Once again, it's the most wonderful time of the sports year - for me at least. The 50th running of the Iditarod is here!
Ceremonial start with 49 mushers is scheduled for 10 AM Alaska/2 PM east coast on Saturday, March 5 in downtown Anchorage. The real racing begins on Sunday, March 6 with the restart in Willow, AK at 2 PM Alaska time/6 PM east coast. VT's own Paige Drobny returns and has drawn bib #5, so she will be leaving Willow early on. Alas, honorary Hokie by marriage to Paige - Cody Strathe - will not be running this year.
After wholesale changes to the course in 2021 due to COVID, the course is largely back to normal. The race will follow the ~1,000 mile even-numbered year northern route from the ceremonial start in Anchorage to the finish in Nome. (link to the map: https://iditarod.com/race-map/ ). Mushers are largely isolated from the general population in the days prior to the race. Many checkpoints along the race course are limiting the number of people in or having the checkpoint away from town and 1 that is normally on the route (the native village of Takotna) will not be serving as a checkpoint this year.
In addition to #5 Paige, last year's winner and 5 time champion Dallas Seavey (bib #20) is running and his dad, 2 time winner Mitch Seavey (bib #30) returns after skipping last year. 4 time winner Jeff King (bib #3), who was not planning to run, but will be taking the place of Nic Petit who had to drop out due to a recent positive COVID test. Also, there is Denmark's Mille Porsild (bib #33) who was on a polar expedition with Will Steger. Will was partners with Paul Schurke on a North Pole dogsled expedition. Paul owns Wintergreen dogsled lodge where I learned to mush. So, as you can see, she and I are practically brother and sister!
Let's go - hike, hike - Paige and all the teams!
Comments
Dude I love that you do this every year. Thanks for keeping us updated!
I was worried you weren't gonna do this.
Good to have this back
An article published by VT on Paige:
Dog sledding a passion project for Virginia Tech alumna
Oh awesome. Thank you for posting. I missed this.
let's go
Look forward to this every year. Thanks for keeping us updated. Go Paige!
Oooh things about to get extra good around here.
Just a few minutes from the ceremonial start in Anchorage. Which I am going to miss because I signed up to donate blood a while ago and did not realize it was starting today. Oh well. Such is life.
Short pre-race interview with Page yesterday and the highlights are that she is probably not pushing hard for the best finish this year.
"Definitely not here to compete ... just out to run my team."
A couple of dogs have retired and a couple of new dogs are on the team, so will be getting the new team together on this Iditarod. She did note that in the past couple of years, the team had been very energetic. Sometime too energetic and she was having to use the break quite a bit. This team seems a bit more laid back and may be more steady. Said the snow was unusually deep this year where she trains, so there was a lot of breaking trails as they trained. Team is strong and should have good reserves of energy, but may not be the fastest.
Rookie Sean Williams, bib #2, just launched to start things off at 10:04 Alaska/2:04 east coast. He was scheduled to race in the past, but a family emergency made him drop out just before the race as his mom was sick. His mom did pass away and he is dedicating his rookie run to his mom. Good luck Sean.
Have to log off now. Catch people later.
Edit: stayed to watch Paige leave at 2:10 PM. She is off! Let's go, hike! hike!
Let's Go, Paige!
Less than 30 minutes from the re-start and the beginning of the real race. Short interview with Paige in Willow, AK. earlier today.
Temperature is 35 degrees F. She said it is easy on the humans but tough on the dogs, who are used to 0 or below temperatures. Noted that she had done some training runs in the daytime to get them used to warmer temperatures and that the team seemed to respond well. They just roll around in the snow and eat more snow cones on the run. She feels prepared and is ready to put all the hard work to the test.
Rookie Sean Williams is off from Willow to start the 50th Iditarod at 2 PM Alaska/6 PM east coast!
4x winner Jeff King and Michelle Phillips from the Yukon have launched and Paige is up next.
Every time is see the name "Jeff King", I think that our former VT tight end and NFL star is now dog sledding, then my brain kicks in.
You are not alone.
Paige is off on her 8th Iditarod at 2:06 PM/6:06 east coast. Good luck to her and her team!
Monday morning, March 7 update. According to GPS tracker, Paige is in first place! She is on the trail between Skwentna checkpoint and approaching Finger Lake with 14 dogs. After Finger Lake, it will be an uphill stretch to Rainy Pass. She is 107 miles into the race. Close behind are Richie Diehl at 106 miles and Brent Sass at 105 miles. Most every serious musher is close together on the trail. I know it is real early, but I did get a kick out of seeing her in first place.
I'll be reporting most positions using the GPS tracker on Iditarod.com. The leader board takes a while to update, so it is out-of-date almost as soon as someone pulls out of a checkpoint.
If she is in 1st place, I imagine that she is breaking the trail which is much harder work on her and her dogs, right?
Almost like being the "rabbit" on the track..
They do have trail breaking crews that go ahead of the mushers to pack things down. So as long as there was not recent or current snowfall, it should be good. On the GPS tracker, they actually showed the position of the trail breakers up ahead of people. Guessing that means there was recent snow - it was snowing in Anchorage for the ceremonial start on the 5th but not in Willow for the restart on the 6th. Hoping that means she is not having to do any serious trail breaking.
Paige pulled into Finger Lake at 4:41 AM local/8:41 AM east coast and pulled out just 3 minutes later with all 14 dogs. So far so good as she makes her way up to Rainy Pass still in first.
Monday, March 7, PM update: The leaders have gone through Rainy Pass checkpoint and are now on the sometimes steep downhill section of trail to the Rohn checkpoint. Paige was second out of Rainy Pass, leaving just before noon local time/4 PM east coast. Ryan Reddington has taken over first place, having travelled 169 miles, followed closely by Nome's hometown musher Aaron Burmeister a mile back. Paige now sits in 7th place and GPS has her team resting on the trail about 7 miles behind Ryan. Just in front of her is Millie Porsild and just behind her is last year's winner Dallas Seavey, who was first out of Rainy Pass.
Tuesday morning, March 8 update 6:41 AM east coast: Ryan Redington was first into the Rohn checkpoint, arriving at 5:42 PM local time/9:42 PM east coast. He pulled out at 5:59 PM/9:59 PM with all 14 dogs.
Paige arrived at Rohn in 8th place at 8:33 PM local time/12:33 AM east coast with 14 dogs. She pulled out at 8:55 PM/12:55 AM with 13 dogs having dropped one dog there. Looks like about half of the people near the top have dropped a dog, so she is not alone in this.
GPS tracker now has Aaron Burmeister in 1st 220 miles from the start and 755 from the finish. He also is down to 13 dogs. Aaron is followed quickly by Ryan Redington 219 miles in. Paige is in 6th 214 miles in but is listed as resting on the trail. She may be passed by a couple of other teams shortly as they are still running.
Bitchin'
This is fun to follow.
Tuesday evening, 5:30 PM update:
The top 2 mushers, Brent Sass and 5 time champion Dallas Seavey have both pulled into the Nikolai checkpoint and headed back out onto the trail to McGrath. Nikolai is the first of several native village checkpoints along the course. Sass left at 9:20 AM local/1:20 PM east coast with 13 dogs and Dallas left 8 minutes later with all 14. While Brent and Dallas left just a few minutes after arriving, Paige and 15 other mushes have stayed in Nikolai. Paige arrived in 11th place at 10:36 AM/2:36 PM and is still there 3 hours later having averaged ~5.5 mph on the run from Rohn. She may be taking one of her mandatory layovers of 8 or 24 hours here, but it may just be a rest break for the team. Aaron Burmeister was actually first into Nikolai at 7:38 AM/11:38 AM, but he has been resting his team there for a while.
