Mackey first into Rainy Pass

Two time defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey passed 45 teams who started before him to show up at the Rainy Pass checkpoint first in this 2009 edition of the Iditarod sled dog race. Rainy Pass is a key checkpoint 136 miles into the 1100 mile race. The checkpoint is at Rainy Pass Lodge on Puntilla Lake at the foot of the 3000 foot Rainy Pass traverse over the Alaska range. into the single cabin checkpoint of Rohn. As of this writing, 8 other teams had checked into Rainy but none have departed yet, likely taking the warm afternoon to rest before the push over the top.

Mushers have been talking about the deep snow conditions over Rainey Pass and the difficulty it may cause for several weeks now. The trail breakers were able to break a trail through snow up to 8 feet deep in some places with their high powered snowmobiles, however, it remains to be seen how well the trail holds up once dog teams start passing, and it could be that teams farther back in the pack find more difficulty on this section because of that. Colder temperatures over the pass will help. The temperature at Puntilla Lake in the mid day sun at 3:30 in the afternoon Monday was 25, but we wont know the temperature over the pass until the first teams traverse it with the GPS units each team is carrying this year. The GPS units provide us with a temperature indication in addition to position and speed indications, and that data is available with subscription to Iditarod Insider.

Arriving 2nd into Rainy was Bjornar Andersen from Team Norway. It has frequently been the strategy of Team Norway to push the pace early and according to some sources, the Norwegian dogs have had plenty of training in deep snow conditions this winter. Arriving in 3rd place was Ramey Smyth, who coincidently finished last year's Iditarod in 3rd place. Ramey's team features a very seasoned 11 year old leader named Babe, who won the Lolley Medley Golden Harness award as top dog in the 2008 Iditarod. Former Yukon Quest winners Aliy Zirkle and Hans Gatt rounded out the top 5.