Nicolas Petit arrived 5:36am with 16 dogs to Nikolai. After having been pummeled on the trail, banged his knees, watched his $2000 sled trashed by an unmerciful trail, and leaped over tundra tussocks standing to his waist, Nicolas was in the mood for a focused 15 minute rant about the difficult and obstinate trail. He …
Martin Buser arrived in Nikolai at about 1:08am (check for the official time using the Insider tools) and survived, conquered, compromised, negotiated a historically difficult trail from Rainy Pass, through the notorious Dalzell (even in a good year the Dalzell takes a toll), exited Rohn to a completely snowless, barren trail Martin described as the …
Following the race has certain logistical considerations. Our Insider camera crew follows the race by snowmachine and tonight will try to capture images of the front pack moving from Rohn checkpoint to Nikolai, where we normally expect a first arrival about 8am (Martin Buser might surprise us earlier in the morning.) The problem with this …
The sky is cloudless, the sun intense, and the thermometer in the shade of our temporary headquarters at Rainy Pass lodge reads 38F. Very warm, not usual, generally ccepted as not a good time to run dogs, rather, wait for the evening cool is always the accepted advice. Schedules usually try to put run …
March 3—11 am—-Rainy Pass
Readers using the wonderful tracking tools at the Insider can instantly understand the big spread in competitors. As I post, Buser is ahead into Rohn while Mitch Seavey the Older is just approaching Rainy Pass, an obvious testament to the difference in opinion of our top mushers. Here in Rainy Pass, in the middle of …
6:40AM Mitch Seavey, the 2013 champ rests in Finger, while Martin Buser has negotiated the Happy Valley steps and in Rainy Pass. Mushers and strategies are all over the map. In one camp we have Martin executing a daring move with a few followers including front running Nicolas Petit. In the camp of …
Martin Buser continues to delight his fans and confound the serious Iditarod student. He arrived at 1:52am at the front of the pack. Save for a few stops to feed, water, and change boots, he has eaten up about 110 miles of trail in a little less than 12 hours. It appears he is duplicating …
March 3—1:22am—Snowmachine Report
Our Insider crew on snowmachines checked in with video from the trail. Norwegian snowmachiners, including Robert Sorlie’s mushing partner Thomas Waerner (inspecting the trail for his race with the team in 2015), also arrived. Our guys reported mushers could not stop on the river going into Skwentna as ice hooks would not hold. T’herefore …
The analytics at the Insider are a separate study for the very intelligent fan. The stuff you can look at is overwhelming, from location of the team to details about run speed, elevations, et al. And the first thing I have learned is the danger in making predictions about the future. A few studious …
Update—our Insider crews on snowmachine should be at our location here in Finger Lake about 11pm with footage from the race trail. 3pm this afternoon we departed Willow in direction Finger Lake. Our pilot, however, did divert so we could see teams moving evenly on the Yentna River in direction Yentna Station Roadhouse. Hundreds of …
