Category — Yukon Quest

Update at 10PM CST. Hans Gatt arrived at Dawson at 6:02PM [race time], putting him on track to receive 4 ounces of gold if he finishes. He now has a 36-hour mandatory stop. This year’s race is on track to break the record… but – the weather that has made teams so fast is not good when you are running on a river that should be frozen solid. This is a real problem for the teams in the back, as the passage of the leaders may crack the ice. Any one of the four leaders could receive the four ounces of gold for being the first into Dawson, but the race will probably get a bit strange after Dawson, and you can expect people to turn off the GPS tracking, so the competition can’t find out what’s going on.

At Dawson
1 Hans Gatt (13)

Beyond Eagle
2 Zack Steer (2)
3 Lance Mackey (11)
4 Hugh Neff (23)
5 Ken Anderson (17)
6 Sonny Linder (20)
7 Gerry Willomitzer (5)
8 Abbie West (1)^R
9 Brent Sass (12)
10 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
11 Normand Casavant (10)
12 David Dalton (3)
13 Sam Deltour (4)^R
14 Kelley Griffin (15)
15 Dries Jacobs (22)^R
16 Mike Ellis (18)
17 Pierre-Antoine Heritier (19)^R

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Update at 11:30PM CST. Things are moving at a record pace in the race because of good weather, but that weather is warmer than normal, and with the fast pace the dogs are getting tired. Brent Sass is already down to 9 dogs and Abbie West has 10.

Beyond Eagle
1 Zack Steer (2)
2 Hans Gatt (13)
3 Lance Mackey (11)
4 Hugh Neff (23)

At Eagle
5 Sonny Linder (20)
6 Gerry Willomitzer (5)
7 Abbie West (1)^R
8 Brent Sass (12)
9 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R

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Update at 11PM CST. Zack Steer is back in front, but was edged out by Lance Mackey coming into Circle. Zack’s team is averaging almost 10mph and he still has all 14 dogs pulling. This will boil down to scheduling rest stops.

Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
1 Zack Steer (2)

At Slaven’s Roadhouse
2 Hugh Neff (23)
3 Lance Mackey (11)
4 Hans Gatt (13)
5 Gerry Willomitzer (5)
6 Sonny Linder (20)
7 Brent Sass (12)
8 Abbie West (1)^R

Beyond Circle
9 Ken Anderson (17)
10 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
11 David Dalton (3)
12 Kelley Griffin (15)
13 Mike Ellis (18)
14 Normand Casavant (10)

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The standings as of 11:15PM CST. Because of a typo, Sonny Linder is shown as 12^th place, while he is actually in 9^th. The date he left Central was entered as 02/17/10 vice 02/07/10, indicating he spent over 10 days there.

There were a lot of tired dogs after the climbing, and people are having to leave them behind. Abbie West is down to 11 dogs, and several people are down to 12.

Beyond Central
1 Hans Gatt (13)
2 Gerry Willomitzer (5)
3 Brent Sass (12)
4 David Dalton (3)
5 Lance Mackey (11)
6 Hugh Neff (23)
7 Zack Steer (2)
8 Abbie West (1)^R
9 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
10 Ken Anderson (17)
11 Sam Deltour (4)^R
12 Sonny Linder (20)

At Central
13 Kelley Griffin (15)
14 Mike Ellis (18)
15 Pierre-Antoine Heritier (19)^R
16 Dries Jacobs (22)^R

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Here are the current leaders on the trail between Two Rivers and Mile 101:

Brent Sass (12)
Hans Gatt (13)
Gerry Willomitzer (5)
David Dalton (3)
Sonny Linder (20)
Hugh Neff (23)
Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
Mike Ellis (18)
Ken Anderson (17)

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Quest, the number in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.

The rest of the field is at the Two Rivers checkpoint.

Teams have to climb the Rosebud Summit to get to the Mile 101 checkpoint, where there is a mandatory two-hour stop. The fastest team into Two Rivers, Zack Steer (2), averaged 10.8 mph [17.4 kph].

The 24 teams of 14 dogs and a musher began leaving the Fairbanks Start at 2PM CST in the balmy 10°F late morning heat on their way to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It is still mostly cloudy in the area.

The Fairbanks News-Miner reports that Most mushers carrying GPS tracking devices for first time during Quest, the single exception being Gerry Willomitzer, who decided not to get involved.

You can find out where people [except Gerry] are by clicking on the Yukon Quest Live Tracking link.

The current record for the course was set last year by Sebastian Schnuelle at 9 days, 23 hours, and 20 minutes, so you have time to eat, sleep, and visit the facilities without worrying about missing “the big play”.

