Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2012 News & Coverage

Jeff King is getting closer and closer to overtaking Lance Mackey and leading this year’s Iditarod as the mushers approach the coastal village of Unalakleet.  Earlier this morning Mackey made what could end up being a vital mistake and lost a few precious hours to this closest competitor.  Lance was less than an hour from Nulato and not realizing how close he was, still thinking he had a long ways to go, decided it was going to be best for him and his team to pull over for a few hours and rest.  He staying and camped for three hours before pushing along and soon realizing he was just a few miles outside of the checkpoint.  He had been planning to keep pushing on, spend a healthy 6 or 7 hours inNulato before blitzing right on through Kaltag and onto Unalakleet.  By the time he got into Nulato it was nearly 10am, and King arrived just two hours later at nearly noon.

By 4:30pm both Mushers had left Nulato and headed onto Kaltag, which is 42 miles away…Mackey was still just over an hour and a half ahead of King.  Now on the trail Jeff continues to have a little bit quicker of a team and is approaching Mackey, at this pace King *could* be the first musher into Unalakleet on Sunday afternoon or evening.

Mackey was the first one into Ruby, and this afternoon he was the first one out of Ruby. Mackey, coming off of pushing very hard over two long streches of the trail took his manditory 8-hour layover at the first available checkpoint out of the four that are along the Yukon River. Mackey led the race today by over two hours to Jeff King who arrived mid-morning, its still Backen in third however his grip on the other two has loosened quite a bit since a few days ago when everyone was just about half hour apart… Backen arrived into Ruby 6 hours after Lance arrived, and only 2 hours before Mackey was set to leave. Kjetil, who got in at 1:37pm is now running much closer to Mitch Seavey & Hans Gatt who arrived respectively at 1:57pm, and 2:09pm.
Down in the comments of an earlier post, Lee asked

“..Why would the leader put up with the loss of race focus (and alcohol with each course) when caring for his dogs, checking equipment and resting are the real priorities? As an outsider with no expertise whatsoever, I’d get a raincheck for the meal, a receipt for the cash, one photo with the cash and a huge grin and get back to race priorities. Especially if I had only 14 dogs and a hungry Jeff King was close behind with all 16 of his. But then, I’ve always been strange!”

The truth is Lee, sometimes a musher coming into this checkpoint (Ruby even years, and Anvik northern years) will do just that, grab a quick bite and pose for a quick photo before heading down the trail. Mackey left Takotna a few days ago and saw the pace at which other teams were running (Backen and King) and thought that he might be able to run through Ophir and Cripple and into Ruby even though it wasn’t part of his original plan. When he left Cripple King was a few hours behind him and was in the middle of resting his dogs. Mackey knew that both of them were going to have to take those 8 hours off sometime over the next day or two once they got to the Yukon River, and if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it at a point when you can fill up on some good food. In short, he felt like it wasn’t irresponsible to take his “8″ at this point in the race, had he felt differently I’m sure he would have breezed through like others have in the past. Turns out that King is also taking his 8 hour rest at Ruby as well and there was no time lost – there was plenty of time left in his layover to get some sleep and tend to his team!

P.S. While writing this report I’ve been listening to today’s Iditablog Song of the day: Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs.

Just about an hour ago (at 7:32am Alaska time) Lance Mackey completed a long 112 mile trek from Cripple to make him the first musher to reach the Yukon, and the village of Ruby. As I reported last night the first musher to this checkpoint (and Anvik on the southern route) wins $5000 and a gourmet meal prepared over a campstove by the Executive Chef of the Millennium Hotel. I’m sure that after such a long trek, going an average of 10mph he is going to enjoy this meal….and I’m sure his wife will enjoy the dinner when they get to do it all again later on in Anchorage after the race.

Lance might be looking over his shoulder though, because Hans Gatt left Cripple just about 2.5 hours after he did, and there is a crew of Jeff King, Rick Swenson, Kjetil Backen, Aaron Burmiester, and Mitch Seavey who all left within 6 hours of Mackey. Some of these mushers like King, Backen, and Seavey had MUCH longer rests in Cripple than Mackey did, so look for them to possibly move on, while Lance will most likely take his Yukon River 8-hour layover in Ruby.

We had a request earlier to talk about some of the mushers who have scratched from the race, I’m working on a piece that I’ll try and get up early this afternoon…. in the last 24 hours there have been some serious contenders drop from this years race due to sickness within their teams.

