This year’s Iditarod certainly didn’t go as planned, but overall I’m more proud of this team and finishing strong in Nome than if we had come into the finish line in the top 20. We started off the race looking very strong, running a moderate schedule that had us traveling in the top 20-15 mushers. Sister, borrowed from Brent Sass for the race, was returned first in Finger Lake checkpoint for being in heat or “in season”. She was much more interested in finding a love interest than running and was a huge distraction to the boys. The early warm temps of the race had a strong negative effect on Secretariat and Aragorn; both of whom I returned from the team and sent home after showing tell-tale signs of hyperthermia in the checkpoints of Rohn and Nikolai, respectively. Crossing through the notorious “Burn” from Rohn to Nikolai we encountered about 35 miles of bare wind blown trail and glare ice.
Somewhere along that stretch the drag mat on my sled was ripped off, severely damaging the rear stanchions it was connected to in the process. I repaired it enough to make it into Nikolai and then McGrath, where Pete Kaiser was nice enough to loan me his second sled he’d sent out as backup. Our race carried on to plan and on schedule but by Ophir I had five females in heat, which at that point was almost half the team and a major distraction. All of my leaders, save for Hermione, were either in heat or male. This meant I could really only rely on Hermione to lead us, so that’s what we did. She single led the long miles into the remote checkpoint of Cripple, and along that leg about half the team started getting a pretty nasty stomach bug. Given the amount of distraction that the in season females were creating along with the stomach bug in the team we rested in Cripple for 16 hours to allow the dogs to recover. That long rest put us quite a ways back from the top 20 teams and I still had only Hermione as a leader, so we dialed back our race and focused only on finishing from that point on. I eventually had to return Pippin and Fuse for lingering effects of the stomach bug; Petty in Nulato for a sore shoulder after slipping on some glare ice; and then Sharpe in Shaktoolik for a sore wrist, also from slipping on glare ice. Ultimately, seven dogs pulled us from Galena to Shaktoolik. Then after returning Sharpe in Shaktoolik six dogs, four of whom were females 45 pounds and under; Citation, Hermione, Pip, Pearl, Elway, and Jam pulled us to the finish. The coast was riddled with glare ice conditions and technical sled driving but I was constantly amazed by my little team’s persistent and happy attitude. Hermione single led from Ophir all the way to Shaktoolik where Pip finally stopped thinking about finding a lover and started again focusing on doing what she does best, running in lead.
Pip and Hermione led us through a semi serious ground blizzard from Koyuk to Elim and then leaving White Mountain enroute to the finish we encountered a very serious 50-60mph ground blizzard leading into the Topkok hills. We pressed through, hoping that the winds would stay the same or subside once we got into the hills. The first bit of the Topkok hills were very very intense, but just barely travel-able with some persistence. The final two hills of the Topkok’s, however, were almost completely impossible to move across. Strong winds, 70mph and higher, would continually slam us and push my sled down hill and off the trail. Using all of my strength I would yard and yank on the sled uphill while calling the dogs up and together we’d slowly get it pulled back up laterally onto the trail while making only a few yards of forward progress. I was unaware of the shelter cabin on the other side of the hills but knew I at least had to get down from the high country for any hope of not just finishing but of survival.
Continuous wind of this magnitude in below freezing conditions is truly impossible to envision unless you’ve experienced it. It is literally a life and death scenario that can kill you in minutes. My only thought was to keep moving forward and I really couldn’t believe how persistent and bullheaded my little team was, with Pip still leaping in excitement and then being knocked to the ground by the winds only to get up and do it again. I kept thinking to myself as I yanked the sled uphill over and over that her drive and attitude were just indomitable and almost indescribable given the conditions we were in. Eventually we dropped out of the hills and made it to the Topkok shelter cabin at the mouth of the notorious “blow hole”. Full of adrenaline from surviving the Topkok’s, we tried to press on but 70mph head winds slammed my sled over on its side and tossed me like a rag doll along the beach. We turned back and sought shelter in the cabin.
