Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mackey wins fast Iditarod
Lance Mackey won his 4 consecutive Iditarod sled dog race in a time of 8 days 23 hours 59 minutes and 9 seconds. How fast was the field in this year's race? Paul Gebhardt came into Nome in 9 days 20 hours 31 minutes, and 1 second - good enough for 19th place. That time would have won the 2009 race (won of course by none other then Lance Mackey).
Monday, March 15, 2010
New trail on the Norton Ice
The trail breakers lay out a different trail for the Iditarod sled dog race every year, and the 2010 race is no excpetion to that. The trail accross the Norton Bay ice is a prime example of that given the differentiation in the way the ice freezes over the bay, and the prevailing tracks left by local snowmobiles. By following the GPS trackers each team has on it's sled, it has now become apparent that the trail heads in a markedly different northwest direction about halfway across the Norton Bay. The result is that once the trail hits land again, the direction into the checkpoint in the town of Koyuk is mostly in an easterly direction instead of the typical north direction. This is the 21st race for Jeff King, and he is heard telling the Iditarod Insider reporting team that he was most confused coming into Koyuk this year. Another peculiarity of this route is that the inbound trail to Koyuk may in fact actually be the same as the outbound trail. If it weren't for the fact that a musher has to check into each and every checkpoint, it would be possible for a team to make a substantial shortcut. It remains to be seen however if some team doesn't actually take this shortcut by mistake. Lance Mackey has now departed Koyuk and as he makes his way to Elim, he has a firm grasp on first place in this race, however we don't expect Jeff King and Hans Gatt who are in Koyuk resting now to let him get to big of a jump at this juncture in the race if their dogs are up to it.
The following is courtesy of Chris Waigl at this link
The following is courtesy of Chris Waigl at this link
Iditarod GPS Confusion
The Ionearth GPS tracking page for the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race has had it's share of problems so far, and now that the race has reached a critical juncture with the leaders in the vicinity of Koyuk, it is on the fritz again. I have been unable to access the page for 10 minutes now, but this is what I observed 30 minutes ago. Lance Mackey and Jeff King were parked in Koyuk taking a break. Hans Gatt had apparently blown through (or aroound?) Koyuk and was on his way to Elim. Back on the Norton bay Ice, Ken Anderson appeared to be headed in the wrong direction going far west of the indicated trail. In fact he was so far west that Ionearth was showing him in first place mistakenly thinking he was on the trail heading west out of Koyuk. It appeared that Hugh Neff was starting to veer in that direction. Back on insider, Jeff King was explaining how he almost got lost on the bay mistakenly headed for the wrong lights, and he struggled to find his way to Koyuk. Given this explanation, it is entirely possible that Gatt missed Koyuk as well. The official current standings show Mackey and King the only teams to check into Koyuk. I sure wish I could get the GPS page to work again so give me some clues as to what the heck is going on.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Another race up the coast
Lance Mackey forgo any rest at the Kaltag Checkpoint and pulled into the Unalakleet checkpoint at 3:32 this morning to stake his claim on the Gold Coast award in the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race. Jeff King rested his team for nearly 4 hours at Kaltag and pulled into Unalakaleet less then 3 hours later. A bit further back on the trail are Hugh Neff, Hans Gatt, Mitch Seavey and John Baker. Gatt and Baker have been moving steadily up in the standings for the last 150 miles by cutting rest. With Mackey and King being in the lead, we are reminded of the epic battle up the Bering Sea coast these 2 waged in 2008. Here is a recap pf that battle as presented by the Crow Village Iditarod Blog.
Deja Vu for Mackey and King
Setting up for a Photo Finish
Mackey looking over his shoulder again
Deja Vu for Mackey and King
Setting up for a Photo Finish
Mackey looking over his shoulder again
Friday, March 12, 2010
The race is on from Ruby
9 teams are now resting at the Ruby checkpoint on this 6th day of the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race. At this point, the character of the race changes. The next 150 miles of trail mostly follow the Yukon river, and each team will be required to take one 8 hour layover at one of the 4 checkpoints on that stretch. Right now, it appears most will be taking that break at Ruby. That appears to be a good strategy, as most of these teams have taken several long runs over the most remote section of the Iditarod trail to get here. According to Jon Little, there is roughly 15 hours of running time between Ruby and Kaltag where the teams will leave the river and head toward the coast. That sounds like a good estimate to me. we expect most teams will rest again in Kaltag as they retool for the 80 to 90 mile stretch over Kaltag portage into Unalakleet, so how they choose to split the Yukon stretch up should be key to determining the pecking order in Kaltag.