Listening into the analysts and the trail conditions video. People were saying the trail up over the Alaska Range at Rainy Pass and onto Rohn was excellent. There was a lot of snow, but the trail was packed down by the trail maintenance people. Once they got past Rohn the trail deteriorated badly. Heavy winds had blown away most snow and it was a mixture of rock, ice and minimal snow making the trail rough into Nikolai. Thought was that most mushers and teams will need to rest there.
The next section of trail goes to McGrath. After that, the next section goes onto Takotna, but that is not serving as a checkpoint this year, so people may go onto Ophir. After Ophir the next section is Cripple. Thought is that most of the top mushers will have their 24 hour layover in McGrath, Ophir or Cripple. There is a storm off the coast that is expected to move into the interior, so the mushers are planning what to do. One theory is to push as far as you can, let the storm come in and bury things behind them. Another is to rest before the storm so you have a strong team to push through. That may shape when people decide to take their break. The storm is not expected to be that long, but bring a lot of wind. Stopping at McGrath for 24 hours is seen as the conservative play while pushing onto Cripple is being aggressive.
Paige did pull out of Nikolai a few minutes ago, so no layover. She has 13 dogs, is in 12th place and is with a tight cluster with Jessie Holmes and Hugh Neff, all 3 within 1 mile of each other on their way to McGrath which, according to the Iditarod website, is one of the easiest sections of trail with many lakes and rivers to go down.
Wednesday morning post:
The current leaders, Brent Sass and Richie Diehl have both reached the ghost town of Ophir checkpoint, 352 miles into the race and 623 miles from the finish in Nome. Brent checked in with 13 dogs at 11:48 PM local last night/3:48 AM east coast and Richie arrived with 12 dogs at 1:23 AM/5:23 AM. Both teams are listed as resting in Ophir on their GPS trackers. Millie Porsild is listed as 5 miles from Ophir in 3rd, Dallas Seavey is 3 miles behind her in 4th and Ryan Redington rounds out the top 5.
Paige was pulled into McGrath checkpoint at 8:44 PM local last night/12:44 AM east coast and pulled out about 3 hours later with 13 dogs in 9th place. She has passed several mushers on her current run and is now in 6th place, 336 miles in/639 miles from Nome and 2 miles behind Ryan.
So far, no musher has scratched and no one has taken their mandatory 8 hour or 24 hour breaks. People should be starting to take those soon.
Another Wednesday morning. March 9 update. Paige has just arrived in Ophir according to her GPS tracker. Don't have the official time yet as the leaderboard has not been updated with times. She arrived in 7th place just behind Jessie Holmes. Looks like the 2 of them have been running close to each other for long stretches of time as they were jumping back-and-forth between 6th and 7th place quite a bit on their tracker feeds.
Dallas Seavey has taken over the lead as he pulled into Ophir at 3:42 AM local/7:42 east coast and pulled out 7 minutes later with 12 dogs. Brent Sass, who had been leading but was resting his team in Ophir, quickly followed to give chase with 13 dogs but, again, the leaderboard has not been updated so I don't know his official leave time. Will see how many others try and push onto the next checkpoint at Cripple and how many stay at Ophir.
Got official times now (9:45 AM my time).
Paige arrived at Ophir in 7th place at 4:43 AM local/8:43 east coast with 13 dogs, averaging 7.99 mph on the run from McGrath. She was 2 minutes behind Jessie Holmes who still had all 14 dogs in harness. His speed was 8.01 mph. Their GPS feeds were right next to each other the entire time from McGrath, so I assume they were running the leg together and planned it this way. Both are still at Ophir resting their teams. Michelle Phillips came in 10 minutes after Paige in 8th with 13 dogs.
Up front, it was Dallas Seavey followed by Brent Sass, but Brent has overtaken Dallas on the trail to regain the lead. Brent's team have 4 hours rest in Ophir, while Dallas had gone straight through. Ryan Redington left Ophir at 4:36 AM local/8:36 east coast with 13 dogs in third place to stay with the leaders. The 3 of them are on the trail to Cripple, while 9 others (Richie Diehl, Millie Porsild, Jessie Holmes, Paige, Michelle Phillips, Travis Beals, Hugh Neff, Mitch Seavey and Aaron Peck) remain in Ophir - at least for now.
Side note, Michelle Phillips had a crash on the really bad section of trail just past Rohn and her sled was smashed up. She jury-rigged a repair to keep going. Ryan Redington had a spare sled at McGrath and has offered it to her as his sled is doing fine and he does not need to switch out. You are allowed to drop off supplies, spare parts and even whole sleds at checkpoints. I believe she is now using Ryan's replacement sled. Shows the comradery and teamwork on the trail as you are not allowed to use outside help in the race.
Monday, March 9 late afternoon/early evening:
So the strategy of the top mushers looks to be set relative to taking their 24 hour layover. Thought was that pretty much everyone (and definitely anyone seriously expecting a high finish) would take their 24 hour break at McGrath, Ophir or Cripple checkpoints. People often took the break at Takotna in between McGrath and Ophir, but that is not an option with Takotna not serving as a checkpoint this year.
5 mushers have chosen to push forward aggressively and are currently on the trail to Cripple. That group is led by:
Brent Sass who is 405 miles in/570 miles to Nome with 13 dogs. He is the only musher who rested his team in Ophir (for ~4 hours). All of the others on the trail were in the checkpoint for 7-45 minutes.
Dallas Seavey in second/383 miles in with 12 dogs
Hugh Neff third 374 miles in with 12 dogs
Mitch Seavey forth 373 miles in with 12 dogs (yes, that's Dallas' dad)
Ryan Redington fifth 369 miles in with 13 dogs
6 top mushers have chosen to stay at Ophir for their 24 hour layover, including
Richie Diehl
Millie Porsild
Jessie Holmes
Paige Drobny now officially listed as being in 9th place
Michelle Phillips
Travis Beals
A couple others have pulled into Ophir after Travis - Aaron Peck and 2018 champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom from Norway. Not sure if they are staying or going as they arrived later than the prior 6 and they could move out, but they are probably staying in Ophir as well.
Only 2 top mushers took the most conservative approach and have declared their 24 hours in McGrath. That includes:
Aaron Burmeister (4 top 5 finishes and 7 top 10 ones)
Peter Kaiser (4 top 5 finishes, including the 2019 championship and 6 top 10 finishes)
Safe to assume most, and maybe all, of the top 10 finishers will come from these 15 names listed here.
Paige will be eligible to start up again around 5 AM local time/9 AM east coast on Thursday the 10th.
Wednesday night, March 9:
Brent Sass continues to lead the race. He pulled into Cripple checkpoint at 3:50 PM local time/7:50 PM east coast and will take his 24 hours there. In second place is Dallas Seavey. As I write this (10:17 PM), he is listed as being 4 miles out of Cripple. Hugh Neff, Ryan Redington and Mitch Seavey round out the top 5 on the way to Cripple with 14-30 miles to go.
