With arguably the toughest trail in Iditarod history, and 23 scratched mushers, in 16 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes, Ellen can still be extremely proud just to have finished this grueling race. Halverson, who is 46 and a native of North Dakota started mushing nearly 15 years ago and moved to Alaska in 1998. She was the last one to finish this years race, and only 14 minutes behind Donald Smidt from Wisconsin.

Brooks Disqualified

There has been a cloud of controversy surrounding the Iditarod this year because of the disqualification and investigation of musher Ramy Brooks. Things got bad for Brooks as he was on the Bering Sea coast, on his way to the final checkpoint of Safety, it was there that one of Brook’s dogs died. Heartbroken, Ramy continued onto Safety and told the checker there that he would like to scratch from the race. The checker tried to get a hold of the Race Marshall in Nome but was unable to do so, vets checked out Brooks’ dogs and advised that he continue the last 22 miles into Nome. Once Brooks arrived in Nome he was not checked in until an investigation could be done on the death of his dog, the process that one would normally go through at the checkpoint. About 6 hours later he was checked into Nome in 15th place, instead of 12th.

It wasn’t long after that when rumors started flying about allegations made against Brooks stating that as he was passing though the village of Golovin, he “spanked” two of his dogs that refused to continue on the trail, it was reported that he used a thin piece of wood, used as a trail marker to hit his dogs. This action was seen by a teacher in the village and some students. The students went home, told their parents, and a parent notified race officials. Brooks was disqualified from Iditarod 35 on the evening of March 17th, a few hours after Nome’s “Meet the Mushers” gathering, where I noticed a obviously troubled Brooks. A panel of 3 investigators had been meeting, and unanimously agreed to disqualify Ramy Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod.

Since that time, it has been reported in the media that the extent of Brooks’ abuse to his dogs in Golovin was more than originally confirmed. The teacher is claiming that Brooks punched and kicked each of his dogs when the team stopped outside of the village. Another accusation is that Brooks’ mother – Roxy Wright, a famed musher assisted Brooks’ by standing on the back of his sled while he was trying to get his dogs to continue. This violates another Iditarod rule about the type of help you can get while out on the trail.

Race Marshall Mark Nordman has said that a investigation will continue looking into these events, and right now it is just the word of one person against another. The result of an inquest could be a permanent ban from the Iditarod for Brooks. Ramy has accepted is disqualification from this year’s race and does not dispute the original story but has not made a comment on the details that came out later. The investigation into Brook’s dog death coming into Safety suggest that the two incidents are not related.

GB Jones’ Dog Found

You may remember a while back we reported that GB Jones decided to scratch from the Iditarod after one of his dogs got loose and was lost. Jones chose to scratch so he could find his dog Aafes. After 11 days in the Alaskan Wilderness, two volunteers found the dog near the checkpoint of Rohn. According to Jones’ website Aafes was airlifted out of the Alaska range and was given a physical health exam by the Bering Sea Animal Clinic in Anchorage and is reported to be in relatively good health. Jones’ also adds that Aafes is been doing lots of sleeping and eating since, and when found she was still wearing her blue dog coat, her harness, a bandanna and green Iditarod tag.

The Iditarod Awards Banquet wrapped up a few hours ago in the Nome Rec Center, it was an amazing dinner of Halibut, Prime-Rib, prawns, and fresh strawberries. Its always fun to hear stories as told by the mushers, and see the awards all given out. We were there taping the whole banquet, and have now posted it online for you to enjoy. We weren’t able to get a feed from the microphone itself, but we did have a recording device on the stage just to the right of the podium, so you are able to hear pretty much everything that is going on.

It’s split up into five sections, and unfortunately because of the manner in which this was all able to come together, we ran out of juice about half way through and missed some of the middle mushers as I went and literally ran into Nome to get some fresh batteries for the recording device. We tried to make it happen as best as possible.

You can also see pictures of the event by clicking (here)

Things will start to wind down on Sunday afternoon with the Iditarod Awards Banquet where the prize money is handed out, after that there will just a handful of mushers left out on the trail…but don’t worry, they get their own Banquet once the red lantern comes in.

