Hello, Boys and Girls,

The Iditarod started March 4, and all the mushers are working their ways down the trail to Rainy Pass and beyond. The mushers first went to Yentna Checkpoint. Some of them went through that checkpoint very quickly, signing in on the checker sheet, and some of them stayed for a while. The checker sheet is where the race volunteer checker writes the bib number of the musher, how many dogs the musher has at that time, the time and date of the arrival, and gets a musher signature.

The volunteer checkers follow this procedure at every checkpoint. Then, another volunteer, called a COMMS volunteer, emails this race information to race statistics and race communications (COMMS) headquarters in Anchorage. This is how the Current Race Standings get updated with new information. There are race statistics and race communications volunteers working 24/7 to send and receive the information.

At the first few checkpoints, all the mushers are still pretty close together, so Yentna and Skwentna deal with all the teams coming in and out within about 18 hours. Those are some busy volunteers! The vets are busy checking the dogs, too.

Keep watching the race standings and the Iditarod Insider for video and GPS tracking of the teams.

Happy Trails,

Zuma