March 4 - Afternoon Update

It was a rough morning for our mushers.  The big news today is the harsh trail conditions from Rohn to Nikolai. The forerunners are heading from Rohn into Nikolai through some of the toughest sections of the trail, including the Farewell Burn.  Iditarod.com has a great detailed description of this part of the trail.  Jen Seavey says this about this section of the trail:

The Burn is bad. Low snow years in the past have resulted in jarring, musher busting, sled breaking trips, but this year there is no snow. Expect to see a lot of broken sleds and tired, bruised mushers in Nikolai.

The scariest part of this section is always the first 20 miles out of Rohn. The trail weaves through a gravel bar and drift wood obstacle course on the glare ice of the Rohn River before suddenly veering into the trees. (You don't want to miss that turn!) For the next 15 miles, it winds through the trees and alternates between glaciated side hills and frozen dirt moguls. Once you careen your way through there, you are faced with several more hours of frozen tundra tussocks to bounce over. The trail gets better as you get closer to Nikolai. Post card worthy birch tree forests and a pristine snow covered river lead into the checkpoint.

You can imagine that this area is still filled with rocks, stumps, hillocks, logs, ditches and other hazards. There is often wind with gusts up to 40 mph. Now imagine going over it with no snow.  In a sled.  With 16 excited dogs pulling you along.  And no sure way to stop them. 

Below is Martin Buser’s team travelling through the Farewell Burn (or, as it has been dubbed this year the Farewell Brown):

Here are some quick highlights I’ve gathered from the morning reports:

·         Aaron Burmeister crashed going down a hill when his brake caught on a stump and dislocated his knee in the subsequent crash.  He field dressed it with vet wrap and duct tape and is hoping to get a knee brace in Rohn so he can continue.

·         Hugh Neff said “it’s a minefield out there!” and broke his break off the sled.

·         Jeff King’s team jumped over a deep, wide hole, but the sled (and musher) weren’t so lucky, slamming into it hard.  Jeff says “it’s the roughest I’ve ever seen it.”  He ought to know, as he is a 22-time race finisher and a four-time winner.

·         Linwood Feidler scratched in Rohn, citing “physical injury from driving the Dalzell Gorge.”

·         DeeDee Jonrowe scratched in Rohn, saying she was “beat up physically by in the Dalzell Gorge.”

·         Jim Lanier scratched in Rohn because he injured his leg.

·         Mike Santos scratched in Rohn for “personal reasons.”

·         Nicholas Petit arrived in Nikolai about 5:35 this morning with a trashed sled, 16 happy dogs, and a twisted knee.  Comments from Joe Runyan’s blog:

He was having fun with the image of catastrophe, in a satirical way, but was also genuinely irritated and frustrated with the mushing through the Dalzell and across the Nikolai Burn.  I enjoyed talking with him and believe him when he said no human would ever intentionally or knowingly mush dogs over the previous day’s trail.  Incredibly, the dogs had fun and Nicholas plans to continue with his sixteen dogs.  ”We train all the time on bare ground in the fall time, but we use a four wheeler.  This time we were mushing on a four wheeler trail without a four-wheeler.”

He was quick to point out that the trail was good for DOGS, just not humans.  With solid footing, the dogs were just as they were in the fall time training before the snow falls.  ”Oh  yeah, the dogs were having lots of fun.  They love it because it’s not boring.  The trail is changing all the time.”

·         A number of mushers have already left the Nikolai checkpoint heading out towards McGrath.  Sonny Lindner, Hugh Neff, Aliy Zirkle (go Aliy!), and Nicolas Petit have checked in, had a short rest and headed back out on the trail.  Race commentators speculate that they plan to skip the hubbub of the checkpoint and bed their dogs down for a good rest somewhere along the trail.

Don’t forget that the mushers cannot accept help with their teams at the checkpoints.  They have to take care of all their dogs’ needs – feeding, watering, booties, jackets, etcetera – before they can get some rest and take care of themselves.  And for a team of 16 dogs, that takes a while!  That’s 64 paws to bootie up!  I expect that there will be some scratches later on from mushers with the more serious injuries as they realize that they can’t take care of their dogs because of their injury.  Of course, they don’t only rest and feed and water their dogs at the checkpoints, but multiple times on the trail between checkpoints.

The good news is the trail ahead is looking good with the snow cover increasing.  As Joe Runyon says in his blog “happy times on the forecast!”  Weather for the Nikolai, McGrath, Takotna, Ophir area at 1:45 was 14 degrees with light snow.  The National Weather Service issued the following warning for the area around Anchorage (which is now 250 or so miles behind them):

. SNOW RETURNING TO SOUTH CENTRAL ALASKA...
A SLOW-MOVING WEATHER SYSTEM OVER THE INTERIOR OF THE STATE WILL RESULT IN A PROLONGED PERIOD OF SNOW TO THE AREA THROUGH THURSDAY. LIGHT SNOW WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SUSITNA VALLEY THIS MORNING AND SPREAD SOUTH TO THE MATANUSKA VALLEY AND ANCHORAGE BOWL DURING THE DAY. SNOW WILL INCREASE IN INTENSITY AROUND MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND CONTINUE INTO EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE HIGHEST SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WILL OCCUR ALONG THE TALKEETNA MOUNTAINS AND IN THE FAR NORTHERN SUSITNA VALLEY... AS WELL AS PARTS OF PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND... WHERE TOTAL SNOWFALL BETWEEN 6 AND 12 INCHES IS LIKELY. MEANWHILE THE ANCHORAGE AREA SHOULD BE ON THE LIGHT END OF TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THIS STORM WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS LIKELY NOT TO EXCEED 3 INCHES.

More tomorrow morning!