March 6 AM Update

Lots of movement happened last night.  The current Red Lantern (last musher) is rookie Yvonne Dabakk who checked into the Nikolai checkpoint at 12:52 yesterday. I imagine she is taking a nice long rest there. We’ll start to see how different mushing strategies are going to play out from here.

Here are some highlights:

·         Rookie Lev Svarts’ sled was damaged beyond repair between Rohn & Nikolai and he can’t continue and has scratched from the race.  He and his dogs are fine and will be flown to McGrath with the Iditarod Air Force.

·         Aaron Burmeister was the first to arrive at the Cripple checkpoint at 3:26am.  He was awarded the GCI Dorothy Page Halfway Award including a trophy and $3,000 in gold nuggets.  He’s still struggling with his badly injured knee but is pushing ahead.

      

·       Reports say the trail and the weather are “exceptional.”  I’m sure the mushers are relieved to have an easier trail to navigate.  I question the “exceptional” weather, as they are anticipating temperatures plummeting to -40F.  I guess it is all relative! 

·         The mushers currently holding the top 5 spots (as of 7am), King, Lindner, Burmeister, Baker, and Gebhardt are into the Cripple checkpoint and none of them have taken their 24 hour layovers yet.  King & Lindner have both left the Cripple checkpoint, heading for Ruby.

·         The next 16 mushers have left Ophir fresh off of their 24-hour layovers. At this point no musher has yet taken their mandatory 8-hour layover.

·         About half the mushers are on the trail and the other half resting in Cripple, Ophir, Takotna, McGrath or Nikolai.

·         Who is in first place?  Armchair mushers are saying that Martin Buser has a lead of about 7 hours depending on how you look at it (whatever that means!).

·         The first musher to Ruby gets a seven-course meal and a bucket full of $3,500 in cold, hard cash.  Who will it be?  Only 8 miles separate Jeff King and Sunny Lindner. And it is expected one of them will scoop up the prizes.

Here’s a great video of Aliy Zirkle’s team singing to her as she heads out of Takotna.

Some images from day 4 can be found here.

More updates later!