Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2012 News & Coverage

So, after I posted the information about mushers making up their starting time at some unknown checkpoint along the trail, I got a phone call from race headquarters alerting me to the fact that the other day, at the closed mushers meeting, the “dog runners” told race officials that they all would rather not make up time, and just race to the finish line instead.

There has not been any press releases or statements from the Lead Judge about this, and other than the heads up from HQ, I don’t have much to go by. All I know is the official race rules, and what I heard happened at the meeting. I guess all we can do at this point is wait for some official word. I’m supposed to be talking to the Race Director sometime this evening, we will see if he has anything to say on this matter.

Apparently another rule change that came out of that closed meeting was that there would be no 24 hour waiting period once the first musher crosses the finish line, and that they would immediately be declared as the winner. Originally the 24 hour period was another flashback to how the race originally was run, and would give other mushers the opportunity to file a complaint against the potential winner. No word on this change was passed along or put out in a statement after the meeting…… we’ll check more into this as well.

I also updated the top ten standings to include Ramy Brooks…..it was a typo that he wasn’t in there.

In other news, word just came in that Jeff Darling was the last musher to arrive INTO Boston just a few moments ago, and is taking right off on his way to Telephone! The checker said that the weather in Boston is beautiful, and five below.

updated at 17:45 to reflect a new musher arrival into Candle, and correction

With the top four all having reached Candle (and we can confirm that we *know* both Jeff & Lance just kept going) we’ve now reached the point of the race where mushers will start running into each other on the trail, and the official rule (that was reminded to checkers over the ham radio) is that the INCOMING musher to Nome has the right of way. I mentioned it this morning in the podcast, but can you imagine that scene when Jeff King was headed back on the trail just a few miles outside of Candle and had right of way over Lance Mackey headed to the halfway point? Talk about tense situations… this is a very close race and is running MUCH quicker than I think anyone expected.

There have been some questions about how exactly the mushers make up the time difference between themselves from when they left the starting line. In Iditarod, this is made up at the 24-hour layover checkpoint, and the earlier a musher left the starting line, the more time they have to make up in the middle of the race….. As the first to leave, Conner Thomas will have about 32 minutes to make up, and Sonny Lindner won’t have any since he was the last. Because there are no mandatory layovers in the AAS, there is one secret checkpoint where the time will be made up. The only person right now who knows where that checkpoint will be, is the Lead Judge – Al Crane. Speaking with the Race Director a few days ago, he admitted that even he had no idea where this was going to be. The only information that I can give is what I’ve heard on the public ham airwaves….and there is a small chance that it could be a clue on where the only mandatory layover will be. I heard that Judge Al Crane flew out of Nome early this afternoon to check on the trail and soon after popped up on the ham in the checkpoint of Boston. That would be over halfway on the trail, if you’re guessing….could be a good place to do a stop like this.

Stay tuned….

15:06 – Lance Mackey, second in to Candle – and BACK out on the trail 20 minutes after Jeff King.

14:44 – Jeff King arrived into Candle first! – 13 dogs in harness

2:00pm – Word is just coming in from the Candle checkpoint, the weather is looking pretty good, its 4 above zero, and the skies are clear. They are awaiting the first musher at the halfway point, and it appears via airplane report that the first musher to reach the checkpoint will be Lance Mackey…..but then another plane said it could be King, so we will see!
Other interesting information: details are still coming out on Hugh Neff’s withdraw, Mitch Seavey’s support team had some trouble earlier, 3 miles north of Haven and ended up breaking a sled.

I just got back a few minutes ago from recording our first podcast, I was trying all morning to get some information to post, but ended up just going with the info we had at the time and recording this podcast. Right before the podcast we got the word that Hugh Neff has withdrawn from the race at the Haven checkpoint earlier this morning, although the information didn’t break until around 11-11:30. I spoke with Dr. Phil, the race director and he said that Hugh withdrew not because he was forced to, not because of an injury to his team or any of his dogs, but simply because of how tough this trail is, and how much more overwhelming it was than he was expecting (see above posts on issue’s with Hugh’s support team) I’ll be following up and trying to get more information as the afternoon goes on.