Much has changed since this morning when I last posted, I kept trying to get to a computer to file another report, but things have been pretty crazy today for me as well…

This morning we reached the halfway point of the race, DeeDee Jonrowe was the first musher to reach Cripple, this years halfway point. She left about 6 hours later than Paul Gebhardt did the night before and when she reach Cripple she was shocked that he hadn’t gotten there before she did.  He came in just a few minutes later having gotten lost for several hours and turning around thinking he had gotten lost, when in reality he was only about 3 miles away from the checkpoint.  About the same time this morning thatDeeDee was getting into Cripple, Kjetil Backen, Lance Mackey, and Jeff King were are getting ready to leave Ophir after coming off of their layover in Takotna.  Looking at the current leaderboard , and who have already completed the first of their required rests along the trail, you get not only those three who have led the race for such a long time, but MitchSeavey have a very quick run out of Ophir and was able to catch up with Backen, arriving just about an hour after the Norweigen did.

The race will tighten back up here pretty soon, as Jonrowe, Gebhardt, Steer, Buser, Iten, Andersen, Neff, and Zerkle all get done with their layovers in Cripple tomorrow morning, not to long after Backen and King take off after resting their dogs.  Anyone who is even 6 hours behind the lead pack at the halfway point could easily walk away with 1st place by the end of the race.. and many of these expert mushers know that they still have a real chance at taking on the pack that was leading the race a few days ago before all the layovers.

Mackey was the first to leave Cripple late this evening, he flew through the checkpoint and onto the next checkpoint of Ruby 112 miles away, where the first musher there will be awarded the “first musher to the Yukon award”.  I promised yesterday that I would preview the award that is given away in Ruby and talk about why the mushers enjoy that award so much.  Sponsored by the Millennium Hotel in Anchorage, the musher who can beat everyone to the first checkpoint along the Yukon River is awarded a gourmet meal, cooked by the Millennium’s Executive Chef over a campstove, the meal is finished off with an “after dinner mint” of $5000 crisp one dollar bills.

Directly from the Millennium Hotel itself, here is the menu for whichever musher reaches Ruby first this year:

Appetizer:
Chicken and Wild Mushroom Terrine
with roasted red and yellow pepper coulis

Soup:
Yukon Potato Bisque
with shrimp ravioli

Fish Course:
Halibut Flowers
on a bed of peach chutney

Meat Course:
Filet of Beef
stuffed with Alaskan King Crab, asparagus and bleu cheese
blueberry demi glace and shallot roasted duchess potatoes

Cheese Plate:
Petite Brie en Croute
gewurztaminer poached pear and fig compote

Dessert:
Raspberry Crepes
with bittersweet chocolate sauce and creme de menthe

Grande Finale
$5000 freshly minted one dollar bills
Dom Perignon

With the top three (King, Mackey, and Backen) now off of their 24-hour layover in Takotna, over the next day they will try and catch up to the pack of nearly 15 that went on ahead of them to rest at a later checkpoint. Out of that second pack that hasn’t taken their 24 yet, Paul Gebhardt is leading things off as he left Ophir yesterday afternoon heading towards Cripple, and most likely Ruby where he could choose to take his 24 hour layover. Also in this group that is banking on the fact that they can pull ahead of the lead pack by surging ahead and taking the layover later is in the race is: Hugh Neff, Zach Steer, DeeDee Jonrowe, Martin Buser, Ed Iten, Ken Andersen, Aliy Zirkle, and a few others. Every single one of these mushers that I just listed could easily make the top five in this year’s Iditarod, and many have been pegged to win the entire race – you have some of the most famous names in mushing choosing to take this late strategy and hoping it pays off big time. You have some names of a similar status choosing to take their layover much earlier in the race than the lead pack did, Hans Gatt, Rick Swenson, John Baker, and Gerry Willomitzer all spent 24 hours further down the trail in McGrath at an attempt to make some time on Mackey, King and Backen.

Tomorrow afternoon will will have a very good idea on who’s strategy was the best one for this years race. Its warm out there right now which makes the teams run a little bit slower… We also aren’t able to tell yet who is going to reach the Yukon River and the checkpoint of Ruby first… any predictions? Paul Gebhardt enjoys making that long run, and has done it before, but so has Martin. However, they both could be at the point where they need to stop and take a long rest earlier, and could be passed by another team in that “late 24″ pack. We will see soon!

