Martin Buser got everyone talking by pushing hard to Rohn on day one then taking his mandatory 24-hour layover there. Judging by all the chatter and comments on the sites I check, this is an unprecedented move that is going to either fail completely or pay off brilliantly for Martin. Everyone is watching closely to see what happens.
The weather forecast is looking frightful, but not in the way you might think. This is a report from the Iditarod site from Joe Runyon:
Old Man Weather has entered the Iditarod as a major player. In an effort to simplify the situation, I deferred to a number of pilots who are presently grounded in Takotna. Unable to move because of visibility limits caused by continuing snow fall, they told me that weather was going to change even more tomorrow, Thursday morning, as a storm interrupts normal winter. Winds are forecast to blow along the Iditarod trail to checkpoint Iditarod upto 50 mph and on the Yukon trail sections. (see map, but basically the trail for the lead pack for the next several days.)The frontrunners have left the Iditarod checkpoing (the halfway point) on their way to Shageluk. Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Sonny Linderer, Martin Buser and Aaron Burmiester are currently holding the top 5 spots in the race. HOWEVER, of that group only Martin Buser has taken his mandatory 24-hour layover (which can be taken at any time at the musher's discretion). A big bunch of teams left Takotna late last night and will be breathing down their necks with dogs fresh off their 24-hour rest.
Furthermore, temperatures may rise to 50F, which is is just totally off the chart for Interior Alaska, and bring with it rain and maybe sleet.
In addition, our camera guys who are sitting at about mile470 on the trail to Iditarod are reporting that Lance is ahead of them in direction Iditarod checkpoint . They give an assessment of the trail as “turning to oatmeal.”
Meanwhile BIG PICTURE
For Lance, who is leading the race, this could be distressing news. However, the GPS tracker, a wonderful tool, positions Lance aout 26 miles from Iditarod and shows him travelling 9mph. Once again it appears the mushers are ok in nature, but once a snowmachine passes over the trail it totally fractures the stability of the trail.
Aaron Burmeister will be leading a phalynx of mushers out of Takotna around 10:30 PM. How will the weather developments affect the trail for this group? A grand question.
Final Thought
The weather picture is almost unfathonable. Mushers regularly plan for wet snow on the south side of the Alaska Range in the first two days of the race, by packing rain jackets, water proof foot gear, and even big plastic garbage bags to wear as rain jackets.
But once over the Alaska Range, an assumption of no rain prevails. No one wants to carry useless gear, so all the wet weather stuff is left behind in a “home” bag.
The weather could be a big game changer. Probably the best position is to be to the front of the race with LaNCE. HE is almost to Iditarod and could declare his 24 hour mandatory. The following pack will wallow through slush to reach him and struggle to lay out a trail to Shageluk and the Yukon River village of Anvik. Meanwhile, Lance can hope for cooler weather to give him a virtual skating rink from Iditarod to the Yukon.
I offer the following anecdote to demonstrate what can happen. In my first winter in 1971 in Alaska I located on the Yukon River and helped a long time friend of mine on his trap line. We left the village of Tanana at about 20 F but by afternoon temperatures were well into the forties and raining. The trail upriver was absolutely dissolving and we struggled to move at all. Moccassins and clothers were soaked and even my beaver mitts were useless and saturated with rain. By dark it began to cool, and stars appeared between clouds. Freddie Jordan, who had been born in a cabin along the Yukon and was exactly my age by a month, but raised in a completely different environment, immediately said, “It’s going to clear and we have to find a place.” He remembered an old cabin several miles away and in the dark we slowly slogged off the river through overgrown willows and found it. Fashioning a stovepipe from a piece of roof tin, we managed to get a fire going in a rusted barrel stove. By midnight the temperature dropped to a very dangerous minus 50F. Fortunately, we had dried our mitts and foot gear through the night and the following day returned on a sheen of ice to the village.
Oh yeah, final thought. Usually things are not as bad as portrayed or predicted.
I love this bit from Joe Runyon, one of the Iditarod journalists:
At the moment, deiphering the competiton is complicated. But, I like it because we can watch it all unfold, probably about Anvik on the Yukon. Basically, I am thinking that the best team, by whatever method, will probably finds its way to the rabbit hole no matter the strategy.Basically, no one knows who is winning.
Once again, here are the present key players. Lance and Jeff King, the 4x champ, are at Iditarod and probably declaring a 24. Aaron Burmeister is advancing to Iditarod with a strong team and has already taken a 24. Martin Buser, although his team is slowing, is still leveraging a monster advantage he gained earlyin the race at Rohn. Jake Berkowitz, a dark horse resting out of the spot light in Ophir, is emerging as the possible designee as “race leader.”
Don't you just love this sport? You can't actually watch the action, it takes over a week for the "game" to end, and you can't tell who is winning until it is over. What other event is like it?
Some pictures for your viewing pleasure:
The Nikolai checkpoint from the air.
A view of the trail near Rainy Pass from the air.
A team coming in to Rohn
Mushing on the ice.
No comments:
Post a Comment