A Field of Champions Aaron Burmeister into Shaktoolik in 7th

Posted by Sebastian Schnuelle
Date: March 9, 2014 9:02 am

It is a really strong field who is battling it out at the front of Iditarod 42. A field of Champions is leading the pack

Aliy Zirkle Yukon Quest Champion 2000,

Jeff King 4 Time Iditarod Champion,

Martin Buser 4 time Iditarod Champion.

Sonny Lindner 1984 Yukon Quest Champion.

Dallas Seavey 2011 Yukon Quest Champion 2012 Iditarod Champion

Mitch Seavey 2004 and 2013 Iditarod Champion.

No wonder that all these mushers are so close together and are driving such strong teams. And right behind Aaron Burmeister comes the next Iditarod Champion Robert Sorlie. Aaron is running an amazing race. I can not believe he made it through that rough stuff in the Blueberry Hills with his injured knee. Tough, very tough. Martin Buser just took off. Sonny Lindner is about to leave. Nobody stays here long. Jeff finally left the big caboose part of his sled behind and just continued with the ” normal ” front part. At least on that one he still has a cooker to sit on. Mitch and Sonny were talking about if it is a good idea to put booties on the dogs or not. The granular wind blown snow would call for booties. On the glare ice the dogs do better without booties and have more traction. Sonny decided to boot everybody as he can always take them off along the way.

When Aaron pulled in he wanted to know when the others had left and then decided for short term parking only. He had hoped that some of the straw of the previous mushers had not been raked up yet, so that his dogs can stay on that warm and comfortable, while he roots through his food drop bags and grabs a cup of coffee. Running through Shaktoolik is a good way to gain on your competition, but it is a risky move, in the sense that the next run is very demanding, mentally, for the dogs. And this year the next run is 12 miles longer than usual, with it not going straight across the sea ice. The good news is, the wind has been dying down. The race to Nome continues!!!

Here are a few shots of him coming in: