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Kaltag evening action
The latest team to arrive is Jessie Holmes from Nenana. Those of you who know Jessie, know that he is a man who likes Adventure. And he is getting his moneys worth this year. His team was flying into the checkpoint 13 dogs strong. He was quick to point out, that he travelled much slower on …
While many volunteers were grounded in McGrath and Unalakleet, a window opened for Jeff Schultz to fly to Eagle Island and I assume to Kaltag in time for the Bristol Bay First Fish Award. While awaiting his photos of the award, enjoy these takes from Eagle Island.
Kaltag, the anticipation is building
Earlier in the day, we expected the lead teams to arrive at 3 p.m. That was 45 minutes ago and they are still 9 miles out. That tells you everything about the current trail conditions. Snow has stated to fall AGAIN. On the upside, it is not rain, like they experienced further down river yesterday. …
Iditarod Veteran, Jim Lanier, has authored a book called “Beyond Ophir.” The title of his book describes exactly where the mushers are on Friday afternoon of Iditarod XLVII. While Lanier isn’t participating in Iditarod this year, he completed his rookie run in the Yukon Quest a few weeks back. At 78 years young, Jim is …
Up at the front of the race, teams are reaching Iditarod. Aliy Zirkle and Martin Buser are sitting out the long rest in Iditarod. Nicolas Petit is on his way to Shageluk as is Joar Leifseth Ulsom. Nic has a 4 hour 30 minute lead on Joar. Jessie Royer, Richie Diehl and Peter Kaiser …
Defending Champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom is pretty much in the driver seat right now. He set the stage with his nothing short of phenomenal run from Rohn to Nikolai. His actual runtime was 8hours, while resting 4hrs of the trail. That was a blistering fast run and his teams speed has not really dropped off …
From Rohn, we made it out to McGrath. McGrath is one of the 2 major logistic hubs along the Iditarod Trail ( Unalakleet the other ). Flying over the trail is giving me a whole new perspective after usually being on a dog team or snowmachine. Right out of Rohn is the dreaded farewell burn. …
On Wednesday morning, McGrath is right smack-dab in the middle of Iditarod action! Yes, some teams have passed through to Takotna, some have gone beyond Takotna to Ophir. Yesterday, due to snow, some portions of the trail were not flyable so veterinarians were dispatched to Ophir by snowmachine. Meanwhile, back down the trail, all teams …
Jessie Royer has made McGrath. Royer’s first run to Nome was in 2001. With 16 starts, she’s had 16 finishes. Her best finish was fourth and she’s been in the top ten 6 times. Royer is fresh off the Yukon Quest trail. Musher and dogs will easily fall back into the trail routine. The canine athletes …
Defending Champion Joar, Leifseth Ulsom is second into McGrath. Joar check in at 16:45 with 13 dogs. He headed on to Takotna at 16:49 with the same number of dogs. Prior to 2019, Joar has started and completed 6 Iditarod runs. The defending Champion has 6 top-ten finishes. Growing up in Norway, Joar started his …
