Iditarod 2009!!!

[dorispulaski]

Toni, Do keep us updated on the condition of Bjorner Anderson. Will it be reported somewhere, do you think, or will the papers stop covering his condition after the race finishes?

Being dragged, hitting tree stump after tussock sounds horrible.

 

[PolymerBob]

just a small update: Lance Mackey is first into Iditarod!

Yes, but he took off from the wrong edge.

 

[Tonichelle]

Toni, Do keep us updated on the condition of Bjorner Anderson. Will it be reported somewhere, do you think, or will the papers stop covering his condition after the race finishes?

Being dragged, hitting tree stump after tussock sounds horrible.

Will do, Doris. If the Anchorage Daily News doesn't cover it I'm sure the Iditarod website will have an update... and I can always go to my inside sources (though they are slow to answer any email I send darn dog mushers)


This morning several teams went in and quickly left Iditarod. Mackey is still in first with Mitch Seavey in 4th ( ), Gebhardt is 7th, King 8th. And *drumroll* Dallas Seavey has jumped to 11th!

Rick Swenson made a move that now has him in 12th place.

Jonrowe is 20th, Buser 26th (24 is up).

well aside from a few minor factual errors (which adn always has anyway so what's teh use?) this article about beginning last night's run is good - http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/720188.html

 

[Tonichelle]

Mackey is still leading the charge! He's the first (and still only) team into Anvik. Jeff King is a few hours behind him having stayed a spell in Shageluk. Seavey is 5th as of a few minutes ago. He's still in Shageluk while others have headed out. Dallas is in 10th. Swenson 17th, Jonrowe 19th, Buser 21st.

Oh and Anvik is where the 7 course meal is this year. yum, yum, Lance. enjoy it. Normally it's King who gets to chow down. Aw well. Maybe while Lance is stuffing his face King will take his place as the lead. And according to this article - http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/722185.html - Mackey once again had trouble on this stretch of the race with wrong turns. This marks AT LEAST the third year he's done this. Seriously? You'd think he'd know better by now. And I don't buy his excuse that the dogs just don't listen.

nothing else really to report... TGIF! Maybe I'll keep up with the race this weekend!

 

[Tonichelle]

Jeff King is the new leader!!!!


Mitch Seavey is the first to take his 8 hour layover...


...let the real race begin!

 

[Tonichelle]

Lance Mackey is once again in the lead. He's taken his manditory 8 hours. He's in and out of Grayling. As are Schnulle (Hey Lad, he's Canadian), Burmeister, Neff, Seavey (!!!), and King.

Schnuelle and Burmeister haven't taken their 8 hours yet.

Paul Gebhardt (10th) and Dallas Seavey (12th) are into Grayling, but Paul hasn't taken his 8 yet, and who knows why Dallas hasn't left yet (he has also taken his 8 hours).

Swenson (18) and Jonrowe (19) are on their way to Anvik this morning. As is Martin Buser (24).

couple of articles for this morning -
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/722569.html
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/722573.html

 

[dorispulaski]

This is getting exciting!

 

[Tonichelle]

Lance is out of Eagle Island after a 7+ hour rest with his team.

everyone else is still getting into Eagle Island, though I don't expect them to take as long a time there... but you never know.

here's hoping there's more movement/checkpoint jumping later on tonight and tomorrow! I'm bored!

 

[Tonichelle]

Found this on the Iditarod Official Forum

from the Anchorage Daily News:

Norwegian musher Bjornar Andersen was reunited with his dog team Friday after withdrawing from the race the previous day. Andersen scratched after a nasty accident but race spokesman Chas St. George said he had been released from the hospital and was preparing to return home to Norway.

"He's doing good," St. George said.

 

[Tonichelle]

Another musher has scratched, Rookie Ron Loveman. No idea as to why, going to dig around while I update this morning.