Jeff King is clearly in the drivers seat at this point, and I suggest other teams will be keeping at least one eye on his progress when determining whether to stick with their own strategy. Jeff arrived in Ruby first with the second fastest trip from cripple, and he still has 15 solid dogs on his team. Look for King to try to reach Nulato 100 miles down the river to try to keep his chase pack behind him. Assuming both take their 8 in Ruby, Lance Mackey will depart Ruby an hour and 15 minutes after King. Mackey likes to take long runs at this point in the race, but a 15 hour run into Kaltag is probably even a bit too much for him. He might decide instead to follow King to Nulato, and cut his rest short there to close the gap on him. Hugh Neff was 10 minutes behing Mackey into Ruby, and has spent thousands of mile in long races staying within the vicinity of Mackey. We don't see that tendency changing at this point in the race. Mitch Seavey might be next. Mitch marches to the beat of his own drum, so guessing his strategy at this point carries some risk, but he may try to break the run up into 3 segments to keep good speed on his team. Hans Gatt should be next out of the chute, and he had the fastest team coming into Ruby. Gatt's strategy late in the game when winning this year's Yukon Quest was to run long with short rests, and his team was faster then anyone else who tried to duplicate that strategy. Look for Gatt to move up in position. Others in the mix currently are Sonny Lindner, Sebastian Schnuelle and Ken Anderson.
Jeff King is clearly in the drivers seat at this point, and I suggest other teams will be keeping at least one eye on his progress when determining whether to stick with their own strategy. Jeff arrived in Ruby first with the second fastest trip from cripple, and he still has 15 solid dogs on his team. Look for King to try to reach Nulato 100 miles down the river to try to keep his chase pack behind him. Assuming both take their 8 in Ruby, Lance Mackey will depart Ruby an hour and 15 minutes after King. Mackey likes to take long runs at this point in the race, but a 15 hour run into Kaltag is probably even a bit too much for him. He might decide instead to follow King to Nulato, and cut his rest short there to close the gap on him. Hugh Neff was 10 minutes behing Mackey into Ruby, and has spent thousands of mile in long races staying within the vicinity of Mackey. We don't see that tendency changing at this point in the race. Mitch Seavey might be next. Mitch marches to the beat of his own drum, so guessing his strategy at this point carries some risk, but he may try to break the run up into 3 segments to keep good speed on his team. Hans Gatt should be next out of the chute, and he had the fastest team coming into Ruby. Gatt's strategy late in the game when winning this year's Yukon Quest was to run long with short rests, and his team was faster then anyone else who tried to duplicate that strategy. Look for Gatt to move up in position. Others in the mix currently are Sonny Lindner, Sebastian Schnuelle and Ken Anderson.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Cripple Confusion
One news outlet is reporting that John Baker reached the Cripple checkpoint of the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race first. The Iditarod Trail Committee issued a press release stating that Dallas Seavey won the Dorothy Page Halfway award - an award given to the first team to reach the Cripple checkpoint. So what gives here? Here is our explanation.
The Ophir to Cripple leg of the Iditarod is officially listed as 59 miles in length. Several years ago, the location of the Cripple checkpoint was changed so that this length is actually closer to 80 miles. Paul Gebhardt has intimate knowledge of that change. In 2008 he was leading the race after a long run session heading into Cripple, but he couldn't find the checkpoint. He had been on the trail long enough that he thought he had passed the checkpoint and doubled back and that mistake cost him significant momentum that he was not able to recover from. At this point, we don't know if John Baker ran into similar issues, but his GPS data certainly showed that he was slowing at this portion of the race and Dallas Seavey was steadily closing the gap. The GPS map still has the Cripple checkpoint in the wrong location. so for those watching the GPS data closely, it appeared that first Baker, then Seavey went past the checkpoint. Eventually Seavey passed Baker, and pulled into the checkpoint first to collect the $3000 halfway award stash of gold. We should find out the details of what occurred on the trail leading to this reversal of fortunes before long, but for now, it looks like Baker has lost some momentum.
