Jessie Royer painted the most vivid picture of the conditions she experienced after leaving White Mountain in route to Nome on Wednesday March 18th. Royer told Insider under the arch that with the coast being sparse on wind she was feeling cheated out of the full Iditarod experience. The coast is noted for winds, especially on Norton Sound between Shaktoolik and Koyuk. Such was not the case this year. It was cold, the cold snow was slow and previous winds had created sastrugi but the winds were not a factor.
Royer went on to say that upon leaving White Mountain and climbing over Topkok, the situation changed and she now feels that she’s had the full Iditarod experience complete with more wind than she ever wants to see again. The winds through the infamous blow hole were at times brutal. That section of trail more than made up for the calmer conditions on the coast.
Every musher following Royer commented on the winds through the blow hole. One described the intensity of the ground blizzard saying I couldn’t see my lead dog in my 8 dog team. Others told of their sleds being blown sideways on icy trail. Still others told of the wind flipping sleds. UGH!
Does it bring to mind Libby Riddles and her storm Run in 1985? Remember 2014 when the lead change found Dallas Seavey in Nome thinking he was in third place only to find that he had unknowingly passed Aliy Zirkle and Jeff King in the brutal ground blizzard to be the champion? More recently, do you remember the chaos of the 2022 race between White Mountain and the Bering Sea?
Back in 2022, mushers knew the winds in the Topkok hills were cranked up but decided to leave White Mountain anyway. Once they were in the Topkok Hills they experienced over powering winds. Riley Dyche, Jeff and KattiJo Deeter, Sebastian Dos Santos Borges, Sean Williams, Bridget Watkins and Gerhardt Thiart were in a losing battle to Mother Nature.
The Deeters, Dyche, Dos Santos Borges eventually made it to the Nome Kennel Club Safety cabin at Mile 926 to wait out the storm. Williams, Watkins and Thiart along with their teams were brought back to White Mountain by search and rescue volunteers.
Still on Friday morning of Iditarod 54, nine teams are waiting out the storm in White Mountain. Kevin Hansen from Kotzebue has been sitting since 15:08 Wednesday 3/18. The most recent musher still in the competition arrived at 06:02 on Thursday 3/19. Hansen, a rookie is joined by fellow 2026 classmates Brenda Mackey, Sydnie Bahl, Sadie Lindquist, Joey Sabin, Richie Beattie and Sam Paperman. Veterans in the group include Keaton Loebrich and Jason Mackey.
Their decision to stay put was undoubtedly fueled by knowledgeable locals, the recent memory of the winds near Rainy Pass and recall of the brutal 2022 storm that required the rescue of multiple mushers in 2022.
Rookie Adam Lindenmuth departed Elim at 04:18 on Thursday 3/19. There was wind but as of leaving Elim Adam deemed it manageable. The closer he came to White Mountain the worse the conditions became. The distance between Elim and white Mountain is 46 miles which took most mushers about 6.5 hours. Twelve hours later, Adam was still a few miles short of White Mountain and deemed it necessary to activate his help button at 16:49. Race officials on snowmachines helped guide Lindenmuth and his team to the White Mountain checkpoint where he scratched in the best interest of his dog team. Lindenmuth had 12 dogs in harness when he arrived and all were in good health. Having traveled almost 900 miles of the trail, Lindenmuth put his dog team ahead of his own desire to reach the burled arch when making the difficult decision to call for help.
While the storm wreaked havoc, it was good to see the orange GPS Tracker GPS flags stacked up at White Mountain. If Kevin Hansen, a guy from Kotzebue where wind is standard, decided to hunker down and wait out the storm, that says a lot.
Ah but wait, as of 09:09 the tracker now shows team leaving of White Mountain. It appears that Lindguist, Hansen, Jason Mackey, Paperman, Sabin, Loebrich and Bahl are back on the trail. They are spread 5 miles apart and running between 9.1 and 7.1 mph. Brenda Mackey and Richie Beattie remain in White Mountain. They have served their 8-hour White Mountain rest and are eligible to depart for Nome.
One final note on Mille Porsild’s dog Charley who expired en route to Elim. From a recent ITC press release we learn that the necropsy performed in Unalakleet by a board-certified pathologist, did not identify any obvious traumatic or medical abnormality to explain Charley’s death. Further laboratory testing is being conducted in accordance with race protocol to support a thorough investigation and complete the necropsy, with every effort made to determine the cause of death.
