Good morning from White Mountain
Pete Kaiser pulled into White Mountain to a cheering crowd and the church bells ringing. From a volunteer standpoint, he ran a very considerate schedule, giving us a full night of sleep and even time for breakfast, before arriving. Watching Pete bed down his team was a display of masterful efficiency. No wasted moves or trips …
Made it to WhiteMountain after a pit stop in Elim to deliver more trail markers. Ryan Air was gracious enough to fly our group of volunteers over Golovin Bay. Lots of open water. No surprise that the trail from Shaktoolik goes closer to shore than usual. See below a few pictures from along the route. …
A few thoughts of the race up the Coast. From Unalakleet on, the race really kicks into high gear. Each and every year. From here on out, it shows how much gas a team has left in the tank. It also shows how mentally strong they are. It is not uncommon at all for a …
Good morning form Unalakleet. It has been a busy night here with Teams coming and going all night. Light snow is still falling off and on. NO WIND. VERY NICE!!!! Jeff King was the latest to arrive, with a very animated team. Parking is at a premium here, and Jeff took it in stride, being …
The next 2 mushers to arrive are competing for a Top 10 Position, Actually make the next 4 Mushers. They all arrived in quick succession. Paige Drobny, Travis Beals, Ryan Redington and Aaron Burmeister are all parked up against the river bank. Paige was joking about how she had a hard time to keep up …
Matt Failor and Matt Hall are both having their debut in the Top 10 in Iditarod. Both mushers have spend a lot of time working on the glaciers in South East Alaska for Alaska Icefield Expediton. Keeping dogs in Top shape is what also got me into glacier tours a long time ago. Once fall …
While Nicolas Petit came and went into Shaktoolik, staying a mere 8 minutes, Jessie Holmes and Aliy Zirkle arrived in Unalakleet 3 minutes apart in 6th and 7th position. Both decided to stay and put down straw for their dogs. Jessie said he enjoyed his stay at Old Woman Cabin. He packed up and left …
Mitch Seavey came and went in Unalakleet with 9 dogs. This is Mitch’s 26th start in the Iditarod and he has been a champion in 2004, 2013 and 2017. Since 2013 he has not finished out of the Top 3. This year, he has to fight to hang on to 5th place. Aliy Zirkle and …
Evening update from Unalakleet
While the last teams are en route to Anvik ( Cindy Gallea, Victoria Hartwick and Jeremy Keller ), they are at Mile 488, the front runners are pushing up the Coast towards Shaktoolik. Currently Nicolas Petit is the lone leader at Mile 773. That is a whopping 285 mile spread. There is still race staff …
Unalakleet is a busy place right now. People are exited to have the Iditarod in town. In Kaltag, we didn’t have internet in the checkpoint and always had to run to a building a few blocks down the road to get a connection. Unalakleet is a bit easier…. we even have a big screen TV …