I’d bet that Rick Swenson would love to have had that headline appear in the papers back in 1978 when he came in second place to Dick Mackey by just a brief moment in what is the most dramatic finish in Iditarod history. For the five time champion this year things are different; Rick hasn’t seen the top 10 since 2004, or won the race since 1991. He joked at the Musher’s Banquet in Anchorage that he was hoping to make this year his sixth victory, even losing a significant amount of weight before the race by going on Atkins. Rick wasn’t able to do as well as he hoped, coming in 26th place…but how he got that position is a fun story. He arrived under the Burled Arch just 1 second in front of rookie Silvia Willis. In what was to spectators very reminiscent of that Swenson/Mackey race up front street in 1978, Rick and Silvia started the battle out on the sea ice in front of Nome. Rick left Safety 20 minutes before Willis and she kept gaining on him during the last few miles into town. They were running as fast as they could all the way in the chute and Rick got luck this time and kept his lead.

Our top twenty consisted of the usual suspects, the Smyth brothers Ramey and Cim, Hugh Neff, Hans Gatt, Aaron Burmeister, and Jessie Royer coming in 22nd.  Jason Barron came in 14th, he was definitely hoping to better this year, describing last year’s eighth place finish as a “competitive camping trip”.  Jason’s dad John Barron has ran Iditarod 26 times, never with a win.  Rookie of the year contender Sigrid Ekran got into Nome in 21st position.

Sorlie arrives.

Robert Sorlie may have come in this year in 12th place, but like any true Iditarod Champion, he is always looking forward to next time.  Sorlie has the best record out of any other Iditarod musher this decade, he finished 9th his rookie year in 2002 and he won the race the next year, and won again next time he won in 2005.  Coming into the race I knew the field was competitive, but I almost expected Sorlie to win, thats what he does.  Maybe it was the trail, maybe it was the puppy team, or maybe it just wasn’t Robert’s year.  Coming in looking tired, and a man of few words Sorlie told the media that he was happy to be in Nome.  Sorlie is part of a three person team from Norway which also includes Kjetil Backen, and Sorlie’s nephew Bjornar Andersen, however Robert is the musher who runs Iditarod most often and has the best record.  Backen came close to winning in 2004, a year that Sorlie took off, however after the death of a dog just outside Unalakleet Kjetil lost his lead, but still managed to finish in 3rd place.  Bjornar ran as a rookie in 2005 and was rookie of the year after his 4th place finish, in 2006 he was the sole representation for team Norway, and finished in a strong 6th place.  You can hear an archive of Sorlie’s live finish at the bottom of this post.

Ramy Brooks Dog Death

Checking into Saftey is usually just a formality, mushers pick up their bib here and get ready for the final 2 or 3 hour trip into Nome. But this year for Ramy Brooks was different. On the trail from White Mountain one of Brook’s dogs died.  When he got to Safety and told the officials, everyone agreed he should take the dog into Nome with him to the trail committee could do a full investigation.  I went out to Cape Nome on snowmachine and saw Ramy come in, he did look tired but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about his run.  We went down to the finish line to announce his arrival and for the first few minutes things went as usual. Ramy arrived, hugged friends and family, fed his dogs and answered a few questions from the media.  But then he was quickly rushed out of the chute and what normally is about 15 minutes of hugs, media questions, and official checking in, was only 5-7 minutes and Ramy never signed in.  After Brooks left the chute Race Marshall Mark Nordman told the media that Brooks had a dog die along the way and wouldn’t be checked in until the cause of death could be determined.  Nominally, if that had happened at a checkpoint the musher would be held there until they were released.  Ramey went from a 11th place finish to a 15th.   Brooks comes from another historic mushing family and has been behind a sled pretty much his entire life.  Even at 15th this year is quite an improvement from Ramy’s worst finish ever last year when he came in 31st.  He finished second in 2002 and 2003, and has finished in the top ten four other times since he started running the Iditarod in 1994.  Brooks is one of those guys who will win someday, he has great skill and a strong team, he is just waiting for the year when everything will go right.