Nome in 10 days or less. [They subtract the mandatory 36 hours from the overall time.]

At Nome

16 Lance Mackey (17)
17 Michelle Phillips (39)
18 Martin Buser (11)
19 Robert Nelson (51)
20 Rick Swenson (49)
21 Cim Smyth (59)
22 Matt Hayashida (61)
23 Bruce Linton (13)
24 Allen Moore (5)
25 Trent Herbst (4)
26 Kelley Griffin (20)
27 Ed Stielstra (56)
28 Nicolas Petit (14)^R
29 Kristy Berington (7)
30 Kelly Maixner (55)^R
31 Jodi Bailey (16)^R
32 Lachlan Clarke (42)

Beyond White Mountain

33 Magnus Kaltenborn (22)^R [Read more →]

As much as I would like to see Jodi Bailey (16) crown her Quest/Iditarod rookie run with winning the race here, Nicholas Petit (14) has a solid lead to be the first rookie in.

None of the former Iditarod winners could break into the top 15 this year, which may reflect a difference in racing conditions, as the strategies that made them winners may no longer work. The weather was good this year, without precipitation to mess up the trail for the leaders.

I’ll hang in until the Red Lantern is extinguished.

Update: Just after I posted, I glanced at the weather report for Kaltag and see that temperatures have returned to normal on the Yukon -20° with a windchill of -31° for the Red Lantern teams to start their day.

At Nome

7 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
8 Peter Kaiser (54)
9 Ken Anderson (43)
10 Jessie Royer (58)
11 Aliy Zirkle (18)
12 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
13 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
14 Sven Haltmann (45)
15 Sonny Lindner (52)
16 Lance Mackey (17)
17 Michelle Phillips (39) [Read more →]

John left White Mountain with 10 puppies at 12:04AM local time, and Ramey left 50 minutes later with 9. Their race is down to the 77 mile final sprint to Nome.

John was through Safety at 6:48AM local with 22 miles to go.

In the rookie race, Nicolas Petit (14) has a two-hour lead on Kelly Maixner (55) beyond Shaktoolik, but Kelly has a 3 puppy advantage – 13 to 10. Kelly has been moving up the rankings steadily.

Note: Petit is running Jim Lanier’s all-white huskies. Jim is laid up after hip surgery, but his team is making the run.

Ramey went through Safety at 8:13AM local, +1:25, and had to drop a dog.

John Baker, an Inupiaq from Kotzebue, has won and set a new record. His exact time hasn’t been posted, but the unofficial time is 2 or 3 hours faster than Martin Buser’s 2002 pace. He has been a consistent top-ten finisher, and this was his year. The puppies wanted to get out of the heat in the “south”.

From the Anchorage Daily News: “Baker crossed the line at 9:46 a.m., finishing the race that began March 6 in Willow in 8 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes, 39 seconds and slicing three hours off the previous record.”

Update: Three teams have scratched. Mike Santos (27) scratched because his team didn’t want to play any more. Kris Hoffman (8) and Robert Bundtzen (10) both scratched when they ran out of leaders for their teams.

At Nome

1 John Baker (53)
2 Ramey Smyth (30) +1:04
3 Hans Gatt (23)
4 Dallas Seavey (21)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)

Beyond Safety

7 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
8 Peter Kaiser (54)

Beyond White Mountain

9 Jessie Royer (58)
10 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
11 Ken Anderson (43)
12 Aliy Zirkle (18)
13 Sven Haltmann (45)
14 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
15 Sonny Lindner (52) [Read more →]

James Bardoner (57), the doctor from Tennessee, scratched with all 16 puppies at Iditarod. As the Red Lantern he was ploughing snow that was churned up by more than 50 teams in front of him.

Ramey is slower than John. Ramey was 41 minutes behind John leaving for Koyuk, but arrived an hour and 42 minutes after him. He is, again, cutting rest time to stay close, which is fine for him, but the puppies need rest. John’s puppies can smell home, because they live in Kotzebue, on the coast North of Nome. Ramey’s puppies are from Willow, the start of the race.

Update: John raised the stakes by anticipating Ramey’s move, and going through Elim towards White Mountain without taking a break. There is a mandatory 8-hour stop at White Mountain. Ramey’s best chance would have been to catch John at Elim and move through to White Mountain where his team could recover. Ramey’s team has been slower than John’s or Hans Gatt’s team, and he has only maintained second by cutting his rest periods.

Update: Brennan Norden (44) scratched at Shageluk for pretty much the same reason as James Bardoner, the puppies were not happy acting like snowplows.

Update: John is at White Mountain for the 8-hour stop.