Everyone who was in Ophir with Paige and company as well as 3 more who have arrived (Deke Naaktgeboron - although I guess we could call him 'Kevin' - and the Berington identical twin sisters) are staying there as well. Few teams are running right now.
Couple of brief interviews with Paige were shown on the video feed. Behind a paywall, so I cannot link. She talked about how bad the trail was coming out of Rohn.
"Yeah, the run from Rohn just generally sucks pretty bad. The first part, there's no snow. There was like a bit of a windstorm. 40 mile per hour winds ... that's pretty brutal."
They showed some video she took on her phone as the sled was going over the frozen snow drifts. After the bare ice and rock on the first part of that run, you had little snow drifts blown all along the trial. Things had melted a bit and then re-frozen, so it was like going over 2 foot swells in the ocean. Dogs handled it well, but the sled was constantly slamming into the ground after going over them. You could audibly hear the wham, wham, wham as the sled was pounding the ground going over them in rapid succession. Apparently went on like that for miles. Her legs took a beating. Lots of mushers commented on this stretch. Pretty much everywhere else, the trail has been very good.
She did note that the dogs are doing well. Temperatures have been a bit warm, so she is planning on doing as much travel after dark as possible. Let the dogs rest up in Ophir and then head out.
Good night all.
Early morning, Thursday, March 10.
No changes near the top as almost everyone near the front is still on their 24 hour layover. Top 5 in Cripple:
Brent Sass
Dallas Seavey
Hugh Neff
Ryan Redington
Mitch Seavey
All of them will still be there for a while. Cripple is 425 miles in with 550 to go to Nome. All of them had fairly slow run times with Sass the only one that averaged over 6 mph. Not sure if that was because the trail from Ophir to Cripple was not that good or they other 4 teams had to rest more as Sass was the only team to rest at Ophir before pulling out.
Among the teams that chose to take their 24 in Ophir, Richie Diehl is the only one that has completed the layover. He pulled out with 11 dogs at 1:23 AM local/5:23 east coast time. He is also going fairly slow (6.3 mph) so it does suggest not great trail conditions after Ophir. Have to wait until they post the next trail report video to know.
After Diehl in 6th, we still have Paige officially listed in 9th place and has a couple more hours before she can leave.
Further back, the two fast mushers who chose to take their 24 hours at McGrath completed the layover a while back. Aaron Burmeister in 18th has reached Ophir with 11 dogs at 11:55 PM/3:55 AM and has been resting his team. Peter Kaiser is just a few miles short of Ophir with 13 dogs and should be arriving shortly.
Near the back of the trail, the leader board says Anja Radano has scratched. Normally there is a little blurb saying why people drop out, but I can't find anything yet and her sled is still listed as being at Nikolai on the GPS, so I'm not sure which is right. We should get clarification soon.
The last 3 mushers on the trail are Lisbet Norris (12 dogs), rookie Kailyn Davis (12 dogs) and Japan's Yuka Honda (13 dogs - although Yuka lives in Alaska now and not Japan) are all 290 miles in and 21 miles from McGrath. GPS tracker has them constantly right next to each other, so the ladies must be making the Nikolai to McGrath run together as a team.
Wanted to add the weather report about the storm. Not supposed to be a terrible one, but on the live feed, snow is falling steadily in Ophir. From the Iditarod website blog:
"There's a storm brewing in the interior that will make things interesting as the racers begin to move again. Winds and 6-8 inches of snow are in the forecast. How will this play out? Will the mushers who rested at Cripple have the advantage because they were ahead of the storm? Will the mushers who rested at McGrath and Ophir have the advantage because the dogs are rested to push through the storm. Only time will tell!"
Aaron Burmeister has pulled out of Ophir with 11 dogs after 3 hours of rest, so Paige is now officially in 10th.
Thursday 10:24 AM east coast: EDIT: Paige dropped 2 dogs and is running with 11. Fixed below.
And Paige is off! GPS has her pulling out now with 11 dogs in 11th place. Time not official, but it showed as 10:24 AM east coast on my computer/6:24 Alaska Time.
Current standings are:
Brent Sass - on layover in Cripple, 425 miles in/550 to Nome
Dallas Seavey - on layover in Cripple
Hugh Neff - on layover in Cripple
Ryan Redington - on layover in Cripple
Mitch Seavey - on layover in Cripple
Richie Diehl - on the trail with 11 dogs, 375 miles in/600 to Nome
Aaron Burmeister - on the trail with 11 dogs, 370 miles in/605 to Nome
Millie Porsild - on the trail with 13 dogs, 365 miles in/610 to Nome
Travis Beals - on the trail with 13 dogs, 357 miles in/618 to Nome
Jessie Holmes - on the trail with 14 dogs, 352 miles in/623 to Nome
Paige Drobny - on the trail with 11 dogs, 352 miles in/623 to Nome
With Jessie and Paige running right by each other, will see if they make the run as a team like on the stage to Ophir or go their separate ways.
Looking at the live feed from Ophir, it is only light snow now.
Thursday evening, March 10, 6 PM east coast.
The top 5 are still in Cripple with Brent Sass having a couple more hours before he can pull out. The other 4 are 3-7 hours behind him. Finally got a trail report video and the top 5 confirmed that the trail up from Ophir to Cripple was slow. Storm has gone through and dropped 4 inches of new snow, which may slow the people like Paige coming up from Ophir down more.
Speaking of Paige, her team is going more slowly than most. She has dropped back to 14th place and currently sits 390 miles in/585 from Nome and about 35 miles to Cripple. Hopefully the team will be rested up for a good second half of the race.
After Cripple, mushers will head out to Ruby. A small post-gold rush village and the first point along the Yukon River. After that, the mushers will follow the Yukon and by small towns/native villages of Galena, Nulato and Kaltag. After Kaltag, mushers leave the river and head overland to the Norton Sound Coast at Unalakleet, which is the largest town on the trail in between the Willow restart and Nome.
And Anja Radano did officially scratch in Nikolai. After the beating of the rough trail after Rohn, she decided to retire the team. The remaining 48 mushers are still going.
Thursday night, 10:17 PM east coast.
Up front, Brent Sass has completed his 24 hour layover and pulled out of Cripple at 4:36 local/8:36 Alaska Time with 13 dogs.
Paige's team was stopped for a long time and listed as resting on the GPS, which had me worried that something bad had happened since she was just coming off her 24 and I was surprised to see her stay there so long. Think at one point she had dropped back to (I think) 18th as many teams passed her. But she has started up again and seems to be going well. Has moved back to 11th position/the same she was in when she left Ophir. She is currently 407 miles in/568 miles to Nome and 18 miles to Cripple, 6 miles behind Mille Porsild in 10th and ahead of Michelle Phillips in 12th.
Has been fairly warm most of the race, but temperatures are expected to drop and will be better running weather for the dogs. Could be some faster speeds in the next couple of days as people travel down the Yukon River.
And Richie Diehl, who had taken his 24 in Ophir, has passed through Cripple and moved on towards Ruby. That puts him in second place for now. Last year's winner Dallas Seavey should be eligible to pull out of Cripple within the hour.
Actually found a non-paywall link that shows some of Paige's video of the mogul-like conditions on the trail. Speaking with Paige begins about 50 seconds in. Just a short bit, but something anyone can access.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv_3Xf0Rc_c
This is another one from the same source showing the race restart in Willow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxDjHNnqJDc
Friday morning, 7:51 AM east coast. Off work today, which is nice as working has such a negative impact on my ability to keep up with the race :-).
