#iditarod 2012

Posted by iditarodblog Anchorage Daily News   Posted: March 9, 2012 - 6:17 am

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Aliy Zirkle gets a hug as she passes through Ruby. Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News.Beth Bragg in Anchorage and Kyle Hopkins in Ruby -- FRIDAY, 9:30 a.m. -- For the second time in 14 hours, Aliy Zirkle snatched the Iditarod lead from Mitch Seavey by blasting through a checkpoint while Seavey was resting. This time, though, her lead comes with an asterisk Zirkle was in and out of Ruby at about 9 a.m. Friday. She reached the checkpoint three hours after Seavey, but now she's on the trail to Galena while Seavey's race is on pause in Ruby. Seavey, along with son Dallas, who was second to reach Ruby, are taking eight-hour layovers at the checkpoint. Every musher must take an eight-hour layover somewhere on the Yukon -- at Ruby, Galena, Nulato or Kaltag. Zirkle will have to take hers at one of the last three of those since she didn't stop in Ruby. But for now, she is the race leader, although it's fair to say the Seaveys will bypass her once she stops for her layover. Race judge Rich Bosela said Zirkle's dogs looked surprisingly spry when the team passed through. "She's our new leader in the Iditarod race," Bosela said. "They'll be hopscotching back and forth, depending on who decides to rest longer. Certainly, if she takes her eight hours in Galena, she's going to see some teams passing her as she's parked." Zirkle won the 2000 Yukon Quest and is running a team loaded with dogs that just finished the thousand-mile race last month. Checkpoints in the Quest are fewer and farther apart than those in the Iditarod, so teams tend to make long runs in the Quest. Bosela said Zirkle told him that's why she had the confidence to keep mushing when she reached Ruby. Zirkle pulled off the same move Thursday night in Cripple. Seavey reached the checkpoint long before anyone else and more than four hours before Zirkle. He was giving his dogs a rest when Zirkle arrived at 6:26 p.m. and left six minutes later. Seavey followed at 6:55 p.m. and passed Zirkle on the trail to Ruby while Zirkle's team was parked and taking a break. FRIDAY, 8 a.m. -- Mitch Seavey is in Ruby, back in command of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -- but at what price? Seavey reached the Yukon River at 6 a.m. Friday and had the checkpoint to himself for more than an hour until son Dallas arrived at 7:07 a.m. Defending champion John Baker arrived in third place around 8:30 a.m. As he gave snacks to his dogs under a faint display of northern lights, Mitch Seavey worried that the two long runs that vaulted him into the Iditarod lead will cost him later in the race. Seavey made an epic, nearly 100-mile run Thursday to grab the lead from Aliy Zirkle, and then turned in another marathon overnight, going the 70 miles from Cripple to Ruby without stopping for a rest. "There's more to the race than being here first," he said. "I paid a price to do that. We're not going to get much of a return on our investment. "... We'll see how resilient (the dogs) are. But they're going to be slower than they were," he said. Comparing notes at the checkpoint, father and son commiserated over the long run from Cripple. Mitch made it to Ruby in 11 hours, 5 minutes and Dallas did it in 10:42. "I did it faster than you. Ha ha!" Dallas teased his dad. Mitch, who said he was tired after two long days of mushing, said he'll take an eight-hour layover in Ruby. Ruby is the first of four villages on the river -- Galena, Nulato and Kaltag are the others -- and mushers must take an eight-hour layover at one of them. "The run in here was really long. It took way too long," about two hours longer than it should have, he said. "The dogs just didn't want to go very fast for a while," he said. They could be still recovering from Thursday's long haul from Takotna to Cripple via Ophir, a total of 96 miles. Seavey held a narrow lead of three minutes leaving Takotna but reached Cripple with a lead of 1 hour, 42 minutes. Zirkle got there more than four hours later but shook things up at least temporarily by leaving almost immediately at 6:22 p.m. Seavey, who rested his dogs in Cripple for more than four hours, followed 23 minutes later and passed Zirkle on his way to Ruby. "I was hoping to gain some time by taking longer runs," Seavey explained. "It looks like I didn't do that." Bold moves don't always pay off on the Iditarod Trail, but sometimes a bold move is what turns a top contender into a champion. "You can play it real cautious, or you can go to win," Seavey said. "I've always been real cautious and I've always been in the top 10." With another 430 miles to go before the finish line in Nome, it's too early to know if Seavey's gamble will pay off. His son is still breathing down his neck, and after reaching Ruby, Dallas said he likes the way his race is shaping up. He thinks his team is the fastest among the frontrunners and thinks it's stronger than his dad's. His dogs arrived in Ruby barking and stayed on their feet, looking spirited. "I'm just going to start chipping away at that gap," he said of the 67 minutes separating father from son. "Here, we made up another 20, 25 minutes. We'll just keep taking little pieces like that the next day or two. "But I may not stick to that plan. I may go ahead and just make a move if I need to and either close that gap completely or jump out ahead a little bit."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—

The Iditarod leaderboard made a push for Takotna on Tuesday evening with musher Aliy Zirkle still leading the race standings and past champions trailing in the other spots.Zirkle checked into McGrath at 8:32 p.m. and left at 8:36 p.m. Tuesday with 16 dogs. She checked in to Takotna thirty minutes before midnight.