At White Mountain

1 John Baker (53)
2 Ramey Smyth (30) +0:51
3 Hans Gatt (23) +3:30

Beyond Elim

4 Dallas Seavey (21)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
7 Ray Redington, Jr (3)

At Elim

8 DeeDee Jonrowe (2) [Read more →]

John Baker starts his day still in the lead and with $2,500 in gold nuggets for the Gold Coast Award given to the first team to the Norton Sound.

Ramey seems to have a faster short distance team, but they take longer to recover, so his chance to win is dependent on luck as much as strategy.

DeeDee keeps getting mugged by the trail. She got bounced and rolled on the Steps, and then she found a hole in the ice entering the Yukon and was thoroughly soaked. The cold doesn’t make the bruises feel any better, and once you get wet, you need a complete immersion in a hot tub for about a week to get warm again. She’s hanging in there at 7th.

Ramey cut John’s lead to 41 minutes, but he did it by not resting his team. He might catch up, but I’m not sure that he can stay up with John’s team. It is 58 miles to Koyuk.

At Shaktoolik

1 John Baker (53)
2 Ramey Smyth (30) +0:41
3 Hans Gatt (23) +0:45

Beyond Unalakleet

4 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)

At Unalakleet

8 Sonny Lindner (52)
9 Dallas Seavey (21)
10 Jessie Royer (58)
11 Lance Mackey (17) [Read more →]

They are watching for effects of the tsunami in the Norton Sound, but the Aleutians probably disrupted it and minimized any effect on the coast of the Bering Sea. White Mountain is the only checkpoint after Kaltag that isn’t on the coast, and, as a result of climate change, the villages are closer to the water than ever before.

It is hard to know where James Bardoner (57) is. He finished his mandatory 24-hour stop at McGrath early this morning, but they are still showing him there. The people who input the standings have a habit of not updating the back of the pack. [Update: they finally noticed he left.]

Update: Judy Currier (29) has scratched at Anvik. She has only had to drop three dogs, but they were her three leaders. The remaining puppies would have probably been happy to pull for a few hundred more miles, but they wouldn’t necessarily end up in Nome.

Update: Newton Marshall (6) and the Jamaican Dog Sled team have scratched at Anvik. He waited out the 8-hour mandatory to see if the puppies would perk up, but they didn’t want to play.

Note: John Baker is not “officially” in Kaltag, but when everyone in the Alaska media is reporting on his arrival, I thought I would risk it.

Beyond Kaltag

1 John Baker (53)

At Kaltag

2 Ramey Smyth (30)
3 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
4 Hugh Neff (35)
5 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
6 Sonny Lindner (52)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
8 Jessie Royer (58) [Read more →]

Time to ask “What’s for lunch?” because the first team into Anvik wins the First Musher to the Yukon Award – a seven-course meal and $5,000 for dessert. Everyone gets to enjoy running into the wind coming down the Yukon River valley until they reach Kaltag. Teams have to take an 8-hour rest somewhere along the Yukon.

Update: Hugh is eating well.

Beyond Grayling

1 Hugh Neff (35)
2 John Baker (53)
3 Lance Mackey (17)
4 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
5 Sonny Lindner (52)
6 Jessie Royer (58)
7 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
8 Sven Haltmann (45)
9 Ramey Smyth (30)
10 Hans Gatt (23) [Read more →]

About a third of the field took their 24-hour layover in Takotna and are back in the race. The top three are going for the Dorothy G. Page Award for the first team to the halfway point, Iditarod this year, and the $3,000 in gold nuggets before taking their “day off”. It would be nice to see Trent win it, after years of slogging along in the back of the pack, especially since he’s a school teacher.

[Update: He did it. Trent Herbst was first into Iditarod! A teacher wins one. His class in Ketchum, Idaho will be celebrating.]

Kelley and Lance are both down to 10 dogs with half the race to go.

Mitch Seavey (28) was withdrawn by race officials at Ophir after severely injuring his hand while slicing open a hay bale to provide bedding for his dogs. He was running 15th at the time.

Beyond Iditarod

1 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)

At Iditarod

2 Trent Herbst (4)
3 Kelley Griffin (20)
4 Martin Buser (11)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Cim Smyth (59)
7 Lance Mackey (17)
8 Michael Williams, Jr. (41)
9 John Baker (53)
10 Hans Gatt (23) [Read more →]

Jessica Hendricks (36) becomes the fourth team to scratch. I mentioned yesterday that she was down to 8 puppies, and they obviously weren’t happy.