Times were quite slow coming into Cripple for the team's like Paige's that had stayed in Ophir. New fallen wet heavy snow is a drag and most speeds into Cripple were less than 5 mph. Paige averaged 4.91.
16 teams are on the trail from Cripple to Ruby. Paige pulled into Cripple in 14th place at 9:05 PM local/1:05 AM east coast. She is now on the trail in 13th place with 10 dogs, 438 miles in/537 to Nome. Running in a tight group with Millie Porsild and Aaron Peck, all three of which are listed as being within 1 mile of each other.
No change in the top 3, but some motion behind them.
Brent Sass leads 482 miles in/493 to None
Dallas Seavey 2nd 477/498
Hugh Neff 3rd 474/501
In 4th is Nome's home town musher Aaron Burmeister, who had run a very conservative race so far having taken his 24 all the way back in McGrath and rested for a few hours in Ophir once he arrived there. His team looked very strong and eager to go and he has quickly moved up the leader board, 464 miles in/511 to Nome.
According to the race analysts, Brent and Dallas seemed to have the strongest teams but Aaron was close by, so I'd look to these 3 being at or near the top the rest of the way unless they run into trouble, which can happen anytime in northern Alaska in March and when you are powered by living animals with minds of their own.
Once again, thanks for doing this.
You are welcome. I have a blast doing it. Would so love to actually go there for the race and volunteer at one of the checkpoints. Heck, I'd be happy just bussing tables at the banquet in Anchorage before the race, but being at a remote checkpoint would be more fun.
TKP alias check's out, here he is at a checkpoint:
I joke around that I should have been born in Greenland because, at least weather-wise, I would have fit right in.
Friday evening, 9:42 PM.
Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey are both pushing really hard. Brent passed through Ruby and started down the Yukon River. Passed through the next checkpoint at Galena even though the analysts expected him to stop for his 8 hour layover. You have to take an 8 hour layover at one of the Yukon River checkpoints. He is running with 13 dogs 556 miles in/419 to Nome. Dallas is closing in on Galena with 12 dogs in harness, 537 miles in/438 to Nome. Jessie Holmes in 3rd place is more than 40 miles behind Dallas.
Paige is just a mile out of Ruby as I type and should be arriving any minute. She has 10 dogs in harness and sits in 15th place. Once she arrives at Ruby, she will be 495 miles in/480 to the finish. I honestly have no idea if her team is struggling or if she is taking an easy pace to conserve energy and make a push in the end. She did rest the team for a long time on the run from Ophir to Ruby, so may be resting the team here as well. Of course she did say before the race started that she was just wanting to run her dogs and was not going to be pushing hard for a top finish this year given the changeover on the team. Either way, looking solid for another top 20 finish and hoping for a top 10.
EDIT: And - literally - between the time I started typing this post and when I finished/looked back at the GPS tracker, it now has Paige listed in Ruby - at The Mighty Yukon!
After having no one scratch for a few days, 3 additional mushers have dropped out of the race.
Anja Radano - scratched in Nikolai on Wednesday.
Ryne Olson - Paige's friend who ran with her a big chunk of the race last year scratched in McGrath on Thursday.
Rookie Julie Ahnen - scratched early today in McGrath
Hugh Neff - was running in 3rd place, but scratched in Ruby
Looking further back on the trail, the trio of Yuka Honda, Lisbet Norris and rookie Kaylin Davis had been traveling together. All 3 pulled into McGrath within 1 minute of each other Thursday at 11:19 or 11:20 AM local/3:19-3:20 PM east coast and all 3 took their 24 hours there. Yuka pulled out of McGrath with 13 dogs at 11:45 AM/3:45 PM today with Lisbet and Kaylin following ~25-30 minutes later. Currently (10:17 PM east coast), Yuka is 43rd 352 miles in with 13 dogs, Kaylin is 44th 350 miles in with 11 dogs and Lisbet is in the "red lantern" position 45th 342 miles in with 12 dogs.
Every musher still in the race has completed their 24 hour layover except for Jeff King, who is finishing that up in Ruby. No one has completed the first 8 hour layover except for Jessie Holmes and Richie Diehl, who just pulled out of Ruby to give chase to Sass and Dallas Seavey. All mushers also have to complete a second 8 hour layover in White Mountain (second to last checkpoint in the race before Safety and then Nome). That layover is to make sure no one tries to push a team too hard at the end of the race.
Good night all.
Saturday March 12, 8:55 AM:
Paige pulled into Ruby checkpoint last night at 5:46 PM local/9:46 PM east coast. Took her 8 hour layover there and pulled out at 2:07 AM/6:07 AM with 10 dogs in 16th place. She has had some of the slowest times in recent segments and looks to be taking it easy on the team. Currently she is on the trail between Ruby and Galena in 17th place, 518 miles in and 457 miles to Nome.
Up front, Brent Sass continues to lead, having pulled into the village of Kaltag, the last checkpoint on the Yukon at 2:36 AM/6:36 with 12 dogs. Now sits 629 miles in and 346 to Nome. He will have to take his 8 hour layover here and head across the Kaltag portage to Unalakleet and the Norton Sound coast. Dallas Seavey is currently at Nulato, almost 50 miles behind where he is taking his 8 hour layover, having pulled in with 12 dogs at 12:32 AM/4:32 AM, so he will be eligible to leave a couple hours before Brent.
The rest of the top 5 have all completed their 8 hour layovers and are on the trail to Nulato:
Jessie Holmes with 11 dogs and 561 mils in/4:14 to Nome
Richie Diehl with 11 dogs and 553 miles in/422 to Nome
Aaron Burmeister with 9 dogs 550 miles in/425 to Nome
Saturday evening, March 12, a bit after 7:35 PM.
Leader board remains pretty similar to what it has been.
Brent Sass continues to lead. He pulled out of Kaltag at 10:36 AM local time/2:36 PM east coast with 12 dogs. Currently closing in on the Unalakleet checkpoint on the Norton Sound Coast. 668 miles in and 307 to Nome.
Dallas Seavey in second pulled out of Kaltag at 12:44 PM/4:44 PM with 10 dogs and has completed 652 miles with 323 to do.
Behind Brent and Dallas are a quartet of mushers on the trail from Nulato to Kaltag: Jessie Holmes with 11 dogs 619 miles in, Richie Diehl with 11 dogs 601 miles in, Ryan Redington with 10 dogs 600 miles in and Aaron Burmeister with 9 dogs 598 miles in.
Paige is about 20 miles short of the Nulato checkpoint, 563 miles in and 412 to Nome with 10 dogs in harness. She is currently in 18th place and should be getting into Nulato within the next few hours. All mushers ahead of her have completed their 8 hour layover except for Chad Stoddard, who is currently in 9th place and resting his team in Nulato.
Lisbet Norris hold the red lantern position, 413 miles in and 562 to Nome. She is about 10 miles behind Yuka Honda, who should be pulling into Cripple any moment now.
Temperatures have dropped sharply with highs from the low 20s or teens and expected lows well below 0 tonight and the next few nights along the Yukon. Also a lot of wind to really bring the chill. Great weather for the dogs to run, but a challenge for the humans.
Here is the latest free summary video. These are posted a day later, so will be a bit old, but shows the conditions and talks a tiny bit about strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z68yvCaJCoE
Sunday, March 13 9:17 AM.
