The Current Race Standings show us that Allen left one of his team mates with the vet and volunteer team in Rohn. As with yesterday, at this stage we have no way to know who it was or why and we’ll get that information to you as soon as we can.
RED TEAM UPDATE
Aliy is keeping her team to a fairly consistent run/rest schedule at this stage and stopped the team on the trail last night between Rohn and Nikolai. Each of those short “dips” is her stopping to snack the team on their frozen salmon, beef or chicken snacks.
“Analytics View” of the tracker shows the Red Team’s run/rest schedule
If you are an Insider subscriber they have set up a live feed from Nikolai checkpoint and if we time it right we will get to see them arriving. It’s mind boggling, and pretty cool, to think we can watch that happening live from remote Alaska!
BLACK TEAM UPDATE
Currently, the Black Team is resting about 20 miles passed Rohn, at around the same area the Red Team camped last night. There are a bunch of other teams camping there also and Sebastian Schnuelle, in his post last night, said “about 18 miles out, past the Post Rohn Glacier, is Tin Creek. Good running water there, so many teams try to camp in that vicinity. Straw would not be needed for a team there, as the meadows had no snow cover.” So, it could be that they are all in that area using the trail conditions to their advantage.
Aliy and her 15 team mates left Rohn at around 8pm this evening having stopped for just 15 minutes to resupply. The trail to Nikolai is around 75 miles so we expect they will camp at some point on their way there rather than run right through.
This run breaks into three natural sections: 20 miles along the south side of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim from Rohn to Farewell Lakes and up onto the Farewell Burn, 35 miles across the Burn itself to Sullivan Creek, and then 20 miles north from Sullivan Creek past Salmon River to Nikolai. – Donald Bower, Jnr. Also, read Sebastian’s trail report from earlier today.
Although it is exciting to see the Red Team in the top of the GPS leaderboard right now, it is too soon to make much of that. The lead will change many times over the next few days as teams leapfrog each other due to vastly differing run/rest schedules. Just as one team makes a break for the lead they then stop to rest and another team will pass – it’s the nature of the race in these early stages and certainly keeps things interesting, if not a little confusing! Only after all the mandatory rests are taken (more on that tomorrow) do we really have a good idea of what’s going on.
BLACK TEAM UPDATE
Allen and the Black Team had a good long six hour rest at Rainy Pass. The Insider interviewed Allen as he got into Rainy Pass and he was really happy with the trail and said the the notorious Happy River Steps were the best he had ever seen them! He said the team was doing excellent but that he was going to rest them a lot as he didn’t want to overdo it because the two year olds had never seen a race like this.
They are currently climbing up to the summit of Rainy Pass at around 3000 feet and are about to negotiate the steep down hills and twisty turns by the light of the moon (and Allen’s head lamp).
The Iditarod Facebook page posted the following: “We just received a call from Insider Cameraman Kevin Bodhi, who’s currently on top of Rainy Pass. He said there is open water on the Happy River Crossing (mi 163 on trackers), knee-deep 30-40′ across.” They said that a number of teams camped just after that as some of them got wet. We noticed on the “analytics view” of the tracker that the Black Team did stop for about an hour at around that spot so perhaps they had some issues there BUT they are moving nicely now so maybe they just needed to dry out a little. Thankfully it is not 50 below! Hopefully we will be able to find out more about that once they get into the next checkpoint.
This screen shot from the tracker will give you an idea of the terrain they are going over.
The “old paws” at the front of the team, and the one on the sled, have seen it all before and will guide the youngsters down but it will still be nice to see them off that section of trail. We’ll be watching the tracker for a little while yet before getting a few hours sleep ourselves.
Mac is now at our “Returned Dog Coordinator” Linda Steiner’s house after a plane ride from Finger Lake back to Anchorage. He is feeling well now, he simply overheated and Aliy thought it wasn’t a good idea to keep running him. She will be disappointed as Mac is an important part of this team but she will always do what is best for her team mates.
Mac will spend a few days resting in Anchorage and then he gets to go out to Margie’s kennel situated in Knik for more TLC.
Mac getting some love from HQ based vet Erika Friedrich; awaiting pick up
We have just received notification that it was Mac that Aliy left in Finger Lake. At this stage we don’t know the specific reason but we do know she was carrying him through Yentna. He has landed back in Anchorage and Linda, our returned dog coordinator, is about to pick him up. We’ll give you more info as we get it.
Aliy and the Red Team are on the move again and have passed through Rainy Pass after camping for around five hours, eight miles before the checkpoint. It seems this was a good idea as evidently the beautiful weather brought lots of small planes with visitors and supporters to the checkpoint, and there were lots of teams still bunched together at the early part of the race. Her team would have had a restful, quiet break that allowed them to pass right through the checkpoint, stopping only to pick up some supplies for the next leg to Rohn, and for the vet team to look over the dogs.
The Insider featured a video of the team camping and she was using “old school” firewood to heat her water. She said she stopped them at seven hours, wanted to wait for the sun to go down a little bit and confirmed that she wanted to avoid the crush at Rainy Pass. The pictures showed the dogs enjoying a peaceful, warm nap in the sun.
Check out this post from 2013 Iditarod where Aliy shows us part of the trail towards Rohn on “Aliy Cam”.
The run from Rainy Pass to Rohn includes the infamous Dalzell Gorge. An overview of the trail from the Iditarod website tells us: “It has some very tough trail, including the notorious Dalzell Gorge. Given a choice, most mushers prefer to do this during the day, although a nighttime run is entirely feasible, and with a bright moon can be ethereally beautiful. If possible, leave Rainy Pass Lodge so as to be at the summit of Rainy Pass about dawn (about a two or three hour run). If you do it in the afternoon, plan to be at the summit with at least two hours of daylight remaining.
