The 2014 Yukon Quest has been a nail biter this year. In many years the even numbered route going south from Fairbanks to Whitehorse tends to be a bit more uneventful, than the odd numbered route, where Eagle Summit is looming at the very end. Often going south also means warmer weather is waiting for the mushers at the final part of the race. Northerners call Whitehorse the Banana Belt. Not so this year. A relatively mild start in Fairbanks with temperatures near perfect of around 0F at night the trail was hard, fast and easy. Places notorious for overflow like Birch Creek had smooth sailing. While teams where taking there mandaroty 36 hour break in the historic gold rush town of Dawson City light snow swept over the area and hampered the progress of the middle and back of the back mushers. Mushers are required to carry snowshoes, something often regarded as being obsolete in this day and age, yet this year saw some mushers snowshoeing across the Yukon River after having lost the trail.
After the snow, came the cold. And cold it still is for the back of the pack mushers. 46 below CELSIUS, that is minus 51F, was the low for Carmacks for today. 4 mushers, including Iditarod Musher Hank De Bruin are running on that stretch right now. Hank is running Siberians who might be a bit more suited for the cold, but 51 below leaves little room for error.
Unfortunately the second half of the Yukon Quest has not been easy and uneventful for neither mushers nor organizers. A total of 3 teams had to seek assistance of the RCMP or Canadian Rangers to be helped off the trail. Personally I start to wonder about the use of spot trackers who have the help option. Personally I preferred the Iditarod Trackers, who would track our progress, but did not have a help button. I wonder how much it is, in the back of a mushers mind, that they know the help option exists and thus are willing to take a bit higher chances.
Iditarod Musher Brent Sass had been running a very ambitious schedule for much of the race. For a while it was the trio of Hugh Neff, Allen Moore and Brent who were the 3 amigos up front, much the same as in previous years. On the long and unassisted stretch, 210 miles with no checkpoints, between Dawson City and Pelly, the trio shrank to a duo, with Hugh throttling back upon reaching Pelly. While Allen used the hospitality of the checkpoints and cabins, Brent avoided staying there and pretty much camped out for most of the race. Both Allen and Brent were leap frogging and both were running on very little rest. Generally Allen would run shorter and rest a bit more frequent. It took him 9 runs from Fairbanks to Dawson City, as opposed to 7 runs Brent Sass did. Leaving Dawson Allen Moore Ran 3 relatively equal runs to Pelly Crossing each with breaks of 2.5 to 3.5 hrs in between. Brent once again ran longer and did not stop in Pelly. While the long runs seemed to have no other effect on his dogs other than slowing them down to between 5 and 6 miles an hour, fatigue is what in the end had his schedule fall apart. Brent fell to sleep on his sled, only a few minutes behind race leader Allen Moore. Brent hit is head on the ice of Coghlan Lake and realized that he was dealing with symptoms of a concussion, which eventually had him hit the help button. Brent had 13 dogs at this point and Allen Moore was running a string of 12 dogs. Not only were they a day ahead on most of their competitors, they were driving the largest teams in the race.
Teams who were running a more traditional Yukon Quest Schedule, like 22 year old Matt Hall from Eagle Alaska, running in 10 runs from Fairbanks to Dawson and 7 runs to the finish in Whitehorse, or Iditarod regular Ken Anderson, who was the runner up in the 2008 Yukon Quest behind Lance Mackey, were continuously moving up in the standings. It took Ken 11 runs to reach the half way point in Dawson with a young team. In the end Ken finished 4th ahead of 2 time Yukon Quest Champion John Schandelmeier. Patience one again paid off in the Yukon Quest. Matt Hall earned Rookie of the Year honors and $ 13.000 for his 3rd place finish. I am sure we will see Matt in the Iditarod in not all too distant future. Matt young by age, is yet a very experienced and bush savvy musher who has grown up in Eagle Alaska and been running dogs all his life.
SP Kennels continues their phenomenal showing during the 2014 mushing season. Allen won his second consecutive Yukon Quest. He had to fight hard for it, breaking his old record time finishing in 8 days.14 hrs and 21 minutes. ( the Quest was 80miles shorter this year than usual ) Allen showed a lot of mental strengths to stick to his proven schedules and not give chase to Brent Sass too early. So far SP Kennels has won every race they have entered this season. As Aliy put it: “ We must be doing something right “. And they have a phenomenal group of canine athletes right now.
How did the other Iditarod mushers fare: Hugh Neff finished a strong 2nd place, he has been found consistently in the top 3 of the Yukon Quest in the past years winning in 2012. Mike Ellis of Tsuga Siberians prematurely ended his race in Circle City.
In the meantime the Yukon Quest is not over and there is still teams running their own Quest to the finish line. Last place musher Jerry Joinson must have had a rough night out in the frigid temperatures, as his tracker showed him backtracking part of the route upon reaching the Yukon River close to Mc Cabe Creek Dogdrop. There has been a lot of musher camaraderie during this years race. Personally, as mentioned before, I wonder how much more camaraderie and also different outcomes we would see without help buttons on a tracker. I wonder how the race for Brent Sass would have ended if his buddy Hugh Neff would have arrived on scene an hour before the rangers and if both mushers would have hashed out a plan to get both teams to Braeburn. Same scenario with Cody Strathe calling for help after loading 2 dogs. One thing is for certain, the help buttons have changed the dynamics of the race as once they are pushed, fans and spectators really wonder what is going on out there. Drama and mishaps have happened ever since the Yukon Quest and Iditarod have existed, they were just less visible before trackers and help buttons.
For the race fan looking for more mushing action. Jeff King of Husky Homestead in Denali Park is organizing the Denali Doubles Race this weekend. http://denalidoubles.weebly.com/ . It runs 260 miles from Cantwell to Paxson and back, along one of the most scenic highways in Alaska. Alpine Lodge and MacLaren Lodge are checkpoints and both places of great hospitality. We can hook up 20 dogs and 2 mushers team up to run them. I say “we”, as once again I am leaving my armchair to venture out in the cold for a few days. Looking at the thermometer reading 30 below I sure wonder what I am thinking. But heck most likely once out there under the full moon, it will be a beautiful run. Many top teams are in the lineup, including the Kusko Championship team of Happy Trails Kennel, Jessie Royer, Lance Mackey, Aaraon Burmeister, Ray Redington, Jake Berkowitz, just to name a few.
Happy arm chair mushing!
Sebastian
