Our buddies over at APRN now have a nice wrapup audio here.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Pictures of the K300 start
Iain Foulds has posted a nice set of pictures of the K300, Akiak Dash and Bogus Creek 150 starts on his Flicker site.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Mitch Seavey wins K300
Mitch Seavey makes it 2 in a row as he won the weather shortened Kuskokwim 300 dogsled race. Seavey pockets the $20,000 purse for 1st place. Martin Buser followed him into the Bethel Alaska finishline 8 minutes later. Buser held a slim 1 minute lead coming into the last checkpoint at Kwethluk 22 miles from the finishline, however Seavey had already closed on the 9 minute lead Buser had on him at the Tuluksak checkpoint 30 miles previous. Jeff King held onto 3rd place as he checked over 4th place finisher John Baker who was racing with a broken elbow suffered before the start of the race.
Once again, weather played a key role in the event. Warm temperatures, rain and very windy conditions caused the start of the race to be delayed twice as mushers and dogs were late in arriving and race officials were late in staging food drops and officials on the course. The course was also shortened by about 50 miles by dropping the Pike Lake loop. Weather conditions were good once the race got underway, however the mostly river based trail had turned to mostly frozen slush or glare ice. A pack of 7 teams stayed in contention for the win through 75% of the race with Seavey and Buser finally separating from the pack for the lead with about 75 miles left. Young Pete Kaiser, a local from Bethel showed great promise by finishing in 6th less then 2 and a half hours behind Seavey.
Once again, weather played a key role in the event. Warm temperatures, rain and very windy conditions caused the start of the race to be delayed twice as mushers and dogs were late in arriving and race officials were late in staging food drops and officials on the course. The course was also shortened by about 50 miles by dropping the Pike Lake loop. Weather conditions were good once the race got underway, however the mostly river based trail had turned to mostly frozen slush or glare ice. A pack of 7 teams stayed in contention for the win through 75% of the race with Seavey and Buser finally separating from the pack for the lead with about 75 miles left. Young Pete Kaiser, a local from Bethel showed great promise by finishing in 6th less then 2 and a half hours behind Seavey.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Buser grabs K300 lead
2 time winner Martin Buser rolled in to Tuluksak at 5:24 this evening to pull into the lead in the Kuskokwim 300 dogsled race. 9 minutes later, last years K300 winner Mitch Seavey pulled in, and 7 minutes after that, 8 time K300 winner Jeff King showed up. As of 5:40 pm, those were the only teams to report in to Tuluksak making it a high probability that the eventual winner is among those 3. Race rules call for a mandatory 4 hour layover in Tuluksak. From there, it is a 52 mile sprint to the finishline in Bethel. Buser can depart Tuluksak at 9:24, Seavey at 9:33 and King at 9:40. We are guessing the winner's arrival time in Bethel will be about 3:30 in the morning.
Dave DeCaro interview
Dave Decaro is running a team for Jeff King's kennel, and was one of 2 mushers who spent any time in Aniak, so we had a chance to ask him a few questions. Since he was toward the end of the pack coming into Aniak, he could see the order of teams on the return trip. He stated that he saw Jeff's team first, and Martin Buser's team was about 10 minutes behind. Given the condition of the trail, the dogs are unable to "dip" snow with their tongues en route, and thus were running hot and dehydrated, and Dave credits this issue with the slow times the teams were posting between Kalskag and Aniak on the out trip.
Dee Dee Jonrowe is still in Aniak, as she has decided to give her dogs a break there. She too says the dogs are getting tired and overheated due to the trail conditions.
Dee Dee Jonrowe is still in Aniak, as she has decided to give her dogs a break there. She too says the dogs are getting tired and overheated due to the trail conditions.
King takes K300 lead
Aniak checkpoint:John Baker arrived in Aniak first followed 1 minute later by Jeff King. John was complaining about his arm, and dropped one dog. Jeff King checked in and immediately left Aniak taking the lead. Baker left next followed by Martin Buser. Pete Kaiser is looking really good and hanging with the leaders. It looks like most teams are spending very little time in Aniak. Ed Iten was one musher who decided to stop in Aniak to snack his dogs and said the reason it took so long on the run from Kalskag to Aniak was all the icy spots on the river during that stretch. Hugh Neff's team initially did not want to leave town, so he decided to snack them. Then they got entangled with Ken Anderson's team, and once they got untangled they were ready to go. Some pictures are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/crowvillage/2009K300.
