March 12 Wed Nome—8pm—what if I were a musher?
What if I were a musher? On the spot, just for the mental exercise, I decided to summarize all the very cool innovations and ideas I noticed on this year’s race.
For starters, I love a combination of Aaron Burmeisters very articulated theory of scheduling in combination with Iditarod 4th place 2014 Joar Ulsom’s analysis of efficiency.
Aaron, with other top mushers, believes that the dogs should never travel faster than about 9.5 miles an hour. As Jeff King puts it, “The team must be travelling easy, not fast.” The idea is that even a couple of hours above a travelling threshold will fatigue the dogs unneccesarily. Another simple way of looking at it—-never build up lactic acid, even a for a short time. So, that’s the first basic concept. Use patience and never allow a team to perform over their head—-although they are geneticially predisposed to be crazy, wild, and not very prudent. That’s why sled dogs have mushers.
Although very rhythmic bouts of resting and running seem logical, the Iditarod trail is not set up for this kind of thinker. Therefore, Joar Ulsom and his partner Lill looked at the Iditarod map in detail. Believing that the 20 or so checkpoints along the trail were the most efficient places to feed, rest and care for the dogs, they set up their schedule with appropriate rests and runs. “Short run, long run, we just matched it with rests and tried to save minutes at every stop.” They still followed rule number one.
The wind a factor this year, mushers were particularly bundled, and warm, but I do remember more than a few complaining of cold hands while untangling dogs. Therefore, I would be sure to include a well designed Eskimo parka like the one John Baker, 1x Iditarod champ, wears with full cut arms. With his parka, you can easily retract your arms back into the main parka and use your own body for warm up—-no gimmicks like hand warmers. Joe Garnie, an Eskimo musher from Teller, was a front runner in the 80’s. If I had to survive on the S. Pole, I would choose this guy to be on the team. He lost his dog team in a wind storm near Elim checkpoint. He had walked only a short distance from the team looking for the trail and was caught in a ground storm. He could not find his dog team and, wisely, immediately decided to stay put. Wandering around all night was a sure way to get hypothermic. He told me he got on his knees, faced into the wind, retracted his arms from the parka sleeves and put his hands against his stomach, and enjoyed a comfortable night—kind of a party in the wilderness. Every six hours or so he would shake off the snow and get back into position. When I asked him, “Joe, could you have done another night?” he replied, “Oh Yeah.” In the daylight he found his team. Everybody needs this kind of parka. The commercial ones are too tightly tailored.
Jeff King’s seat, which is also a cooker, is very innovative. I noticed he got his cooker fired up effortlessly and saved time because he didn’t have to unload , set up, and load again. Amazingly, the stainless steel seat legs stood up to the punishment of the trail. Very innovative.
Mitch Seavey had a very cool way of organizing his teams in checkpoints. He quickly unsnapped half the dogs and clipped them to special small loops on the tow line. He placed all his straw on the right hand side of the tow line and accustomed his dogs to this layout. They all bought into it and it was easy for him to feed and care for the team using his walkway on the left hand side. Very cool. I liked the neat row and thought he was very efficient.
Many mushers offer clear water, even if its thirty or forty below, to their team. The most efficient operator I saw on the trail was Martin Buser. On stopping at a checkpoint, he would quickly bring out his black plastic pans—about the shape of a bread pan—fill with water and distribute. Obviously, these dogs were trained to the practice, predictably lapped up water, and therefore were well hydrated. Generally, dogs become more easily dehydrated in the coldest weather, so Martin—or whoever copies him—is one up on the competition. Check—need to learn how Martin does it.
Lastly—just my opinion, take it for what it’s worth—the big issue of where to take the 24 hour break goes to the school of thought headed by mentors Sonny Lindner and Jeff King. They went all the way to Ruby, just past the halfway point, and seemed to have the easiest time of the pack.
SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS TO JESSIE ROYER
Jessie Royer, who I see in the Iditarod headquarters, appears completely rejuvenated after another remarkable top ten finish. She was 7th this year. A ranch girl from Montana, Jessie is known for taking a small group of dogs to the top of the Iditarod pack.
Several young girls politely interrupted our conversation and asked for an autograph. Wow, she signed JESSIE ROYER, like a movie star’s photograph. The penmanship was perfect and bold, you could read Jessie Royer perfectly, but it had a flair at the front and the end. Do mushers need to think about calligraphy night courses?
Commenting on the challenges on Golovin Bay, a huge mirror smooth expanse of ice, she had to explain to the dogs like she must to a horse on a cattle drive in Darby, Montana— it’s time to go to work. “The couch is full, you have to go.” When she was down in the dumps during the race, she remembered that one of our cameramen told her, “We like to film you because you are a pit bull and never give up.” That image made her smile and kept her on the trail.
One of her secrets to success with her small kennel and budget, is her work ethic. “I never go to bed without completely packing my sled and cleaning up the camp. All I have to do to go is put the boots on and pull the hook.”