Brent Sass reached the coast at Unalakleet at 11:32 PM last night/3:32 AM east coast and pulled out 6 minutes later 12 12 dogs. His team is currently camped out on the trail, 729 miles in/246 to Nome. As the first to reach the coast, Brent receives an ounce of gold and some supplies.
Dallas Seavey continues to run in second. His team is resting in Unalakleet, 714 miles/261 to Nome after checking in with 10 dogs at 1:22 AM/5:22 AM.
The rest of the top 5 remains Jessie Holmes (11 dogs), Richie Diehl (11 dogs) and Aaron Burmeister (9 dogs) all on the trail and ranging from about 35-50 miles from Unalakleet.
Paige and her team are currently resting at Kaltag. She arrived there in at 4:11 AM/8:11 AM with 10 dogs. Listed in 18th place and should be heading out over Kaltag portage within a couple of hours depending upon how long she chooses to rest the team. After that, it will be up the coast from Unalakleet to Shaktolook and then across the Norton Sound sea ice and onto the Seward Peninsula.
Sunday, March 13 9:10 PM.
Paige pulled pulled out of Kaltag at 7:42 AM local time/11:42 AM east coast with 9 dogs, having dropped one in Kaltag. She is currently camped near Old Woman Mountain with Ramey Smyth and Lev Shvarts, 676 miles in and 299 to Nome in 19th place. This puts them about 40 miles from the Norton Sound coast. Hoping Paige can hold onto her position and have another top 20 finish.
Up front, Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey continue to run 1 and 2 and are both running over the sea ice between the Shaktoolik and Koyuk checkpoints. Brent has 12 dogs, 793 miles in/182 to Nome, while Dallas has 10 dogs, 773 miles in/202 to Nome. Iditarod analyst Bruce Lee noted that both teams looked strong, although Dallas' seemed to have a bit more energy while Brent's team looked like soldiers steadily marching on and not slowing. Anything can happen, but is sure looks like these 2 will be jockeying for first and second the rest of the way unless something unexpected happens.
Aaron Burmeister (8 dogs, 235 miles from Nome) is approaching the sea ice leg and the top 5 are completed by Richie Diehl (11 dogs, 238 miles from Nome) and Jessie Holmes (10 dogs, 250 miles from Nome).
Lisbet Norris holds the red lantern position, running with 10 dogs 465 miles in/510 from Nome and approaching Ruby checkpoint. Just ahead of her is rookie Kailyn Davis (9 dogs, 484 miles in/491 from Nome). Yuka Honda and Apayauq Reitan are in 43rd and 44th in Ruby.
In the race for rookie of the year - fastest rookie to Nome - it is Norway's Hanna Lyrek in 20th/right behind Paige with 11 dogs (663 miles in/312 to Nome) followed by Canada's Martin Massicotte in 25th with 11 dogs (629 miles in/346 to Nome)
Good luck to everyone in the race and good night all.
Sorry, not good night yet. Watched some footage of Brent on the sea ice and Dallas coming into Shaktoolik. Man that wind is howling and that snow is blowing. Just peeked at the weather there and it said high of 19 and low of 6 with > 30 mph winds as of 6 PM local time. Looked and sounded like it was faster than that whenever the films were taken.
Thanks for keeping us all updated. Much appreciated.
I got to admit the only two contestants that a novice fan such as myself knows are Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey. I pull for Seavey (yeah I am aware he is a heavyweight in the race). I was introduced to Seavey by the show "Ultimate Survival Alaska" years ago. He seems like a pretty down to earth and cool guy.
Monday morning, March 14, 6:40 AM.
Continues to be a 2 team race for first with Brent Sass approaching the Elim checkpoint with 12 dogs, 847 miles in with 128 to go, while Dallas Seavey about halfway between Koyuk and Elim with 10 dogs, 826 miles in/149 to Nome. Brent has been able to maintain a 15-20 mile lead for several checkpoints. When Brent pulled into and out of Koyuk a bit before 7 PM last night/11 PM east coast, the analysts were saying the team looked good and was focused. Felt Dallas' team also looked good and that he could make a final push, but he was running out of miles to be able to catch Brent.
When Dallas pulled into and out of Koyuk at about 11:20 PM last night/about 3:20 AM east coast, the team still looked good, but had not closed the gap. Dallas supposedly said (I did not hear the interview live) that Brent likely has to make a mistake for him to be caught at this point. Mistakes happen, dogs can lose heart, a storm can pin the leaders down allowing someone to catch up. They were commenting on how fierce the winds were yesterday and this was from one of the text posts on the Iditarod site: "As Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey make their way to Koyuk, they are battling fierce winds and blowing snow. They are experiencing the classic Norton Sound ground blizzard. It's not snowing, the sky is clear but from their perspective on the ground, the sky isn't even visible. It's not white out but it's tough going." One of Dallas' wins came when a storm forced leaders Aily Zirkle and Jeff King to both stop and he caught up and passed them. So it is not over, but Brent is closing in.
Paige arrived at Unalakleet with 9 dogs at 12:02 AM/4:02 AM in 18th place. She currently is in 19th as Matt Hall came in behind her, but pulled quickly out of the checkpoint, while Paige has been resting her team there. This puts her 714 miles in/261 to Nome. She has been around 15-20 for a while now and seems to have settled into that pace.
Joshua McNeal, trying to complete his second Iditarod, became the 5th musher to scratch, having dropped out at the Galena checkpoint on the Yukon River.
Lisbet Norris holds the red lantern position having reached Ruby with 10 dogs at 10:33 last night/2:33 AM east coast and is resting her team there.
Interesting tidbit, though maybe fits better in the hunting thread. Aggressive moose on the trail charged Matt Failor's team and he had to shoot the moose. Apparently (and I had no idea this was the case) if you shoot a moose like this, you have to process the animal, which he did. The meat is being taken to Galena to be given to the community of the town.
https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/03/14/aggressive-moose-shot-by-id...
The sad part is the time he had to lose to process the Moose. unless a baby, that is a big animal.
Side benefit, puppies got some fresh protein.
I would assume you have to drain it first which means getting that thing ung from a really big tree branch right? That's a huge effort and time consuming.
Monday, March 14, 2 PM.
Paige is still listed as resting in Unalakleet. She has been there for over 9 hours, so I'm hoping she and her team are okay. Not sure why she would be there so long, so worried she may be having a problem.
For any of those having a hard time visualizing where these places are that Frostysdad keeps talking about (like myself), here's a map to help.
Oh thank you for posting that. I'm doing something wrong/messing something up as I cannot get static pictures to post.
And, thankfully, Paige pulled out of Unalakleet at 10:04 AM local/2:04 east coast. Currently running with 8 dogs in 20th place, 720 miles in/255 to Nome. Was worried the next time I checked she would have scratched or something give she was in the checkpoint for more than 10 hours. Maybe weather was bad, so things were delayed.
Also, you need to have a minimum of 6 dogs, so she cannot drop many more.
Finally, Brent Sass is almost at White Mountain checkpoint. Everyone has to take an 8 hour layover here to make sure no one pushes their dogs too hard at the end. White Mountain is 77 miles from Nome. Dallas is 20 miles behind him, so has not been able to close the gap and it looks like Brent will capture his first win barring disaster.
And a couple minutes after posting, I see Sass pulling into White Mountain on the live feed. Means he will be eligible to leave around 7:10 PM local/11:10 PM east coast. Barring bad weather or a collapse, we will have our winner arriving under "The Burled Arch" finish line in Nome tomorrow morning Alaska time.
So you might have discussed this somewhere else on the post but I didn't read everything - what does it mean to 'drop a dog'?
People start out with 14 dogs, but you can drop a dog at a checkpoint. If a dog seems to be ill, injured, just not running well (you are only as fast as your slowest dog), goes into heat ... You would leave them at a checkpoint and they would be delivered by "The Iditarod Air Force" to a place where you would pick them up after the race. Iditarod Air Force is bush pilots that drop off people and supplies and what not, but they also evacuate dogs.
Here is a full link to what they do: https://iditarod.com/zuma/iditarod-air-force/#:~:text=The%20Iditarod%20A....
But in a nutshell:
"The Iditarod Air Force (IAF) is made up of a group of volunteer pilots who donate their time and airplanes to the Iditarod before and during the race. Before the race begins, they load up their planes with drop bags and fly them to the checkpoints along the route ... Volunteers, vets, race marshals, and the Teacher on the Trail need to get in and out of checkpoints in a timely manner. Because of all the variables – weather, trail conditions, etc. – the flight schedule is hard to plan, so pilots need to be prepared to come and go when and where they are needed ... Finally, the Iditarod Air Force picks up dogs that are dropped off at checkpoints. They fly them to Anchorage or Nome to get picked up later in the race."
Phew. Thanks. I know the environment is brutal up there so when I heard the phrase 'drop a dog' I feared the worst.
Glad to hear the dropped pups will be in good form.
Hm...planes dropping dogs....
Monday, March 14, 10:10 PM.
Paige pulled into Shaktoolik at 3:34 PM local/7:34 east coast in 19th place with 8 dogs. GPS has her just past there 756 miles in and 219 from Nome but the leader board her officially listed as still being at the checkpoint. She is with a quartet of mushers there - Mats Pettersson, Hanna Lyrek (who will likely get rookie of the year as the first rookie to Nome) and the identical twins, Anna and Kristy Berington. They will need to cross over a narrow peninsula of land and then will start their trip over the sea ice of Norton Sound.
Up front, Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey are both doing their 8 hour layover at White Mountain. The third place musher, Jessie Holmes, is almost 60 miles back, so nobody is even close to the top 2. Brent should be able to pull out shortly, but Dallas must stay until close to 1 AM east coast time. I'm assuming both will arrive in Nome on the 15th.
And Brent is off at 11:06 east coast time by my computer watching the live feed. Listed as having 12 dogs in harness.
I'm not staying up to see Dallas off, but will hopefully see the winner cross the finish tomorrow morning or afternoon.
Tuesday morning, 7:05 AM east coast.
Brent Sass has just passed through the last checkpoint before None, the Safety Road House. He pulled in with 11 dogs at 2:47 AM local/6:47 east coast and the GPS tracker has him just outside of town, 22 miles to Nome. Dallas Seavey has managed to close the gap, but is still 11 miles back, running with 8 dogs. As long as Sass' team does not falter big time, he should be crossing the finish first later this morning.
Paige crossed the sea ice last night and checked into Koyuk with 8 dogs at 1:30/5:30 AM and in 18th place. She is resting the team there before the final push along the Seward Peninsula. Has completed 804 with 171 to go. Hoping she will be arriving sometime Wednesday and can hold onto a top 20 finish. Know she said before the race that she was not planning on pushing hard this year because of the new members on the team and retirement of some older ones ... but I still want to see her in the top 20! There is a good chance of that as teams in position 14-20 are all close together, but the person in 21st is on the other side of Norton Sound and still has to cross.
And I think I know why Paige was in Unalakleet for so long. The teams in position 3-5 or 6 had reached the sea ice and met up with a local who had come across (I presume) on a snow machine. Told them that the wind at sea was even worse, up to 40-50 mph. The mushers decided to wait on land for things to die down. Teams that followed all did the same and, at one point, there were something like 15 teams on the south side of Norton Sound waiting for the weather to calm. My guess is that word got back to Unalakleet and several mushers there, like Paige, decided to wait there instead of pushing on. Don't know this, but that is my guess based on interviews that occurred with the mushers reaching Koyuk earlier yesterday. From the Iditarod website:
"When interviewed in Koyuk by Insider, Richie Diehl said his team was doing awesome. The wind was blowing at about 35 mph in Shaktoolik with reports that it was even windier on the ice. So he decided to sit it out. He said that crossing the Sound today was really nice."
Diehl, you say?
9:30 AM, Brent now less than 3 miles out and the live feed from Nome is on! Dallas is 15 miles out, so will be denied a 6th championship. He had closed the gap to 9 miles at 1 point according to GPS, but 3 time Yukon Quest winner Sass is about to capture his first Iditarod championship.
We have a winner! At 5:39 AM Alaska/9:39 AM east coast (not official, just what my computer says), 3 time Yukon Quest Champion Brent Sass crosses the finish line in Nome with 11 dogs. They have to inspect the sled and make sure he has all of the things you are required to carry (sleeping bag, ax, dog booties ...) but once that is done, he will officially be declared the winner.
EDIT: and it is now official, although I still don't have what the official finishing time is.
Dallas should be arriving in an hour or two in second.
Tuesday at 10:13 AM.
In Koyuk, Paige and rookie Hanna Lyrek are resting their teams. They came over the sea ice together, so it may be that they will continue the next section, or possibly the entire rest of the race, together. They are in 19th and 20th place, respectively. Last year, Paige did the final few segments together with Ryne Olsen.
The fact that Seavey made it in 2nd despite dropping half his dogs is incredible.
Kaduce still having all 14 this late is also ridiculous.
Well conditioned Dogs to have all 14.
Yeah to have all of them at the end is really uncommon. Kaduce has never finished in the top 15, so this is a real breakout year for him. Looks to be in the top 5.
While the race is not up to a bucket list item for me, I do believe it would be cool to see the start of the race live someday.
A big thank you to Frosty's dad for providing the coverage of the race (basically the Jim Nantz and Tony Romo of the Iditarod for TKP)
Thank you. I have fun doing this. Glad others enjoy it as well.
Seconded. Thanks Frosty!
Paige and rookie Hanna Lyrek both pulled out of Koyuk and are on the trail to Elim. Paige left at 9:05 local/12:05 east coast in 19th place with 8 dogs and Hanna left 2 minutes later in 20th with 10 dogs. Both rested in Koyuk for ~7.5 hours. Given that they have been travelling together for a while and left at essentially the same time, they will probably stick together at least to Elim about 50 miles away. After Elim, it is Golovin, White Mountain, Safety and then Nome. Was initially guessing she would arrive sometime tomorrow, but with the long break just ended and the need to take the 8 hour layover in White Mountain, thinking it will be Thursday here on the east coast and not Wednesday, but we will see. Just hoping I don't have to be up at 3 PM to watch her come on live!
Tuesday, March 15 9:37 PM.
Looks like our top 4 are probably going to be:
Brents Sass completed in 8d 14h 38m 43s with 11 dogs.
Dallas Seavey completed in 8d 15h 46m 51s with 7 dogs.
Jessie Holmes is in 3rd, 17 miles from Nome with 9 dogs and will likely stay in 3rd.