Lance Mackey is in and out of Kaltag. New Yukon Quest champ Schuelle is on his heels (or rather just two hours behind). Seavey is in Kaltag in third, he hasn't left yet.

Jeff King is also in Kaltag and is currently 5th. Aaron Burmiester and John Baker just made it into Kaltag AT THE SAME TIME. Very cool. I love watching teams come in together, makes it feel more like a race. In fact, the year that Lance Mackey's father won the Iditarod he won by one second! The second place team? Rick Swenson's. The footage of those two mushers running and yelling for the dogs to keep going is spectacular. Wish more Iditarods finished that way!

Dallas, once again, rounds out the top ten. He's in and out of Eagle Island... it will take him a while to get to the next check point, though his team is picking up speed.

Jonrowe was the last musher to leave Eagle Island as of the last update on Iditarod.com... she's in 16th. Swenson and Buser are in Eagle Island in 20th and 21st place respectively.

and Jen Seavey is solidly in 57th place. That hasn't changed in days! But hey, she's not coming in dead last and she is just training a bunch of pups.

 

[Tonichelle]

Some wonderful articles -

http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/723658.html
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/723635.html

 

[Tonichelle]

Lance is first into Unalakleet - which means he's first to the Bering Sea... winds, sudden storms... and basically if the other teams don't just end up using rocket boosters he's looking at his third win. and the most solid of all his wins (which I think will prove more than ever that the Quest and Iditarod back to back is a bit much for the dogs.)

 

[Tonichelle]

http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/723887.html

 

[Tonichelle]

Well, good morning, all!

Lance is still well out ahead of the rest of the pack. He's in and out of Shaktoolik while others are just in and out of Unalakleet. Basically the race is really who is going to get second at this point because unless some tragedy befalls Mackey's team there's going to be no catching him.

Jeff King is, this morning, in 3rd, Mitch Seavey 5th, Dallas Seavey 11th, Gebhardt 13th, Jonrowe 15th, Swenson 17th, Buser 20th....

Rob Loveman, who scratched a couple of days ago, withdrew due to Iditarod Rule 36 which states the ITC (Iditarod Trail Committee) can withdraw a team that is no longer competitive. I figured as much when he just kept sitting in Ophir after his 24 and everyone else was passing him by. The press release gave no more information than that, though.

Another team, Kurt Reich, withdrew today. No word yet as to why.

A good blog from the Iditarod website, by Bruce Lee, gives a look at the Musher's side of athletics - http://iditarodblogs.com/news/2009/03/14/750/

Jen Seavey is the ADN's newest Musher profile - http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/724476.html - it's a fantastic article on one of my favorite people. I'd heard that Dallas' team got hit by a moose, but honestly didn't know if it was true or not of if the people talking about it were even referring to the Iditarod and not one of his other races this year. Now I know!

Another article on Mackey *yawn* but also a great story about John Baker losing his dogs for the second time this trip! - http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/724458.html

that's it for now. gotta get ready for work!

 

[Tonichelle]

You know, the race started out promising a really good race... no such luck... even the other mushers have conceeded to Lance winning his third and they've decided to fight for second place. Blah. - http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/724706.html

It's being predicted that Mackey will get into Nome early Wednesday.

 

[Tonichelle]

FROM: Mark Nordman, Race Marshal

Earlier today (at approximately 2pm Alaska Time) Iditarod Race officials deployed an Iditarod Air Force (IAF) aircraft to check on the whereabouts of Iditarod Rookies Lou Packer (bib #43), Kim Darst (bib #52) and Blake Matray (bib #9). All three mushers were overdue on their run to Shaguluk. Packer was located approximately 22 miles past Iditarod. He signaled that has was in distress. The (IAF) pilot landed and found that two of Packer's 15 dogs were deceased. A plane load of dogs were immediately flown out and a second flight is underway to airlift Packer and the remainder of the team.

A group of local residents from Shagaluk are on the trail to assess and assist Darst and Matray.

