The Yukon Quest coming to an end

I just saw Lance Mackey run by the dog yard in 3rd to last position, not a position where he usually finishes. He realized on his way to Dawson City, that racing upfront with a young team and in the bitter cold temperatures, which prevailed at the beginning of the race, was not an option. Lance switched into “ fun run mode doing multiple 10 or 12 hour rests along the way, true to his motto to never give up the fight. He is being rewarded with bringing a young team to the finish line, beautiful views along they way and being able to spend 11 days with his best friends along the trail. Those young dogs are moving and he grinned: “ I have veterans now “. His team ran the time up Eagle Summit with 3 hrs 53 minutes. If I am not mistaken, that is one of the fastest times “ going towards “ Mile 101 ever.

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Quest Rookie Ryne Olson, who also was driving 9 dogs, same as Lance, was not much slower with 3 hrs 55 minutes, she was moving so fast this morning, that I missed her coming by. Or me getting to slow out of bed, I blame it on the 12 dogs I had inside.

Now there are 2 more teams following, that of rookie Kristen Knight Pace and veteran Rob Cooke. Rob is enjoying a nice sunny ride over Rosebud Summit right now.

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Each musher is running their own race for different reasons. Some to win for the first time like Brent Sass, to defend their title like Allen Moore, to be in the Top 5 for the first time or simply to finish, which is no small feat alone, no matter if rookie or veteran. Brent and Allen kind of were in a league of their own during this race, widening the gap to all other teams steadily. Some of the teams who tried to keep up with that pace in the early stages of the race, paid for it with low dog numbers or scratching altogether. Yet others put on the brakes in time and redefined their race along the way with a new goal. That resulted in some pretty amazing runs of some teams, which were running outside the media limelight, here to name a few, and I am probably missing a few too, sorry….

 

Yukoner Ed Hopkins arrived in Dawson City 10 plus hours behind Hugh Neff who at the time was in 3rd place. By the time Ed reached the finish line, he was 7 hours ahead of the Tok musher and posted some of the fastest runtimes.

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Also in the hunt was Yukoner Normand Casavant. He really put the heat on leaving Circle. Hugh had arrived in Circle at 4 a.m., Normand at 11.30 p.m. Both mushers were running smaller teams, with 7 and 8 dogs respectively. Normand pulled off a monster run going from Circle, through Central all the way to Mile 101 in one shot, a total runtime of 16 hrs. He had a smooth run up over Eagle Summit, so did Hugh, who commented how well his dog were performing on the climb. By Mile 101 Normand had closed the gap from 19.5 hrs to 5hrs. Most other teams rested at least 2 times, once on Birch Creek and once in Central. Those are some strong dogs Normand is driving there.

 

Mike Ellis is proving that a well trained team of Siberian Huskies can keep up well , if not run faster with their Alaskan Husky counterparts in long distance races. He ran to Mile 101 in 4 hrs 42 minutes. To Two Rivers in 6 hrs and 33 minutes. With that runtime he was FASTER than Champion Brent Sass or second place team Allen Moore and many other mushers over Eagle Summit. Matter of fact he also had less dogs in his team at the time. Even to Two Rivers, both top teams traveled slower than Mike with his Sibes, so a Top 10 placing for Mike is not a coincidence.

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Nicolas Varnier, who struggled early on during the Quest, being down to 9 dogs by Pelly preserved along the way, keeping those dogs all the way to Two Rivers and slowly building up a very fast moving dogteam along the way. With 8 hrs and 11 minutes for 72 miles from Two Rivers to the finish, he ran a time which is comparable to that of a team at the starting line of the Quest and so far he has the fastest runtime for the last leg of the race. Lance might beat that.

 

Each musher on their own, accomplished an amazing feat and had some pretty amazing runs on their way to the finish line. Quite a few of them are now getting ready to switch gear, and run Iditarod in two weeks. It is a real treat having both big races in Fairbanks this winter. While the snow is holding up nicely here, Southwest Alaska is not so lucky. Looking at the very warm temperatures, and forecast, the folks in charge made a very wise move to start there race up here.

The count down is ON!  Happy trails!

Sebastian

 

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Greeting Nicolas with Croissants and wine ( Gatorade )

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Its been years since we last met

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Mikes team clipping right along

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Beautiful team of Mike Ellis