UPDATE: Ionearth has now corrected the location of the Cripple checkpoint. (link)
The Ophir to Cripple leg of the Iditarod is officially listed as 59 miles in length. Several years ago, the location of the Cripple checkpoint was changed so that this length is actually closer to 80 miles. Paul Gebhardt has intimate knowledge of that change. In 2008 he was leading the race after a long run session heading into Cripple, but he couldn't find the checkpoint. He had been on the trail long enough that he thought he had passed the checkpoint and doubled back and that mistake cost him significant momentum that he was not able to recover from. At this point, we don't know if John Baker ran into similar issues, but his GPS data certainly showed that he was slowing at this portion of the race and Dallas Seavey was steadily closing the gap. The GPS map still has the Cripple checkpoint in the wrong location. so for those watching the GPS data closely, it appeared that first Baker, then Seavey went past the checkpoint. Eventually Seavey passed Baker, and pulled into the checkpoint first to collect the $3000 halfway award stash of gold. We should find out the details of what occurred on the trail leading to this reversal of fortunes before long, but for now, it looks like Baker has lost some momentum.
UPDATE: Ionearth has now corrected the location of the Cripple checkpoint. (link)
Iditarod fans, meet your Top 20
After crunching many numbers over the past 12 hours, calculating off 24 times and estimating run times, the only thing that can be said with any certainty is
1) Jeff King is currently in first place.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Gatt makes his move
Remind me to eat a piece of pie the next time I visit Takotna. 4 time Iditarod winner Jeff King always seems to choose this town of 50 along the banks of the Takotna river for his 24 hour layover, and the chance to eat a piece of one of those famous pies is a big reason for that. King indicated that would be the case again this year when he arrived first at this checkpoint in the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race. At this writing, there are more then a dozen other teams taking extended rest there which for many of them may indeed turn into their one mandatory 24 hour layover. Hans Gatt, the recent winner of the fastest 1000 mile Yukon Quest ever was having none of that however. As he pulled into the checkpoint, his GPS tracking device measured -21 degrees (F), but he was all business and left the checkpoint immediately, possibly even forgetting to sign his log book. This move gave him a 1 hour jump on the next team piloted by Cim Smyth. John Baker stayed 6 hours, and then decided to give chase as well. He may get the chance to pass the two front runners by skipping rest at the next checkpoint if those 2 decide to pull over there. These 3 teams will need to take their 24 at some point, and positions will likely get jostled again, so only time will tell if the decision to forgo the Takotna hospitality was a mistake or smart choice, but this much is certain, the trail from Takotna to Ophir is currently fast with the low temperature, hard snowpack and little wind. This is Alaska however, and that is all subject to change.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Schnuelle takes early Iditarod lead
Sebastian Schnuelle, the German born musher who now resides in Whitehorse Canada has charged forward from his middle starting position to the lead 200 miles into the 1049 mile 2010 Iditarod sled dog race. As his seasoned 16 dog team leads coming into Nikolai, he finds himself in a familiar position. In the 2009 edition of this race, Schnuelle started in the middle of the pack and worked his way into first place by the Nikolai checkpoint. Given that he leveraged that early start into a second place finish, it should come as no surprise that he is re-utilizing a similar strategy. Another habit he might not have shaken quite yet is looking over his shoulder for a team commandeered by the now legendary Lance Mackey. Mackey, who won the 2009 race ahead of Schnuelle started 13 places behind Schnuelle that year and had closed to within 6 teams of the him by Nikolai. Mackey started 14 places behind his bushy haired foe this year and thus far has closed within 9 teams of the lead.
Other teams within 20 miles of the lead are Mitch Seavey, John Baker, Hugh Neff, Warren Palfrey, Hans Gatt, Jeff King, Dallas Seavey, Zack Steer, Gary Willomitzer, and Aliy Zirkle. There is plenty of leap frogging of teams at this stage of the race as the variety of run rest schedules is typically diverse this early in the race. The Iditarod GPS tracking service has the potential to give the fans additional insight into those schedules if that data could be supplied in aggregate similar to what is done with the free GPS service provided by the 1000 mile Yukon quest, however, that capability has yet to be leveraged by the Iditarod Trail Committee, but perhaps we will see that in future years.
