 After the reports of deep snow on the first 150 miles of the Iditarod trail, the mushers were surprised to find excellent mushing conditions. The Alaska skies cleared, there were stars and bright moonlight and the temperature at Finger Lake checkpoint was 15 degrees below 0 fahrenheit as the mushers arrived. I saw the majority of the teams arrive at Finger Lake and all were pleased with their dog teams and trail conditions to that point. The drop in temperature helped set up a firm base for the dogs to travel on and some mushers reported that the trail was the best that they’d even seen along that section.
When I talked to the trail breakers putting in the trail ahead of the racers at Finger Lake last night, they reported that the trail on up to Rainy Pass and on to Rohn was in excellent shape. A quick look at the statistics will show that the run times reflect these excellent trail conditions as many teams were traveling this section of the trail faster than average.
However, it is Alaska and the weather is dynamic. By mid morning at Finger Lake the weather had completely changed. A low cloud cover rapidly moved in, within an hour it was snowing, and an hour after that snow was still falling and white-out conditions were such that planes could no longer fly in and out of those checkpoints.
Rohn checkpoint is now reporting snow and some wind which indicates that the teams may encounter some wind and blowing snow as they attempt to travel over Rainy Pass and the Alaska Range. McGrath this morning reported 6 inches of new snowfall, which may indicate a layer of fresh snow will greet the mushers as they travel North out of the Alaska Range. If there is widespread snowfall along the trail we can expect the teams to slow down dramatically. Even with a well established trail, 4 to 6 inches of fresh snow on that base will slow the dogs adding more drag to the sleds and less firm footing.
We will see how this weather plays out over the next 12 hours. Logistically the weather may have a larger effect on the support staff flying up and down the Iditarod trail then it will on the dog teams themselves. The weather may slow a dog team’s travel speed but you can bet when the planes can’t fly the dog teams will still be working their way up the trail to Nome.
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