Below are a few pictures from the trail. It’s been a windy last 35 miles. It starts blowing past the blowhole, or better said, that is where there is enough snow to blow around. It is a very shallow ground blizzard with generally little snow in the area, yet enough to make life not very pleasant for the mushers. Running into the handlers for Aliy Zirkle in Safety, who also traveled by snowmachine from White Mountain, one of them had her windshield blown clear off the machine. That tells you how windy it is.

As usual, beauty and hardship lay very close together. The drifting snow made for a beautiful sunset over Cape Nome.

I want to use this as a chance to talk about the Iditarod Insider. I have had the privilege of traveling with that group now for 2 years. I have never seen more dedicated and hardworking people. They put up with most adverse conditions. Conditions which are adverse to the mushers, which set the stage for an incredible story, yet conditions these guys have to also endure and keep on working in. They literally do not sleep, they film and snowmachine around the clock. This year’s finished video is going to be epic. If you have not already done so, please support the Iditarod and especially the Insider crew, so they can continue to bring you the Iditarod onto your computer screen. Thank you from all of us!

Here are the pictures from today’s run, Enjoy. Now we have nothing to do but wait and see how it plays out:

All the first ones below are Aliy Zirkle on Fish River

And these below are Jeff King

Not much wind yet, going down Topkok Hill

All open water…, no worries the trail does not go close

And than about 12 miles before Safety it starts blowing.

This is coming over Cape Nome