Brent Sass again!
First and second place are being contested between Allen Moore and Hugh Neff still, but not too far behind them in long distance race terms have been Jake Berkowitz, followed by Brent Sass. Although Jake was not in danger, he was having significant difficulty. Brent Sass again showed amazing sportsmanship (which has been out and out heroism in the past):
from the Fairbanks paper, the News-Miner:
MILE 101 STEESE HIGHWAY — The next winner of the Yukon Quest was well down the trail when Brent Sass and Jake Berkowitz arrived at the 101 Mile Yukon Quest checkpoint on Sunday, but nobody was interested in hearing about the leaders.
Instead, Sass and Berkowitz, the third- and fourth-place mushers in the Quest, riveted everyone in the packed little checkpoint cabin along the Steese Highway. They arrived just minutes apart, then sat down to give a good-natured retelling of the latest dramatic tale from atop Eagle Summit.
“Eagle Summit tried to claim another one, but we didn’t let ’em,” Sass said with a smile after arriving at 101 Mile.
Together, Berkowitz and Sass salvaged a difficult episode atop the summit, when Berkowitz’s team stalled while climbing to the top.
Although the Big Lake musher was Quest rookie of the year in 2012, he’d never done the strenuous east-to-west climb before.
“There was nothing like Eagle Summit,” Berkowitz said. “I don’t think I appreciated it last year.”
Facing waist-deep snow drifts, no discernible trail and an unbelievably steep grade, he said his dogs were overwhelmed.
“This was just something that was completely out of their wheelhouse,” Berkowitz said.
After he realized his team wouldn’t budge, Berkowitz dumped his sled, scattering his gear along the trail. With his dogs parked at the top, he hoisted his empty sled up a few feet at a time, an effort he said was like “hauling treasure up from the bottom of the ocean.”
“It felt like an eternity out there,” he said.
When Sass arrived, he came across a familiar scene of a musher in distress. Eagle Summit assists are nothing new to the Eureka musher, who has such a long list of rescues atop the peak that the Quest established an award for heroism in honor of his retired lead dog, Silver.
In 2006, Sass guided musher Randy Chappel to safety during a brutal storm, then helped Yuka Honda retrieve her team the following year. He also helped William Kleedehn scale Eagle Summit when the Yukon musher stalled on the peak in 2009.
His most dramatic moment came in 2011, when Sass rescued a hypothermic Hans Gatt off the summit in the middle of a storm, guiding their teams to safety.
“Immediately when I saw (Berkowitz), it was like, ‘Here we go again,’” Sass said.
Both Sass and Berkowitz agreed that Sunday’s episode was no rescue, just an example of sportsmanship to a musher in the midst of an awful stretch.
Moving to the front of his own team, Sass was able to march up the Summit and passed Berkowitz with few problems.
“Brent’s team was pretty incredible,” Berkowitz said.
With his team parked on the summit, Sass walked back down the peak to help Berkowitz reload his sled. Then, with Berkowitz pushing from behind and Sass pulling from the front, the team made it to the summit.
Although Silver is retired back at home, Sass said two of his pups on the team are carrying on his spirit.
There are videos of the incident showing Brent leading Jake's team. Since neither Jake nor his team were in actual danger, just losing time!, none of the onlookers could help or Jake might have faced penalty or disqualification. Outside assistance is not allowed, but mushers can help one another.
