Brent Sass 1st into Unalakleet
Brent Sass has arrived 1st into Unalakleet and is staying in the checkpoint. He arrived to a big crowd. HIs name will be added to the Wells Fargo 1st to Coast Awards trophy. He will receive $ 3500 in Gold Nuggets. This photographer had a blank morning moment. Only once snapping away, did I realize …
Setting up for Coastal Strategies
The race now comes down to the wire. Close to 250 miles to go when the teams leave Unalakleet. Brent Sass is the rabbit. He has a 9 mile lead on Dallas Seavey and 10 mile lead on Aliy Zirkle. He is traveling about the same speed as Aliy. Dallas, although driving less dogs, is …
Leaving Kaltag the portage trail has plenty of snow. Its bumpy going, pretty much every year. The first team I came upon was Dallas Seavey. He had camped about 20 miles out. When meeting a musher camped out, I always stay in a bit of a distance to see if they are up and about …
Kaltag scenes, Robert Sorlie in
Here from the Kaltag checkpoint building you can see the dog teams a long way down the river. As the checkers here call it, they are first a dot…. then a semicolon…. then a comet…. and soon its time to head outside to greet them. Robert Sorlie has arrived at 12.55 and is not bedding …
I passed Noah Burmeister, Nicolas Petit and Robert Sorlie on the Yukon River. Robert is a few miles out of Kaltag now. He is on the best schedule of the 3 mushers, getting out of the heat of the day soon. After a cold morning the sun is warming things up quickly. No wind either. …
Lots of teams into Nulato
The dog yard is filling up and a few teams are also leaving. Nicolas Petit’s dogs wanted to first go inside the checkpoint, they climbed up the stairs and were waiting for someone to open the door. Unfortunalely I was a bit too slow and did not catch good picture. He then lined his …
This is the first cold morning of the whole race. 5 below on the river and mushers are bundled up and dogs are frosted over. I snow machined out to greet Joar Leifhseth Ulsom and John Baker on the Yukon River. Take a look at this one shot. See the ice fog. That shows there …
Michelle Phillips into Nulato
Michelle Phillips had a fast run over from Galena. She passed both John Baker and Pete Kaiser. Hugh’s assessment of ” I am not going to see her much longer ” back in Ruby was accurate. One of the chores a musher needs to do, it give ulcer medication to their dogs, preventative. Now giving …
Noah Burmeister is rounding out the Top 10 here in Nulato. After last night’s incident the mood is noticeably subdued here. Robert Sorlie is preparing his team to leave. Here are some pictures
Press release Nulato
A very unfortunate incident happened this morning here in Nulato. Both Aliy Zirkle and Jeff King’s teams were attacked by a snowmachiner. Here is the link to the official press release. http://d3r6t1k4mqz5i.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/3.12.16_Iditarod_ZirkleKingandteamspurposefullyhitbysnowmachiner-FINAL.pdf?f4b8d7 Both Aliy and Jeff handled the situation very well. Jeff is still sleeping in the checkpoint and Aliy is on her way to …
