A few random thoughts about this year's Iditarod race

Mushers and dogs are taking a beating from the trail: that's evident from the number of early scratches, and reports of injuries to mushers and equipment along the way. A couple of leading contenders have been knocked out already and others are walking wounded.

Now, a thought on preparation. At this writing Sonny Lindner is leading the way toward the halfway point. He is also one of the few mushers who still have the original number of dogs that started. I noticed watching the restart on TV he had a different sled from the normal, with the long basket of a freight sled and shields along the stanchions that connect the basket to the runners. Those stanchions are the weakest link on sleds like that and those shields might have proven to be just the ticket. Now that he's leading, well, wait, that is a bit of a misnomer. You can't really know who's leading until everyone has taken a 24-hour layover. 

Martin Buser who led into Nikolai, took his 24 there and is back on the trail. He had left Takotna only about 10 hours behind Linder who had yet to take the 24.

So, back to Sonny. Given this circumstance, I was reminded of something he told me happened in the 1985 race. That one was stopped a couple of times because weather had prevented airplanes from flying the mushers' supplies to checkpoints. The race was stopped twice so the supply train could catch up.  As Sonny told it, he and Rick Swenson had discussed how harsh that winter had been and anticipated just such delays. They sent extra supplies to the trail so they could keep going despite any weather problems. Both said they felt cheated because they had prepared for such an eventuality and could have kept going but they were forced to stop anyway, allowing others to catch up with them.

Given that, and Alaska's unpredictable weather this year, I suspect Sonny and probably others of the more experienced racers, did something along the same lines, sending extra supplies, including sled repair or replacement equipment to checkpoints, anticipating the difficulties a bad trail could cause. The fact that he is out front, still driving 16 dogs I think is testament to the kind of preparation he does before a race. It's way too soon to predict outcomes or even leaders, but too, it is no accident where Sonny is right now and still driving 16 dogs.

And, speaking of preparation: It was difficult to look at the pictures of the Fairwell burn where there was no snow and the dogs, drivers and sleds were taking a beating from bare ground. (I read one report quoting a musher as saying actually the lack of snow doesn't bother the dogs all that much for several reasons)This might have been prevented. The burn area has often been left without snow. Winds blow across it unimpeded and loose snow flies  away. Years ago when Jack Niggermeyer was race manager he would send snowmachiners over the trail as soon as there was any snow at all during the winter.  That packed the snow onto the trail and laid a base for it. When the wind blew, the snow on the trail stayed put and mushers found a more reliable surface when the race came around. I really don't know if there was snow ever on the burn this year, but if there was, the race management made a mistake by not packing it down when they could have.

And, a gripe I have always had: The Anchorage Daily News had a headline calling the trip across the burn "grueling." That word used to be employed so often you would have thought the official name of the event was "The Grueling Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." I may not be among the elite writers of the world, but I can say honestly in three books and numerous articles I have never used the word "grueling" once (except here).

200,000 miles on a dog sled
Iditarod and Truman Capote: One degree of separation?

FYI the Farewell burn: In 1977, one of Alaska's largest ever wildfires blazed across the area consuming more than 300,000 acres of forest and leaving nothing but a wasteland of burned stumps and tangled brush.