Anchorage Daily News

 Scott Janssen puts down straw for his team in Nikolai. (Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News photo)

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Posted: March 7, 2012 - 2:04 am Iditarod sophomore Scott Janssen was making his way down a steep section of the Dalzell Gorge when the dog collapsed. One moment, 9-year-old Marshall was pulling hard at the sled, the tug line taut as a guitar string. The next, the husky was on the ground. “Boom! Laid right down. It was like a guy my age having a heart attack,” said Janssen, who owns an Anchorage funeral home and calls himself “The Mushing Mortician.” Janssen raced to the dog. Marshall did not appear to be breathing, he said. “I know what death looks like, and he was gone. Nobody home,” Janssen said. Dog deaths are a constant fear for Iditarod mushers and boosters. Critics point to the once-common fatalities along the trail as evidence the race is inherently inhumane. But no dogs have died in the past two years, and racers are eager to continue the trend. For many mushers, sled dogs are a some combination of co-worker and employee, friend and family member. “I was sobbing,” said Janssen, who began a kind of mouth-to-snout CPR – compressing the husky’s chest and breathing into his nose. “I really love that dog.” Marshall collapsed late Monday night as the musher navigated a famously tricky section of trail that follows Rainy Pass as mushers exit the Alaska Range. Janssen, who turns 51 on Monday, is running his second Iditarod after placing 42 of 47 finishers last year.

Janssen trains with Iditarod rookie Anna Berington, running dogs from 1984 Iditarod champion Dean Osmar’s kennel in Kasilof. Marshall is likely one of the oldest. He has finished maybe half a dozen Iditarods, mainly with Kenai Peninsula musher Paul Gebhardt. This was to be the dog’s last trip to Nome, Janssen said. The musher spent the next few crucial minutes attempting a kind of dog rescue technique taught to him by Gebhardt. Janssen tucked the dog’s tongue into its mouth and held the mouth closed. “I had my mouth over his nose, breathing into his nose as I was compressing and rubbing his chest, trying to work the air out,” Janssen said. After what seemed like an eternity but was likely no more than five minutes, Janssen talked to the dog, he said. “I’m like c’mon dude, please come back.'” “And he did.” The dog suddenly hacked a breath, Janssen said. The musher said he doesn’t know why Marshall collapsed. Maybe heart arrhythmia, he guessed. Janssen carried Marshall in his sled until the Rohn checkpoint about 32 miles from Rainy Pass, breaking a runner along the way. “The vets took a look. Gave Marshall an IV, and he’s heading home,” Janssen said. “He was fine this morning. Standing around, bummed out that he wasn’t going with us.” Marshall will return to Anchorage sometime Wednesday, said Janssen's daughter, Chelsea. "He's doing just fine. He's still at the checkpoint and they're flying him back home today."

ZACK STEER | MAR O5, 2012

John Baker’s Iditarod course record is safe for another year. Heavy snow is beginning to fall in Western Alaska, and the storm track puts the leaders of the 2012 Iditarod in the eye of it for the next 24 to 48 hours.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the Upper Kuskokwim Valley with predictions of 4 to 8 inches of fresh snow on the trail between Finger Lake and McGrath. It would not be surprising if a foot or more fell at Rainy Pass. Wind and drifting aren't expected, so the full effect should be to slow the race pace for a couple of days

A slow trail is good for dogs, but it can be frustrating to some mushers.

Mother Nature seems to be dictating a slower pace, and dogs tend to pick up fewer musculoskeletal (wrist and shoulder) injuries on a softer trail, as long as there is an established base. Although fun to travel on, hard-packed and high-speed trails are tough on dogs. A good analogy is running in sand on a beach vs. running on pavement. When the dogs are running slower, they are less likely to trip on obstacles or step in holes.

They also work more efficiently at a trot than a speedy lope. Expect to see fewer dropped dogs in the first third of the race, as well as more mushers passing unscathed through the traditionally difficult Happy River Steps and Dalzell Gorge. Fresh snow on the trail is like a pillow, or safety cushion, along the sides of the trail. Air bags from Mother Nature, so to say.

Deep snow has been the theme of Alaska weather this winter. Dog drivers have gotten used to mushing in snow, breaking trail in training and mid-distance races. Several mid-distance races have been affected by heavy snow -- the Sheep Mountain 150 and Knik 200 were both won by mushers who chose to follow, rather than lead through deep snow. In December, Jeff King passed Aliy Zirkle just a few miles from the finish of Sheep Mountain 150 after she assumed heavy-duty trail-breaking duty. Jake Berkowitz followed a trail-breaking Lance Mackey for 60 miles before winning the Knik 200 in January. The Copper Basin 300 was cancelled altogether by snow too deep for teams and trail breakers. It looks like this Iditarod will be no exception.

Advantage goes to the light and tough.

Small and scrappy mushers like Dallas Seavey, Hugh Neff, and Lance Mackey will thrive on the slower trail. Speed is not their strength, endurance is. The speedsters like Martin Buser and Jeff King will have to overcome one more obstacle in their quests for Iditarod victory number five.  Any musher over 175 pounds also faces an added disadvantage when the trail gets deep and slow.  Disadvantage to Ken Anderson, Jake Berkowitz, Gerry Willomitzer and John Baker.  Advantage DeeDee Jonrowe, Mitch Seavey, and Sigrid Ekran.  Many of the mushers from the Lower 48 and Canada have not had good snow conditions for much of their winter, and their dogs might struggle in the powder.

Mushers have a few tools in their sled to help overcome deep snow conditions. Modern runner plastic comes in two widths, 1 1/2 inches or 2 inches. Mushers who had the foresight to start with the wider plastic will have 25 percent more surface area to spread the weight of their sled load. It is much better to plane on top of the snow than plow through it. The dogs are working hard enough running through new, unconsolidated snow. No need to make them work any harder than they have to. On hard-packed trail, the narrow runner plastic is usually faster.