Dan Kaduce is in 4th, 22 miles from Nome with all 14 dogs still in harness and will likely stay in 4th.
There is still a battle for 5th between Peter Kaiser (37 miles from Nome and running with 9 dogs) and Richie Diehl (39 miles from Nome and running with 8 dogs). Mushers 3-6 should all come in tonight.
Further back is Aaron Burmeister 49 miles away with 7 dogs. Interview with Burmeister back in Koyuk he said that there was no way anyone else was going to catch Brent or Dallas, so he was going to just take it easy and enjoy the rest of the race to Nome - which is where he was born and raised. Took in some extra nap time and is just having a good time in 7th right now. 2 others are within a few miles of Aaron. Figure the top 9 will be in Nome by the time I get up tomorrow morning. Positions 10-17 are all in White Mountain completing their layover.
Paige and Hanna Lyrek did make the entire run from Koyuk to Elim together, pulling in at 2:31 PM local/6:31 east coast and 2:33/6:33. Both are resting their teams in Elim with Hanna officially in 19th and Paige officially in 20th, 852 miles in/123 to Nome. The Berington twins are about 6 miles out of Elim in 21st and 22nd.
No one has scratched since the 13th. Hoping everyone is able to complete the race and that we have 44 finishers.
Good night all.
P.S. Here is the link to the free summary video. Again, it is a day late so really talking about the day before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoIjoq9FkfI
Again, thank you for all of your updates. I've done a few summer runs with sled teams and can't imagine what those teams go through. This is my busy work season but I still look forward to reading your daily synopsis.
Any relation?
Wednesday, March 16, 7 AM.
The top 10 is essentially set as the top 9 are now in Nome and Aaron Peck is <5 miles away with no one else even close to him. Standings and official times for the top 9 are:
Brent Sass 8d 14h 38m 43s
Dallas Seavey 8d 15h 46m 51s
Jessie Holmes 9d 4h 39m 31s
Dan Kaduce 9d 5h 4m 15s
Peter Kaiser 9d 6h 45m 15s
Richie Diehl 9d 7h 2m 13s
Chad Stoddard 9d 8h 28m 0s
Aaron Burmeister 9d 8h 35m 6s
Ryan Redington 9d 9h 26m 38s
Aaron Peck - will be arriving within a few minutes. Might be there by the time I finish typing the post.
EDIT: Just watched on the live feed at Aaron has pulled in at (according to my computer time) 7:10 AM to complete the top 10.
Paige and Hanna Lyrek made the entire run from Elim to White Mountain together and so it looks like they will run the rest of the way together. Hanna pulled into White Mountain at 12:43 AM local/4:43 AM with 10 dogs and Paige at 12:44/4:44 with 8 dogs. They will be eligible to leave for the final 77 mile run to Safety Roadhouse and Nome at ~8:45 AM local/12:45 PM east coast, which should put them in Nome late tonight or early tomorrow morning east coast time.
Wednesday, March 16 1:09 PM.
Paige is off from White Mountain! Pulled out with 7 dogs a couple minutes ago. Wishing her (and Hanna) a good final run. Will be watching the live feed this evening for when they come in.
Wednesday the 16th, 9:25 PM east coast.
Paige and Hanna are less than 5 miles out. The live feed is showing an interview of the husband-wife pair of Jeff and KattieJo Detter is going on now. They are fun to hear - apparently they don't have a flush toilet at home where they live as they are way out somewhere/KattieJo is looking forward to the flush toilet in Koyuk, but I'll really annoyed if they don't show Paige and Hanna finish up live.
EDIT 9:29 PM east coast and they have switched to Nome! Paige is listed in 19th and 4 miles out and Hanna in 20th 5 miles out. They have been running and resting together for almost 2 days, from Shaktoolik, across Norton Sound to Koyuk, over to Elim, White Mountain, Safety and should be pulling onto Front Street in Nome shortly. Champaign on ice (and you don't need an ice bucket, just sit it in the snow).
Wednesday, night and by my unofficial time, Paige just crossed the finish in 20th place at 9:44PM! Congratulations on sniffing out another top 20 finish.
And Hanna wins rookie of the year!
Very good group of people at the finish as it is just before 6 PM in Nome. Announcer mentioned that Paige went to Virginia Tech as she was coming down Front Street and approaching the finish line.
Hanna being interviewed now saying that they first started running together when the wind was really picking up and Paige helped guide her in. Checking Paige's sled now to make sure she has all of the required equipment before she is officially considered a finisher.
And it is now official. Paige finishes in 20th place at 5:43 PM local time/9:43 PM east coast on Wednesday, March 16 with 7 dogs in harness. Total time of 10 days, 2 hours, 43 minutes and 43 seconds.
Thursday morning, March 17.
Paige and 23 others have reached Nome, but the race goes on. Lisbet Norris, who had been running in the red lantern position decided to scratch at Unalakleet. Lisbet had been running a team of traditional Siberian Huskies and not the mixed breed Alaskan Huskies (which I'm pretty sure are not recognized as a true breed of dogs). From her bio: "Lisbet & her family are committed to maintaining the workability of the Siberian Husky and believe that participating in sled dog races, both sprint and distance, is the best way to benchmark the breed."
That means we have 24 teams completed, 19 on the course and 6 scratched. The current red lantern position is held by Yuka Honda just outside of Shaktoolik. She has 12 dogs in harness, 756 miles in and 219 from Nome. There are actually 3 other mushers with GPS saying they are at the same location waiting to cross Norton Sound, but Yuka is listed as in 43rd.
Will keep posting until the last team finishes.
Here is the end of the article talking about her coming in:
"In 20th position is the Squid Acres musher, Paige Drobny. Paige and her husband Cody Strathe started mushing in 2006 as a way to see the great Alaskan Wilderness. They enjoyed camping with their dogs for a couple of years then just for the fun of it, entered the Gin Gin 200 and found they loved racing. Paige has now completed the Iditarod eight times with four finishes in the top 20 including seventh place finishes in 2019 and 2020. With an average speed of 3.93 mph Paige completed her eighth trip to Nome in 10 days, 2 hours and 43 minutes. Paige and Cody have run two teams out of Squid Acres in the 2016 and 2021 Iditarod. During interviews by Insider Liz in Koyuk, Hanna Lyrek said she was very appreciative of traveling with Paige, especially on the windy crossing of Norton Sound. Looks they stuck together the rest of the way to Nome."
Living up to Ut Prosim. She was racing for experience with her new dogs and decided to help somebody out.
Go Paige!
Thursday March 17, 9:30 PM.
28 teams have arrived at Nome to complete the race. Looks like at least 4 more will finish this evening and that will leave 11 teams still on the trail. The final 4 mushers still in the race have completed the crossing of the Norton Sound and are resting at Koyuk, 171 miles from Nome. This includes Yuka Honda (12 dogs), Apayauq Reitan (9 dogs) rookie Kailyn Davis (9 dogs) and rookie Eric Kelly (11 dogs) listed in positions 40-43. They travelled together over the sea ice. Will see if they continue all the way to Nome like Paige and Hanna did. Would not surprise me at all. Given the miles left, could see them pulling in sometime on Saturday and the race formally closing then. Hoping everyone completes and we do not have any more scratches. Good luck to all on completing the distance. If I tried to do this, think I might make it through the ceremonial start and run through Anchorage, but doubt I'd get much further than that :-).