This is the starting grid for the 2010 Yukon Quest:

1 Abbie West, Two Rivers, AK, US
2 Zack Steer, Sheep Mountain, AK, US
3 David Dalton, Healy, AK, US
4 Sam Deltour, Sint-Kruis, Belgium
5 Gerry Willomitzer, Shallow Bay, YT, Canada
6 Katie Davis, Olney, MT, US
7 Terry Williams, Fairbanks, AK, US
8 Jocelyne LeBlanc, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
9 Cindy Barrand, Kasilof, AK, US
10 Normand Casavant, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
11 Lance Mackey, Fairbanks, AK, US
12 Brent Sass, Fairbanks, AK, US
13 Hans Gatt, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
14 Bart DeMarie, Christopher Lake, SK, Canada
15 Kelley Griffin, Wasilla, AK, US
16 Jennifer Raffaeli, Fox, AK, US
17 Ken Anderson, Fox, AK, US
18 Mike Ellis, Two Rivers, AK, US
19 Pierre-Antoine Heritier, Crans-Montana, VS, Switzerland
20 Sonny Linder, Two Rivers, AK, US
21 Joshua Cadzow, Fort Yukon, AK, US
22 Dries Jacobs, Jabbeke, Belgium
23 Hugh Neff, Tok, AK, US
24 Peter Fleck, Salisbury, UK

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These are the elevations of the checkpoints and mountains on the trail, as well as the distances between the checkpoints:

Fairbanks 440 feet [134 meters] Start
Two Rivers 750 feet [229 meters] 45 miles [72 km]
Rosebud Summit 3640 feet [1109 meters]
Mile 101 2250 feet [686 meters] 82 miles [132]
Eagle Summit 3685 feet [1123 meters]
Central 435 feet [133 meters] 33 miles [53 km]
Circle City 597 feet [182 meters] 74 miles [119 km]
Eagle 880 feet [268 meters] 159 miles [256 km]
American Summit 3920 feet [1195 meters]
Dawson City 1050 feet [320 meters] 147 miles [237 km]
King Solomon’s Dome 4002 feet [1220 meters]
Pelly Crossing 1558 feet [475 meters] 202 miles [325 km]
Carmacks 1722 feet [525 meters] 73 miles [117 km]
Braeburn 2326 feet [709 meters] 77 miles [124 km]
Whitehorse 2089 feet [637 meters] 100 miles [161 km] Finish

Total actual distance: 992 miles [1596 kilometers]

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One thousand miles from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon on the Goldrush/mail route – the Yukon Quest.

Here’s the official site, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner site.

Only a quarter of century old, the start alternates between Whitehorse [odd years] and Fairbanks. Lance Mackey who has won the Quest four times and doubled by winning the Iditarod the two of those times, is running this year after staying away last year.

This year’s race starts on Saturday, February 6^th, at 11:00 am. The start was moved up a week to give mushers more time between the Quest and the Iditarod.

It’s over. Iris Wood Sutton (9) takes the Red Lantern after 13 days 23 hours and 17 minutes. She came in at 10:41AM, 28 minutes after Becca Moore (22). She was the 18^th musher to finish from a starting field of 29.

You can get Race Stats here.

Wayne Hall (28) made it in early this morning, the last musher with a payday. William Pinkham (17) came in two hours later.

Becca Moore (22) and Iris Wood Sutton (9) are on the trail to Two Rivers and the 8 hour mandatory rest stop. They are the last two teams in the race.

Yuka Honda (24), the Japanese school teacher, scratched at the Mile 101, another victim of Eagle Summit. She spent nearly 32 hours on the trail from Central to Mile 101 getting over the mountain. She made an attempt to climb Rosebud, but had to turn around.

You can get Race Updates here.

Quest winner, Sebastian Schnuelle, listened to AC-DC for the 6 hours between Two Rivers and Fairbanks.

A major sponsor of the Jamaican musher, Newton Marshall, is Jimmy Buffett [Parrothead, Gulf & Western, Margaritaville].

Gerry Willomitzer, Iditarod musher and color commentator for the official Quest site is a major league Deep Purple fan.

But the best is the reporter for the Yukon News who has been covering the Quest, Genesee Keevil, who plays the stand-up bass with Sasquatch Prom Date, a local band.

The last teams left Central this morning.

Crossing the finish line were race rookies: Norman Casavant (29), Mark Sleightholme (1), Colleen Robertia (6), and Newton Marshall (7). Sleightholme of Britain was running a team that belongs to Sebastian Schnuelle. while Marshall of Jamaica was running a Hans Gatt team.

Jason Mackey (25) was down to 7 dogs and just couldn’t catch a break, so he scratched at Central. Russ Bybee (11) held on until Mile 101, but then pulled the plug. The Eagle Summit has been brutal this year.

You can get Race Updates here.

About an hour after the leaders, Jon Little (18) crossed the finish line. More that 9 hours later Martin Buser (8) and Michelle Phillips (26) showed up followed by William Kleedehn (12), Brent Sass (13), and Dan Kaduce (14) rounding out the night. Warren Palfrey (19), a Métis from Yellowknife arrived this morning. While Martin Buser is the official first rookie, Palfrey is a true rookie to long distance mushing, lacking Buser’s years on the Iditarod.

Everyone is beyond Circle and headed Southwest.

Update: Kyla Boivin (2) had to scratch today.  Her team just couldn’t climb Eagle Summit.  She was in the money at 14 when she scratched.

You can get Race Updates here.