CB300: On The Trail

All teams are on the trail in the 2020 Copper Basin 300 and are headed towards Lake Louise on the first leg of the race. Aliy and her team, led out by Commando and Junior, ran out of the chute looking strong and are headed towards The Point Lodge – 75 miles away, Kudos to Karolyn and the handler crew for getting them out on-time – making the start line is sometimes one of the hardest parts of the race.

The weather is a main character in this story so we will be keeping a close eye on this over the weekend. Currently there is no wind so we are hoping that stays the case as wind chill combined with the frigidity makes for an unpleasant day.

The dogs are well protected for this weather. All dogs racing today have their natural Alaskan or Siberian Husky coat that has inherent cold insulation properties due to a thick soft under-layer protected with longer ‘guard hairs’ on the top to seal in the warmth. To supplement that and ensure they don’t burn more calories than they need to, all our dogs are wearing an insulated (puffy) jacket. Some are wearing T-shirts as an added layer under the jacket, generally those with a shorter natural coat or the lead dogs, and the boys are all wearing fox fur ruffs around their bellies to protect their personal areas from possible frost nip. It’s important to know each dog individually and know their needs in this situation (and, in fact, all situations).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You’ll notice from the start video that Aliy is wearing her white wind block gear over all her other clothing. You know it’s cold when you see that.

Remember to keep an eye on the Trackleaders GPS tracker to stay up to date. Click on the heart icon next to your favourite musher’s name to highlight her on the map (you can choose more than one if you really want). Unfortunately, at time of writing a few of the trackers are not working as they should, Aliy’s included, but we expect they will be seen to at the first checkpoint if they don’t start pinging their signal before then.

The handler crew are currently fuelling up, both for the truck and their bellies, then will head out to The Point Lodge to enjoy the hospitality out there and wait for the teams to arrive. Good job team!!

—–

A couple of tips for following this race for those that haven’t heard me drone on about this before. All teams must take at least 18 hours of checkpoint rest during the race. Most of the top teams will take only 18 hours and because this can be spread over the checkpoints in any combination, but with one mandatory six-hour stop (plus differential) somewhere, it can be difficult to keep track of who is leading. ‘First into a checkpoint’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘first in the race’ because that team might have not have taken as much rest yet as those that arrive later. The answer to the question “who is winning?” is not so straightforward. The thing to look at overall is the total runtime of the teams – the cumulative time since the start. We will update you now and again on the top 10 or so teams and where they sit but you can play along at home by checking the CB300 website checkpoint times tabs and doing your own calculations.

Thanks Lisa for braving the cold to take these pics and video.