Friday morning, March 18.
As of 7 AM, 32 teams have arrived in Nome and 11 are still on the course. The next in is likely to be Riley Dyche, who pulled out of White Mountain with 6 dogs at 8:06 PM local/12:06 AM east coast. The final 4 is listed as Eric Kelly (11 dogs, GPS tracker has him having arrived at Elim) followed quickly by Kailyn Davis (9 dogs), Yuka Honda (12 dogs) and Apayauq Reitan (8 dogs). They are from 123 to 133 miles from Nome.
There was a point where the wind forced Brent Sass to stop and Dallas was able to close to about 9 miles back. Brent talked about it and there are a couple of short videos he took showing how fierce the wind was on the final run into Nome. Link below to the radio station in Nome with the stories and some pretty intense video.
https://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2022/03/16/wind-almost-derailed-brent-sasss...
Friday evening, March 18. Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news, "March Madness" taking a turn for the worse.
Had noted this morning that the next to finish would likely be Riley Dyche and that the wind had been fierce. Riley remains 49 miles out from Nome and is pinned down by wind that was estimated to be 40-45 mph. Has been joined by Jeff Deeter, KattiJo Deeter and France's Sebastien Dos Santos Borges. Two rookie mushers, Gerhardt Thiart and Bridgett Watkins, have had to be evacuated. Gerhardt was having his team shuttled off of the trail by snow machine into the woods for protection and he came off the sled. Preliminary report is a broken ankle. He has been returned to White Mountain for evacuation. Unclear how it happened, but latest report is Bridgett has a broken collarbone. She is also back in White Mountain waiting for evacuation. Search and Rescue teams are with their dog teams and trail breakers have loaded up and are heading out with straw and provisions for the dogs until they can be safely brought in. As far as I know, rookie Sean Williams is also on the trail, but his GPS has him 60 miles from Nome and not with the other 4.
Meanwhile, the 4 trailing mushers have reached White Mountain and will, obviously, be staying there for their 8 hour layover and to make sure the trail conditions are safe.
Keeping Gerhard, Bridgett and all the mushers and dog teams facing the winds in our thoughts and prayers.
Damn
Yeah I wondered why he had not moved back the 49 mile mark. Assumed it was wind and maybe the trail was blown out. Had not expected this. Riley's team has been stuck out there in this since this morning.
First group of dogs has made it back to White Mountain. The next group of dogs is expected to arrive soon. Rookie Sean Williams has also made it back to White Mountain. He is in good spirits and uninjured.
Gerhardt and Bridgett have both been evacuated safety to Nome. Bridgett has some frostbite to her face. She was the first to trigger the alert beacon as she was concerned for her and Gerhardt's team.
Apparently Riley Dyche has been in a shelter cabin so he has been well protected since this Friday morning. The Deeters and Sebastien were on the trail. Was some concern about Sebastien's hands, but he is doing okay now.
Mushers in White Mountain will not be allowed to leave until weather is calmed and it is considered safe to go.
Saturday morning March 19. Great interview with Sean Wiliams back at White Mountain that I wish was not behind a paywall. Talks about how he went out. Wind was about 20-25 mph. It then picked up to 30 mph, which is where he said you really have to start paying attention to it. It quickly went up to 40+ and it was on a hillside with little snow there, so the sled would slide around. Got off and hunkered down at ~6 AM to wait for dawn. Cleared up for about 15 minutes and he tried to get going, but quickly worsened. Dogs could not go in a straight line and were being pushed to the side. Sled was knocked over and he went flying. Stopped again, tipped the sled over, anything light was immediately blown away when you took it out. Waited for hours and no one came, so figured he had better try and get out. Got the team all straightened out, tried walking in front of them with the ice anchors. Would walk in front, plant the ice anchors and then walk the team forward. Retrieve the anchors, walk forward and plant them and then do it again. Said they did that for all of 50 or 60 feet but he, the dogs and the sled were getting blown over, so stopped again. Then locals showed up on snow machines to help and then the formal search and rescue teams and he got out of there.
Sean, Brent and Gerhardt have all scartched.
I am getting different answers about where the other 8 teams are. Leader board and GPS give different position. Unclear if they will wait until the weather clears - reports say it could hit 60 mph tonight - or if the race will close. GPS says Riley Dyche is back on the trail and running his team towards Safety checkpoint.
Based on GPS:
Riley is running on the trail, 40 miles from Nome and 18 from Safety.
Jeff Deeter, KattiJo Deeter and Sebastien Dos Santos Borges are 49 miles from Nome (I presume at the trail shelter cabin).
Kailyn Davis, Apayauq Reitan, Yuka Honda and Eric Kelly are at White Mountain, 77 miles from Nome.
Saturday night, March 19.
First of all, all dogs that had been on the trail with the evacuated mushers have made it back to White Mountain. They are being cared for there are the vet says all are okay. They are in the process of being flown out.
Riley Dyche has made it into Nome. Arriving at Nome with 6 dogs at 10:30 AM local/2:30 PM east coast as the 33rd finisher. Riley noted that he lives off the grid and in a dry cabin (i.e., no running water) so the trail shelter cabin with was actually pretty comfortable.
The 3 mushers who had made it to Riley at the shelter cabin (Jeff Deeter, KittiJo Deeter and Sebastien Dos Santos Borges) have all scratched. The GPS has Jeff and KittiJo traveling along the trail to Nome, but because they accepted assistance to get to the cabin, they have scratched. Guessing Jeff and KittiJo are just continuing onto Nome on their own.
That leaves the final teams on the trail belonging to the ones who were behind the bad wind yesterday.
Rookie Kailyn Davis running with 8 dogs and just 3 miles outside of Safety/25 miles from None
Rookie Eric Kelly running with 10 dogs, 5 miles outside of Safety/27 miles from Nome
Yuka Honda running with 11 dogs, 17 miles outside of Safety/39 miles from Nome
Apayauq Reitan running with 7 dogs, 17 miles outside of Safety/39 miles from Nome
If the weather holds, all 4 of them could come into Nome tomorrow morning east coast time. Has been quite a finish.
Sunday morning, March 20.
And it's a final. Apayauq Reitan became the 37th musher to pull into Nome. Arriving at 11:39 PM on March 19th local time/3:39 AM March 20 east coast time with 7 dogs. As the last musher to complete the race and is awarded the Red Lantern as a symbol of perseverance and determination. Official run time was 13d 8h 39m 13s with an average speed of 3.01 mph.
For reference, Brent Sass' winning time was 8d 14h 38m 43s for an average speed of 4.66 mph.
Paige's official time was 10d 2h 43m 43s and 3.97 mph in 20th place.
Congratulations to all the mushers and their teams.
I know this was a labor of love, almost like taking care of a newborn baby with the getting up during the night (to track what was happening along the trail) .,, and feeding (us tidbits to follow those out in the cold). Nonetheless, I loved following the story. Thanks for taking the time to do this for us. I hope you can do it again next year ,,, and the year after that ,,, and the year after that ,,, and the year after that ... ;>)
For those of you that also got into the Iditarod from the great coverage provided by Frosty's dad, here is a pretty great article about what went down for Watkins and to some extent Thiart went through during that final stretch.
https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/33684182/how-iditarod-rookie-bridge...
As I was reading, I couldn't help but imagine this to be a movie at some point in the future.
Better storyline than a lot of movies released nowadays.