Baker in K300 lead
The K300 leaderboard shows John Baker leaving Kalskag at 00:04:00, however according to Will Peterson of KYUK who is in Kalskag, Baker left Kalskag at 04:00:00. Thus he has his 6 hour layover complete, and is in a lead pack of 6 racers all within 17 minutes of each other and with their mandatory layovers complete. The leaders are expected in Aniak shortly. We hope to get interviews and photos from the turnaround there within the next few hours. Most if all of these teams will spend little time in Aniak and head back to Kalskag. Top 6 are John Baker, Ed Iten, Jeff King, Martin Buser, Pete Kaiser, and Mitch Seavey.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
K300 starts today
After a weather related delay of 2 days, the Kuskokwim 300 dogsled race will begin today at noon with local favorite Mike Williams, and Yukon Quest runner-up Ken Anderson in the starting chute first. At 8 am this morning the temperature at Bethel Airport was 6 degrees with a wind out of the north at 17 miles an hour. This is a significant improvement over the weather occurring over the previous 48 hours where unseasonably warm temperatures and very stiff winds caused all sorts of problems with race logistics.
Heavy winds and icy runways caused numerous flight delays for planes carrying dogs and mushers from Anchorage to Bethel. Eventually all mushers and dogs except for those of Dallas Seavey and Sebastian Schnuelle made it to Bethel. Both of those mushers elected to withdraw from the race. In Bethel, very windy conditions and very slippery conditions caused more havoc. Iditarod veteran musher John Baker slipped on the ice and broke his elbow. There has been no indication that he has withdrawn from the race however. race officials were unable to get food drops and race officials out on the course since very little air traffic was able to depart from Bethel. One of the race volunteers planes (a Cesna 185) was blown from it's moorings and destroyed.
Ken Anderson has some added incentive to score his fair share of the $100,000 purse. His pickup hit a moose on the way into Anchorage and caused significant damage to it merely a week after he had dropped collision insurance on it. All the dogs are raring to go after several days of very little activity. The course is being laid out to avoid any open water from last weeks significant thaw, but there is always the chance of hitting some overflow hidden beneath the snow, and mushers are preparing to get wet. With the cold weather now, the trail will either be frozen slush or glare ice. This poses a dilemma for mushers since booties are required for protection in the frozen slush, but don't help at all on the glare ice since the toenails are required for traction. Mushers able to put booties on and off efficiently, especially with smaller teams will have the advantage. John Baker will find that task particularly difficult.
Heavy winds and icy runways caused numerous flight delays for planes carrying dogs and mushers from Anchorage to Bethel. Eventually all mushers and dogs except for those of Dallas Seavey and Sebastian Schnuelle made it to Bethel. Both of those mushers elected to withdraw from the race. In Bethel, very windy conditions and very slippery conditions caused more havoc. Iditarod veteran musher John Baker slipped on the ice and broke his elbow. There has been no indication that he has withdrawn from the race however. race officials were unable to get food drops and race officials out on the course since very little air traffic was able to depart from Bethel. One of the race volunteers planes (a Cesna 185) was blown from it's moorings and destroyed.
Ken Anderson has some added incentive to score his fair share of the $100,000 purse. His pickup hit a moose on the way into Anchorage and caused significant damage to it merely a week after he had dropped collision insurance on it. All the dogs are raring to go after several days of very little activity. The course is being laid out to avoid any open water from last weeks significant thaw, but there is always the chance of hitting some overflow hidden beneath the snow, and mushers are preparing to get wet. With the cold weather now, the trail will either be frozen slush or glare ice. This poses a dilemma for mushers since booties are required for protection in the frozen slush, but don't help at all on the glare ice since the toenails are required for traction. Mushers able to put booties on and off efficiently, especially with smaller teams will have the advantage. John Baker will find that task particularly difficult.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Saturday morning K300 update
The race start has been delayed again until Sunday. The Fairbanks News-Miner is reporting that Sebastian Schneulle and Dallas Seavey have dropped out, however K300 is only showing that Dallas Seavey has dropped out. Weather in Bethel this morning is in the teens with a stiff breeze.
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