The trail runs in the open on the tundra of Ptarmigan Pass from Rainy Pass Lodge to the mouth of Pass Creek, which it then follows northwest up to the summit of Rainy Pass itself. Then there are several miles of sometimes steep downhills and often tight, twisting trail through scrub willow southwest along Pass Fork to Dalzell Creek. The trail then drops into the infamous Dalzell Gorge for a few miles and finally onto the Tatina River for the last five miles to Rohn.”
For detailed information about each leg click go to the Race Map then click on each checkpoint and you can find descriptions by Donald Bowers Jnr. The trail will be slightly different every race, depending on trail and ice conditions but this will give you a great overview and describes the landmarks of each leg.
The Red Team is on their way to Rohn, the Black Team is resting in Rainy Pass
BLACK TEAM UPDATE
The Iditarod Insider Live is a new feature this year where they are bringing live streamed pictures from some of the checkpoints! I missed the Red Team’s live arrival (but was able to rewind later) but I managed to time it right this morning to see Allen bring the Black Team in. They looked great; full of beans in fact. Chica was barking up a storm, as was Lydia, and Spark was bouncing around. It’s a great feature to couple with the GPS tracker so if you time it right you can catch the teams coming in.
As I write the Black Team is resting in Rainy Pass. Their run time from Finger Lake to Rainy Pass is up there with the “top teams” and what we can expect to happen, especially at the early stages of the race is that Allen will rest the team more frequently and/or for longer than those racing for a win.
Sebastian caught some great pics of them as they came into the checkpoint. There is one with Allen and he is wearing a neck gator. I may be clutching at straws here but I would like to think that if it were CRAZY hot he wouldn’t be wearing it so maybe it is a little cooler out there?
Sebastian Schnuelle captured the Black Team coming into Rainy Pass
I thought it would be a good idea to give you some pro-tips for distinguishing the five lookalike blue-eyed tri-coloured sisters on the Black Team. It’s still tricky to pick it on a photograph or video and sometimes even we who see them every day have some difficulty – but here’s what to look for! These pictures below last season’s portraits so you can see faces clearly. Also check out our Dogs Page for full body pictures of them all. Hope it helps!
Amber has pointy ears and her left leg is white; Violet has floppy ears and a white sock on her right leg; Junior has huge, pointy ears and has an almost “roman”-type nose compared to her younger sisters – she also has a white left leg which will complicate things with Amber so look for the nose. Junior will usually be nearer the front than the others but we expect Allen to move the team around to keep it interesting
These two girls are slightly easier to distinguish…
Chena has a mostly white and grey face with rounded upright ears; Lydia has a mostly brown face with a white stripe – and is TINY!
Aliy and the Red Team have just passed through Finger Lake checkpoint. The standings show that she has left one dog there with the vets but at this stage we have no way of knowing who it is and why. We’ll get that to you once we find out so we appreciate your patience.
The Red Team mushed to Skwentna where they stopped for almost four hours and are now headed towards Rainy Pass. Whether or not they will go all the way there and rest at the checkpoint or camp between is unknown at this point. The run from Skwenta to Rainy Pass is around 70 miles so Aliy may take them all the way which would then mean they rest in the heat of the day.
Allen and the Black Team didn’t stop in Skwentna. Having stopped on the trail earlier for a couple of hours they spent just half and hour at the checkpoint to get supplies then camped on the other side for about four hours. This is probably a good move for the young team as the checkpoints in the early stages of the race are very busy and camping on the trail will give them more peace and quiet and a better chance at getting some rest. With the temperatures being so mild it is likely they had a very pleasant stop. The Northern Lights were out last night so the mushers would have enjoyed the scenery!
I’m working on the pictures from yesterday and will get them to you soon.
After the excitement and hubbub of the Ceremonial Start yesterday it was a more relaxed start to the day as we made our way up to Willow for the re-start.
With such low bib numbers we didn’t have too long to wait for our turns. First up was Allen’s Black Team. His line up to start the race had Quito and Chena in lead, Lester and Junior in swing, Nacho and Chica, Sissy and Spark, Lydia and Tinder, Nomex and Iron, Champ and Driver, Violet and Amber.
After a quick sprint back to the other truck we then got Aliy and her Red Team away. Her line up today was Waylon and Kodiak in lead, Scruggs and Schmoe in swing, Mismo and Chemo, Commando and Chipper, Dutch and Izzy, Scout and Willie, Sandy and Mac with Clyde and Felix in wheel.
I have a load of great pics from today to go through so will post them tomorrow, in the meantime I hope you enjoy the videos of the start!
As I write this both teams are resting in the Skwentna checkpoint. Sebastian Schnuelle posted some pics from Yentna that showed Aliy carrying Mac in her sled as she ‘blew through’ the checkpoint. She didn’t drop him there so we presume he was a bit hot from the afternoon sun and excitement of the start line so was taking a rest. What probably doesn’t hurt is that he will be an extra 70lb of ballast to help keep the team a little slower on the hard and fast trails.
Allen and the Black Team rested along the way for a couple of hours. Whether or not the rookies (oh, why not – shall we call them the “yahoos” this year??) got much rest is another question. It can take them a few checkpoints for them to get the resting routine sorted out. The more experienced members of the team will be setting a good example and settling down quickly when it is time to sleep. Sebastian posted some super pictures of the Black Team dropping down towards the Big Susitna River.