Other teams within 20 miles of the lead are Mitch Seavey, John Baker, Hugh Neff, Warren Palfrey, Hans Gatt, Jeff King, Dallas Seavey, Zack Steer, Gary Willomitzer, and Aliy Zirkle. There is plenty of leap frogging of teams at this stage of the race as the variety of run rest schedules is typically diverse this early in the race. The Iditarod GPS tracking service has the potential to give the fans additional insight into those schedules if that data could be supplied in aggregate similar to what is done with the free GPS service provided by the 1000 mile Yukon quest, however, that capability has yet to be leveraged by the Iditarod Trail Committee, but perhaps we will see that in future years.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The Iditarod Mane Battle
Three time Iditarod winner Lance Mackey and 2009 Iditaord runner Sebastian Schnuelle up have a side bet going in the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race. The bet is that whoever comes behind the other in Nome has to get a hair cut.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Iditarod rookies face challenges
The 2010 Iditarod sled dog race will feature 22 mushers who have not completed the race before. For the top finishing rookie comes the distinguished Rookie of the Year award. Last year's award was won by Chad Lindner who came in 30th place. Rookies have the privledge of treking accros 100 miles of Alaska wilderness with variable snow conditions and weather that can turn downright nasty. They must negotiate famous features in the trail including the Dalzell Gorge, the Steps, the snowless Farewell Burn, and the Bering Sea coast. Picking a rookie who will do well through that is difficult, but here are some rookies to watch out for.
Michelle Phillips born in Whitehorse Yukon grew up as a competitive figure skater. She has competed in the Yukon Quest 5 times finishing 4th in 2004, and never finishing worse than 8th.
Marshall Newton from Jamaica where he has worked for the Jamaica Dogsled Team (JDT) for 5 years. JDT first gained notoriety through the movie Snow Dogs which was very loosely based on some real events. Snow rarely occurs in Jamaica, so the JDT gives sled dog tours by pulling wheeled sleds with dogs gathered from the local pound. This is hardly sufficient training for the Iditarod, so in 2008/2009 Newton went to the Yukon to train with 4 time Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt. He raced in the 100 mile Yukjon Quest with a team from the Gatt kennel and finished an impressive 13th (out of 29) in the 2009 1000 mile Yukon Quest. This season he has been living and training with Lance Mackey who has a pretty impressive resume himself.
40 year old Dan Kaduce has had 4 top 10 finishes in the Yukon Quest. He has been racing dogs for 15 years.
26 year old Dave Decaro has been a dog handler and tour guide for Jeff King over the last 3 years. He was rookie of the year in the 2008 Kusko 300. He'll have some King dogs on his team.
18 year old Quinn Iten will be the youngest musher in this year's Iditarod. He is son of Iditarod veteran Ed Iten. Quinn has finished 3rd in the Junior Iditarod and should field a strong team from the Iten Kennel in Kotzebue with Ed sitting out this year's race. These dogs should handle any cold weather just fine.
Michelle Phillips born in Whitehorse Yukon grew up as a competitive figure skater. She has competed in the Yukon Quest 5 times finishing 4th in 2004, and never finishing worse than 8th.
Marshall Newton from Jamaica where he has worked for the Jamaica Dogsled Team (JDT) for 5 years. JDT first gained notoriety through the movie Snow Dogs which was very loosely based on some real events. Snow rarely occurs in Jamaica, so the JDT gives sled dog tours by pulling wheeled sleds with dogs gathered from the local pound. This is hardly sufficient training for the Iditarod, so in 2008/2009 Newton went to the Yukon to train with 4 time Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt. He raced in the 100 mile Yukjon Quest with a team from the Gatt kennel and finished an impressive 13th (out of 29) in the 2009 1000 mile Yukon Quest. This season he has been living and training with Lance Mackey who has a pretty impressive resume himself.
40 year old Dan Kaduce has had 4 top 10 finishes in the Yukon Quest. He has been racing dogs for 15 years.
