Its showtime, let me take you to the banquet

It´s showtime in the Denaina Centre. Let the games begin. Soon mushers, handlers their family and friends will assemble to kick off the 41st Edition of Iditarod. Part of the family and friends are all of the officials and fans, many of them have come up here for decades, for others it is their first visit.  Talking to race Marshal Mark Nordman at lunch, he was very pleased how well the mushers meeting went. An event which used to take the most part of the day was now wrapped up at lunchtime.  The trail reports also sound promising, although being warm, there is good snow cover specially on the trail between Ophir and SHageluk, which is very remote country. Back in 2007 we had a very bumpy ride over to the old mining town.

But back to today’s action. There is a lot going on behind the scenes and one of those scenes is the production of the Insider Video footage, for the daily updates as well as the award winning Iditarod CD, produced after the race. This year I am privileged to travel with that dedicated group of people down the trail. Some of us will be flying, and others on the snowmachine. Let me introduce the crew to you:

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The main man behind it all is Greg Heister the Producer. Keeping up with the mushers is not as easy as it sounds. They travel day and night, and night time flying in bush Alaska is not an option. Now combine that with the remoteness of the location, specially when it comes to internet access and the challenge just begins.

 

Mike Speaks and Jeff Praille will be on a snowmachine taking video footage between the front and middle pack. Being on the trail with a snowmachine is very tricky.  In general musher do not like seeing us. I say us, because myself and my friend Gerd will also be on our snowmachines. I as usual will do more photo and writing. I am trying to station myself in some remote spots, like Shell Lake, Finnbear Lake or the Bison Camp. What you do not know where that is? Good that means I am remote enough.

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With the snowmachines we have to be careful to not be in the way, even worse getting stuck in a bad spot, or to destroy and icebridge in Dalzell Gorge for example. Also to not chew up the fresh packed trail, we try to stay off trail as much as possible. That makes for some very interesting rides at times. Even in a nice flat virgin looking snowfield, you never know what is lurking underneath. So right before the trip I added a new bellypan as well as heavy duty brushbow.  

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Driving into town this morning for some meetings I took some parts off the machine. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw some plastic piece sail through the air.  Having a bad suspicion I stopped, and sure enough the newly modified windshield of the snowmachine was gone. I managed to find it, it does not look new anymore and will require some further modifications consisting of rivets, ductape and cable ties. I have some hope to reattach it to the machine, as in the whole of Anchorage there is no such windshield in stock.

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Our first behind the scenes guest is no other than 4 time Iditarod Champion Martin Buser from Big Lake. He says he is running a new team, and he did not even bring his old dogs to the EKG and vet checks. A change is also that he is running about half females. Martin seems happy with what he sees. A very energetic vocal team. In his opinion 2013 will be looked back at as a watershed race. Of course he is not divulging too much.  Martin is running his 30th race. He cherishes the 50 weeks aside the race, more than the actual 2 weeks of the race. Iditarod is just the icing on the cake for him. He gets antsy, if he is not on the trail for 2 or 3 days, he needs to be on that trail. It still drives him and he still loves to go out there.  Its always a pleasure to see Martin, who has committed his life to running dogs and Iditarod.

 

Next up is Aliy Zirkle. Its her 13th time on the trail. She has a fantastic team. Aliy is all smiles! She knows her team can win, but says she knew that last year. In total there are 11 Quest finishers, last year 10. Same dogs. 12 of the same dogs she race with last year.  The sting is not gone of being second by barely an hour.  But racing is not all for her, her main motivation are the dogs. She said she got into this “ whole mess “ of running dogs because she loves the Alaskan Huskies and primarily the adventure. Racing is secondary.

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Currently Jeff King is getting interviewed. He enjoys talking about his team of dogs, his biggest dog is 77 lbs, kind of unusual for his outfit. His oldest dog is only 5 years old.  Jeff just made an interesting statement. He said he will not drive a tired dogteam. He believes it has to be fun, fun for the dogs and himself.  Oh fun it will be for the next 2 weeks. Please help this race stay alive, support our work on the trail and join the insider! We will do the best to bring a broad coverage to the happenings on and off the trail!

Jeff just goes on about his sled” which will blow your socks ” off. Ever the innovator, he has a new sled where he can cook hot meals while on the go. Can´t wait to see it up and close. Being in Lance´s yard the other day, I saw something similar. He did a great analogy, to where not so long ago, it was a huge deal when the first time he went to 24 in Takotna and now its the norm and teams even have pushed on much further and be successful. Time will tell if his new innovation of cooking meals on the run, will catch on long term, the heated handlebars did not stick around…. Talking about meals….. time to head downstairs and grab some food…. 

Here some more pictures:

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Iditarod wine! Good Stuff!
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Table of Louis Ambrose of St Michael

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4 time Champ Lance

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Would be nice to have. Anchorage Chrysler Dodge

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Race Marshal Mark Nordman with long time supporter David Pike

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4 time Champion Jeff King during pre race interviews

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Nice music playing

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some great speeches

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Auction time

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Dang, there is a new windschild

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Always all smiles 

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Tasty wine!

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Full house

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Brent Sass, Rookie of the year 2012

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Michelle dresses up nice and it sure has Markus attention

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The Trophy it is all about 4V1A7147Aaron Burmeister, wanting to bring the Trophy to Nome