 
Just a real quick post as we head into tomorrow morning and the race will start to really heat up!  The original lead pack of the Iditarod so far will emerge early in the morning from their 24-hour layovers and will attempt to catch up with the crew that passed them, and are opting to take the break later on. There are about 15 mushers who passed up Mackey, King, and Backen with the hopes that a longer run would benefit them in the end and would give them the opportunity to get some time on the leaders of the race. 

John Little over at Iditarod.com points out that this is a very similar strategy that Jeff King used in 2006, and he left from Takotna and went straight onto Cripple. Thats a long 94 mile stretch that could lead into late tomorrow night, but with  warmer weather and a trail that has been broken by 15 other mushers before them, it might be pretty feasible, and faster than it was for those who did the “breaking”.

Any guesses on who is going to make it into Ruby first for one of the best prizes on the trail?  If you’re unfamiliar tomorrow I’ll break down what the lucky winner gets, and why its so desirable at this stage in the race….otherwise, take a guess on who will be there first!

Mitch Seavey and Hugh Neff were the first to fly through Takotna this morning around 7am, however Lance Mackey got in about 5 and a half hours earlier and decided to stay a while. This is the point in the race more than ever when the standings on the Iditarod website are nothing other than deceiving. Mushers are taking longer rests, and are contimplating when and where to take their 24-hour layovers. There are a few manditory rests on the Iditarod, one is a 24-hour break that you can take anywhere you want, there is another 8-hour layover that you must take at one of the checkpoints along the Yukon, and another 8-hour layover you take in the village of White Mountain before heading into Nome. Some mushers will start taking the longest layover earlier, like in McGrath and others will wait for Takotna, Cripple or even Ruby. The other big factor to remember when thinking about when mushers take their 24-hour layover is that it is during this time that they makeup for the difference at the starting line. The musher who left last, will only spend 24 hours, while the musher who left first will spend an extra 3 hours hanging out at the checkpoint to make up for the time they were given at the beginning of the race.

Going into Takotna this morning Lance Mackey, Jeff King and Kjetil Backen all arrived within a half hour of each other, which is pretty much a virtual tie for first place in a long distance race like this, when you take into account the fact that King and Mackey’s bib numbers are much higher than Backens and that they will have to spend at least an hour longer at the 24-hour layover than he will, you can really see how this is anyone’s race right now. However, the lead pack is starting to thin out a little bit more now than it was at this time yesterday. Coming into Takotna the top ten were separated by about 7 hours, whereas yesterday the top 20 were within 6 hours of one another.

Lance Mackey, Jeff King, and Kjetil Backen have all declared their 24-hour layover in Takotna, but don’t have to take it, they could decided at anytime to continue up the trail onto the next checkpoint. However, most likely look for Backen to be the first leaving early tomorrow morning… and look for Seavey and Neff to probably stop in Ophir where both of them have taken their 24′s before.

Even after dropping one of his most famous dogs “Hobo” back in Rohn, and with a team who isn’t giving him the speed he is looking for, Lance Mackey decided his scheduled rest in Nikolai was going to be a little bit shorter than other mushers, as he was the first to leave at 4:17pm AKST this afternoon, leaving behind 21 others who all arrived within 6 hours of one another. While Lance and some others rushed right out of the previous checkpoint of Rohn, he (along with Jeff King, Hugh Neff, and Mitch Seavey) spent time in between the two camping out and feeding their dogs, so it wasn’t as vital for them to spend any longer than necessary at the checkpoint. It will continue to get harder to tell who is really leading this race until mushers take their manditory 24-hour layover, something that they don’t have to do all at the same spot… some will take this layover earlier, while some will put it off until later in the race. There will be a lot of action on the trail this evening and into the night as the top twenty all leave Nikolai and head onto McGrath where the first musher will recieve the “PenAir Spirit of Alaska” award. McGrath is one of the bigger communities on the trail and the last one until Unalakleet, so look for a handful of mushers to pickup new sleds at this checkpoint as freight is cheaper from Anchorage.

Joe Garnie decided to drop from the race this morning in Rainy Pass. Garnie, is from Teller Alaska which is a small village just outside of Nome, and one of the only places that you can drive to from Nome. This was Joe’s 17th Iditarod since 1978, he came in second place in 1986 (losing by just one hour) and over the following year he worked with Libby Riddles to become the first woman to win the Iditarod in 1987. There haven’t been a ton of Native Alaskan mushers in the Iditarod, and Garnie has always been one of the most famous. He sited declining health of his team as the reason for scratching from this years race….. we’re sad to see him go.