26 year old Dave Decaro has been a dog handler and tour guide for Jeff King over the last 3 years. He was rookie of the year in the 2008 Kusko 300. He'll have some King dogs on his team.
18 year old Quinn Iten will be the youngest musher in this year's Iditarod. He is son of Iditarod veteran Ed Iten. Quinn has finished 3rd in the Junior Iditarod and should field a strong team from the Iten Kennel in Kotzebue with Ed sitting out this year's race. These dogs should handle any cold weather just fine.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Race Results Recap
Having trouble making your 2010 Iditarod picks?
This post presents how some of the racers have performed thus far this year.
| place | Name | Time |
| 1 | Lance Mackey | 30:48:00 |
| 2 | Brent Sass | 32:06:00 |
| 3 | Josh Cadzow | 33:28:00 |
| 4 | Braxton Peterson | 34:23:00 |
| 5 | Mike Ellis | 35:44:00 |
| 6 | Dallas Seavey | 36:10:00 |
| 7 | Mitch Seavey | 37:05:00 |
| 8 | Sam Deltour | 37:19:00 |
| 9 | Collen Kallio | 37:53:00 |
| 10 | Sonny Lindner | 38:05:00 |
| 11 | Robert Mortier | 38:10:00 |
| 12 | Dries Jacobs | 38:11:00 |
| 13 | Jason Mackey | 40:00:00 |
| 14 | Cain Carter | 40:49:00 |
| 15 | Newton Marshall | 41:01:00 |
| 16 | Jason Weitzel | 43:51:00 |
| 17 | Peter Fleck | 44:21:00 |
| 18 | Cody Strache | 47:21:00 |
| 19 | Terry Williams | 50:35:00 |
| 20 | Robert Tasso | 51:43:00 |
| 21 | Brennan Norden | 52:10:00 |
| Greg Stoddard | Scratch | |
| Caleb Hathaway | Scratch | |
| 1 | Michelle Phillips | 32:31:00 |
| 2 | Abbie West | 33:07:00 |
| 3 | Maren Bradley | 41:47:00 |
| 4 | Heidi Sutter | 42:33:00 |
| 5 | Elaine Martin | 42:46:00 |
| 6 | Joselyne LeBlanc | 47:17:00 |
| 7 | Paige Drobny | 48:19:00 |
| 8 | Kelly Griffin | 49:41:00 |
| Frederick | scratch | |
| Zoya DeNure | WD | |
| 1 | Jeff King | 13:36:00 |
| 2 | Cim Smyth | 14:13:00 |
| 3 | DeeDee Jonrowe | 14:33:00 |
| 4 | Micah Degerlund | 15:06:00 |
| 5 | Scott Smith | 15:32:00 |
| 6 | Lance Mackey | 15:44:00 |
| 7 | Zack Steer | 15:50:00 |
| 8 | Ramey Smyth | 15:53:00 |
| 9 | Jim Lanier | 16:08:00 |
| 10 | Ryan Redington | 16:32:00 |
| 11 | Jesse Royer | 16:35:00 |
| 12 | Cindy Barrand | 17:26:00 |
| 13 | Braxton Peterson | 17:27:00 |
| 14 | Jon Little | 18:02:00 |
| 15 | Robert Bundtzen | 20:02:00 |
| 16 | Didier Moggia | 21:14:00 |
| 17 | Kristy Berington | 12:50:00 |
| 18 | Shaynee Seipke | 1:00:00 |
| 19 | Sam Deltour | 4:19:00 |
| 20 | Travis Beals | 4:19:00 |
| 21 | Kelly Maixner | 6:53:00 |
| 22 | Misha Pedersen | 13:47:00 |
| 23 | Bob Storey | 13:49:00 |
| 24 | Elaine Martin | |
| 25 | Therese Bartlett | |
| 26 | William Pinkham | |
| 27 | Dave DeCaro | |
| 28 | Michael Suprenant | |