Bob Storey (15), the 65-year-old retired Army officer from New Zealand spent almost an entire day getting from Finger Lake to Rainy Pass. There is probably a story behind that involving the “steps”, because he was making good time in his rookie run prior to that. [Update: Bob decided to scratch at Rainy Pass.]

Nicolas Petit (14) is again the leading rookie. Cain Carter (48) has dropped back after a big surge yesterday.

This year’s Yukon Quest 300 winner, Gerry Willomitzer (33), has scratched at McGrath. He was down to 12 dogs, and didn’t think they were having fun.

Note: 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.

At Ophir

1 Robert Nelson (51)
2 Trent Herbst (4)
3 Cim Smyth (59)
4 Kelley Griffin (20)

At Takotna

5 Martin Buser (11)
6 Lance Mackey (17)
7 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
8 Hugh Neff (35)
9 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
10 Mitch Seavey (28) [Read more →]

The main post mentions that Melissa Owens and Zoya DeNure have scratched at Rainy Pass. These aren’t isolated problems.

Melissa’s injured leg makes standing on the runners for another week or so impossible, but Rick Swenson is going to attempt it with a broken collarbone. Rick has won 5 times, and is too old for this silliness, but he’s going to “tough it out”.

Lance Mackey made a passing comment about liking to lead so you don’t have to worry about “kennel cough”. Actually he was worrying about three of his dogs not seeming right, including Lippy, who has a 1000-mile race victory for each of her 9 years. He will be down to 12 puppies when he leaves Nikolai.

Zoya pulled out because her dogs weren’t “right”, Jessica Hendricks (36) is already down to 8 puppies and several teams are down to 13. It’s hard to say that these things are related, but it makes mushers nervous.

You will note in the listing that positions 55 and 56 are vacant. They will be assigned as people leave Rainy Pass. They represent Melissa and Zoya, and teams must go further than they did to move up.

More on the multiple problems in the ADN.

There must be good snow on the trail because the times are very fast. Because of the start time differential, Hugh was actually a few minutes ahead of Lance when they left Rohn.

Lance’s step-son, Cain Carter (48), has overtaken Nicolas Petit (14) for the rookie lead, and Yukon Quest winner, Dallas Seavey, is positioning himself for a challenge after a slow start. Jessie Royer has let her puppies run, and they want to run up front.

Update: Melissa Owens has scratched. She re-injured a leg on the run into Rainy Pass. Mellissa is the first woman musher from Nome to finish the Iditarod, and she did it on her rookie run in 2008 as the youngest woman to ever enter the race, making it home just in time to get back to high school at the end of her spring break in her senior year.

They are now reporting that Zoya DeNure (9) with her team of “runts, rejects, and strays” has also scratched at Rainy Pass. The only explanation so far is that it “was the right decision” for the dogs. A guess would be a behavior change by the team that can’t be explained. Mushers really know their dogs, and if the dogs start acting “weird”, something isn’t right, and the middle of nowhere is not the place you want to discover the reason. [Update: she reported that one of her dogs collapsed from what looked like a heart attack after she left Rainy Pass, so she loaded him in the sled and went back. The dog recovered, but there is no explanation as to what happened. (It sound like a heat stroke.)]

Paul Gebhardt (34) scratched in Nikolai when he had to leave 4 dogs. Gebhardt thinks the warmer than normal weather led to overheating and dehydration which cause cramps in the dogs and poor appetite. Ideally the dogs like the temperature to be in the plus to minus 20°F range.

Martin Buser picked up the Spirit of Alaska award as he blew through McGrath.

Note: 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.

Beyond McGrath

1 Martin Buser (11)

Beyond Nikolai

2 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
3 Lance Mackey (17)
4 Hugh Neff (35) [Read more →]

The weather hasn’t been bad for the first part of the race, but after they enter the interior anything is possible.

They have started with about 11 hours of daylight, and that will increase every day. Running at night is going to require their headlamps because the moon is a waxing crescent and won’t provide much light. They need the light because you definitely don’t want to go off the trail. It runs along the side of gorges, and requires switchbacks to make it up some of the heights. A lot of mushers and their sleds get broken while crossing the mountains and the Farewell Burn [second growth as the result of a major wildfire].

The positions keep jumping around because the experienced mushers have their own run/rest schedule They will be leapfrogging each other.

The experienced teams all rested at Rainy Pass so the dogs will be alert and fed for the nasty bits just ahead of them. This is the slowest part of the trail, as a wrong move can take the team out of the race.

The first award, Spirit of Alaska Award, awaits the lead team into McGrath. PenAir gives them an original spirit mask [it is piece of handmade Native Alaskan art] and $500 in credit for air freight or travel on PenAir.