A necropsy will be conducted by a board certified pathologist to make every attempt to determine the cause of death of the two dogs.

interestingly enough it's now 8:30pm and they have no further info on the other two mushers, and they haven't indicated that Packer has scratched. Not sure how to take that news. hopefully this doesn't get out of hand... it's worrisome about the other two!

 

[ManyCairns]

^Darst and Matray are on the move to the next checkpoint escorted by snow machines and have scratched from the race.

On the Iditarod website forum yesterday, several (including me) were posting about the lack of progress of these three teams, and a couple of other posters were actually calling for 911 action. That seemed alarmist at the time but now perhaps in retrospect ??? The GPS apparently showed Packer making progress at .2 mph at times, suggesting he was probably walking in front of his team, and Darst and Matray simply weren't moving for hours and hours and hours.

Very sad and I am sure they will do a full evaluation of the incident.

Meanwhile leader Mackey just completed the brutal trek (the weather is horrible, with wind right in the teams' faces) into Elim. 3 teams that started from Shaktoolik and then holed up on the trail for a while made a probably very wise decision to turn around and go back to Shaktoolik. The weather has swooped in and had huge consequences on the race, affecting teams from 4th place on down in the Norton Bay area as well as those rookie teams at the back.

Schnuelle right now has a lock on second place, having been able to successfully get from Shak to Koyuk, where he is now resting, well ahead of Baker's arrival in Koyuk. Elim, where Mackey is, is the next checkpoint ahead. Everyone else is behind at Shaktoolik (or further back) at this point.

Ok, my info all comes from the Anchorage Daily News reports and the Iditarod website. Hopefully Toni can check in soon with some insider info.

 

[Tonichelle]

really there's not much more to say ya beat me to it!

I do find it interesting that Packer has not scratched... considering he was AIRLIFTED to the checkpoint and all... maybe it's just an error on the webmaster's part

I'm so tired of the people on ADN screaming for a better groomed trail. please. the original iditarods didn't have anyone breaking trail... nor should it be expected. the mushers have been too spoiled lately, IMHO.

 

[ManyCairns]

really there's not much more to say ya beat me to it!

I do find it interesting that Packer has not scratched... considering he was AIRLIFTED to the checkpoint and all... maybe it's just an error on the webmaster's part

Interesting for sure. I wonder if he just hasn't been up to making it formal -- is there a form to fill out or is a verbal acknowledgement to an official sufficient? I'm thinking if he has to fill out a form or something he just hasn't gotten around to it yet, what with being airlifted out and all, like you said.

As for the overall incident, it does bring up the issue in my mind of the new GPS trackers all the mushers carried for the first time this year (didn't only a few carry it last year as a test?) -- can the GPS be used to improve precautions? Something to think about, anyway.

Moving away from the weightier topics, I yawn just a hair, too, about Mackey's three-peat. By all accounts he's a great guy who loves and cares for his dogs -- and that's what's most important to me -- but I find competitions more exciting when there actually is a competition for the winner. Still, Schnuelle, Baker, and others should give us some excitement for 2nd on down through 5th or 6th or so. Really, the rest of the top ten will be interesting.

 

[Tonichelle]

Mackey's a fun loving guy... I question his ethics not with the dogs but his personally. his family has a 'reputation'... and he annoys me with all of his whining about how he doesn't have as much money as some of the other teams... but then when the mushers reached out to help by asking him to sign up and work for/with them (this is before his first win) he didn't want to work... and he doesn't open his kennel for any income... or basically work for an income... and that just bugs me. Don't cry poor mouth, run dogs, and then not work for the $$. It just irks me to no end.

he whines that the other mushers don't like him either... he whines in the off season a lot...



I'll give him credit now, though. He must work awful hard making those commercials for those Bill Azar commercials (abulence chaser)... :no:

I'd say he's a media hog, but I like the other media hog (aka Jeff King) so I can't really complain too much about that