In this podcast, we talk about the current standings, our conversation with the checker from Safety, race expectations, and early speculation on Hugh Neff’s withdrawal from the race. I want to quickly apologize for the quality of some of the audio, we didn’t hear that it was goofy until it was to late…and I didn’t want to delay getting this thing out. The problem has been resolved and will be better for next time!

We will be recording again later this evening, and either at that recording, or another time tonight I’ve got a sit down interview with Dr. Phil, the race director scheduled that I’ll record and post in its entirety.

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Sure, everyone knows Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Ramy Brooks, even Cim Smyth, Jim Lanier, and Sonny Lindner… but some of the more unknown names in this year’s All Alaska Sweepstakes come from the locals of Nome, and member’s of the sweepstakes’ own Nome Kennel Club. The Nome mushers range from a home-making mom, to two attorneys.

These mushers aren’t in the race because they necessarily think they have a good shot at the winner-take-all prize, they are in to test themselves, test their dogs, and to explore some of the least traveled areas in their backyard.

Kirsten Bey

Kirsten Bay is from Nome Alaska, having lived here since 1994. Kirsten says she was primarily raised in Portland Oregon, and moved to Alaska in 1990. Kirsten first came to visit Alaska to see two law school classmates. She met Vern Halter and was offered me a job handling for him. After a winter, she decided to stay on and work for Vern and Susan. They gave her the opportunity to run a young team in the 1993 Iditarod, and it was after that she decided she wanted to continue mushing. Kirsten is a lawyer here in Nome. She works as a Public Defender, and has done so for the last 20 years.

Jeff Darling

Jeff Darling lives here in Nome, and has been self-employed for the last 6 years. He is married, and enjoys hunting and fishing around Nome. Jeff started mushing in 2003 and says he has limited experience. He says he enjoys life and the Alaskan wilderness. He love animals and enjoy their companionship. his team is comprised of three year olds and yearlings from the same mother. Two litters of nine and a couple of dogs from the pound.

stay tuned for more local musher profiles

As of 5:45pm AKST – The first 10 mushers have arrived into the checkpoint of Timber; here are the standings for the checkpoint:

1. Jim Lanier – 16:05 – 13 Dogs
2. Lance Mackey – 16:11 – 13 Dogs
3. Ed Iten – 16:17
4. Ramy Brooks – 16:18 – 12 Dogs
5. Hugh Neff – 16:20 – 13 Dogs
6. Mitch Seavy – 16:29 – 10 Dogs
7. Aaron Nurmiester – 16:29 – 11 Dogs
8. Sonny Linder – 16:29 – 13 Dogs
9. Jeff King – 16:38 – 13 Dogs
10. Cim Smyth – 17:23 – 11 Dogs/1 in Bag

Mushers don’t, however have to check out and so its going to be tricky to figure out what the standings are, luckily the checkpoints are all pretty close to each other, so the flow of information is pretty constant. What we do know, via the local ham operator chat, is that no mushers have been staying at Timber, they have all been heading onto Council, attempting to cover as much ground during the daylight as possible. This trail is going to start getting tricky as once the teams pass Council, they will be heading even further north, but they will also start to be on trails that are very rarely used. I was talking to a friend here in Nome and he was expressing the fact that even some of the most hardcore outdoor enthusiasts in the area don’t venture past death valley (after Telephone), even on snowmachine, and many local mushers don’t usually make it out to Council. I am getting word from the Boston Checkpoint and they are saying its beautiful out right now, even joking that as they are waiting for everyone to arrive it’s tee-shirt weather (they did also note that it was 20 below this morning!). Timber is reporting right now that it’s high overcast, with no snowfall, and a slight breeze.

There are two mushers who have left Topkok and are on their way to Timber, and a handful who are sticking around the Topkok checkpoint for a bit longer.