| 1 | Micah Derlund | 7:18:08 |
| 2 | Erin Reddington | 7:57:12 |
| 3 | Ken Anderson | 8:12:21 |
| 4 | Hugh Neff | 8:38:49 |
| 5 | Judy Currier | 9:29:09 |
| 6 | John Little | 9:39:01 |
| 7 | Karin Anderson | 10:16:20 |
| 8 | Dave Dalton | 12:13:23 |
| 9 | Varin Holt | 13:29:17 |
| 10 | Magus Kalterborn | 15:30:35 |
| 1 | Jeff King | 50:34:00 |
| 2 | Allen Moore | 50:41:00 |
| 3 | Josh Cadzo | 51:24:00 |
| 4 | Sonny Lindner | 51:52:00 |
| 5 | Dan Kaduce | 52:06:00 |
| 6 | Ray Redington | 52:22:00 |
| 7 | Sven Haltmann | 52:28:00 |
| 8 | Brent Sass | 52:32:00 |
| 9 | Zak Steer | 52:56:00 |
| 10 | Hugh Neff | 53:12:00 |
| 11 | Aliy Zirkle | 53:28:00 |
| 12 | John Schandelmeier | 54:12:00 |
| 13 | Jodi Bailey | 56:36:00 |
| 14 | Anjanette Steer | 56:56:00 |
| 15 | Colleen Robertia | 57:16:00 |
| 16 | Mike Ellis | 57:54:00 |
| 17 | Kristy berington | 58:17:00 |
| 18 | Gerry Wilomitzer | 58:50:00 |
| 19 | Magnus Klatenborn | 58:53:00 |
| 20 | Mike Santos | 59:00:00 |
| 21 | Same Deltou | 59:03:00 |
| 22 | Jake Berkowitz | 60:08:00 |
| 23 | Vecca Moore | 60:30:00 |
| 24 | Bridgett Watkins | 61:10:00 |
| 25 | Sean Williams | 62:32:00 |
| 26 | Mari Troyshynski | 63:13:00 |
| 27 | Peter Fleck | 66:25:00 |
| 28 | Darrin Lee | 66:44:00 |
| 29 | Emil Churchin | 68:17:00 |
| 30 | Tamara Rose | 68:44:00 |
| 31 | Jen Raffaelli | 68:49:00 |
| 32 | David Dalton | 69:38:00 |
| 33 | Jane Faulkner | 70:30:00 |
| 1 | John Baker | 47:56:22 |
| 2 | Martin Buser | 49:23:16 |
| 3 | Lance Mackey | 49:57:06 |
| 4 | Dallas Seavey | 52:18:17 |
| 5 | Paul F. Gebhardt | 56:30:11 |
| 6 | Mike Williams Jr | 56:43:06 |
| 7 | Ramey Smyth | 57:39:16 |
| 8 | Jackie Larson | 60:59:33 |
| 9 | Mike Williams Sr | 63:17:45 |
| 10 | Peter Kasier | 65:22:49 |
| 11 | Quinn Iten | 67:16:54 |
| 12 | William 'Middy' Johnson | 71:54:13 |
| 13 | Mitch Seavey | scratch |
| 14 | Jeff King | W |
| 15 | Ronald Nathan Underwood Sr | W |
| 16 | Richie Diehl | W |
| 17 | Robert Nelson | W |
| 1 | Hans Gatt | 13:35 |
| 2 | Lance Mackey | 14:38 |
| 3 | Hugh Neff | 16:18 |
| 4 | Zack Steer | 3:58 |
| 5 | Ken Anderson | 4:01 |
| 6 | Sonny Lindner | 10:14 |
| 7 | Joshua Cadzow | 13:18 |
| 8 | Brent Sass | 16:01 |
| 9 | Abbie West | 21:45 |
| 10 | Normand Casavant | 22:20 |
| 11 | Sam Deltour | 2:03 |
| 12 | Dries Jacobs | 4:53 |
| 13 | Mike Ellis | 9:38 |
| 14 | David Dalton | 12:46 |
| 15 | Kelley Griffin | 18:02 |
| 16 | Cindy Barrand | 23:21 |
| 17 | Bart De Marie | 13:14 |
| 18 | Peter Fleck | 15:22 |
| 19 | Jennifer Raffaeli | 16:17 |
| 20 | Katie Davis | 0:07 |
| 21 | Pierre-Antoine Heritier | 8:20 |
| 22 | Jocelyne LeBlanc | 21:37 |
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