There is no shelter for dogs or any other creature at that spot in the blowhole, hence the need for the cabin. The ground was wind scoured and sparse of any snow deep enough to dig a snow cave and the willow bushes have no foliage for a wind break. With no other way to escape the winds for the dogs I brought them inside with me, which is a rule violation by Iditarod rules and I will have to pay a monetary fine for it. But in that scenario I felt it was my only option and a fine is worth reaching the finish line safely. I’m not planning to contend or appeal the fine as I did know it was a rule violation, but I wasn’t going to go inside and be comfortable while my dogs hunkered down outside.
We ended up waiting a little over 24 hours for the wind to break enough to leave. During that time search and rescue members tried to reach me by snow machine for a welfare check only to have their snow machines and gear sleds lifted and flipped over by the winds, never successfully reaching me from the Nome side through the blowhole. They described the conditions as being as bad or worse as than they’d ever seen them and a no travel order was placed between villages until winds subsided. About sixteen hours or so into my stay at the cabin search and rescue members from the direction of White Mountain escorted Jeff and KattiJo Deeter along with Sebastian Dos Santos Borges and their dogs into the shelter cabin I was at. Meanwhile Sean Williams, Gerhardt, and Bridgette Watkins had their own adventures getting back safely to White Mountain on the other side of the hills. I was able to depart around 430 am when I heard a lull in the wind and we made our way to Nome.
There were so many things that went awry in this years race and so much adverse weather that I have an immeasurable amount of pride in my team and myself for continuing on and reaching Nome. Ultimately being competitive is the goal, but reaching the finish line is the first step to that.
Thank you to all of my dog sponsors and supporters, Dakota Lithium Batteries for keeping my electronics powered on the trail, Beechtree Laboratories for their endless support, and Pacific Rim Mechanical for their continued support. We truly couldn’t do this without you. Special thanks to Pete Kaiser for loaning me his sled. Thank you also to Isabel List for always being there for me, Karen Mcnaught for all of her help caring for the returned dogs and her endless hospitality, and to my friends and family who all constantly support me.
Post note: After such an ordeal the last thing I want to focus my energy on is raging and fighting against the interpretation of the rules by both mushers and race judges, everyone is just trying to do their jobs. So please, keep your defense of my decision to bring my dogs inside limited.
In Circle after that long cold run in, a lot of mushers started finding minor athletic injuries in their dogs, myself included. I had six dogs who needed heated wrist wraps and thorough massages while we stayed in Circle, where I opted to drop Vedder. Vedder had started the race with irritated toe nail beds, and weighing in at 67 pounds, the impact on the hard cold trail had further aggravated them and he wasn’t in the best spirits. He was still working hard but I knew it wouldn’t be a good call to take him onto an even harder packed trail down the Yukon River for the next 160 miles to Eagle. On the Yukon River I experienced the sense of remoteness that Robert Service tried to convey about the Yukon in his writings, it was -50 with howling head winds (estimated to be around -85 and lower with wind chill) under a moonlit but clear sky. The team and I were navigating windswept jumble ice on the Yukon river and the wind was so bitter cold that I could only look up intermittently to give the dogs gee and haw commands (right and left) to keep from colliding into giant frozen plates of ice. My heart swoll with pride watching my young leaders Fuse and Yam listen to my every command to guide us through that stretch. Shortly afterwards we reached Slavens Cabin, this is a National Park Service owned cabin and was manned by volunteers from the National Parks department, including our good friend Luther Buhrs sister Emily Buhr who cooked multiple cheeseburgers for me after the dogs had eaten a nice warm meal. After this run I knew I couldn’t stick to my original run and rest plan, in these conditions with a young team I would have to start resting more to keep their attitudes high. So we took a nice 6 hour rest here and then headed down the trail towards Eagle, Alaska 100 miles away with a quick stop into Mike Sager’s cabin on Trout Creek, which he generously opens to mushers during the race to rest and dry out in. We reached Eagle about a full day after leaving Slavens cabin to a brisk -40 morning, but both the dogs and I were in good spirits. We spent 8 hours in Eagle resting and catching up with Scarlett Hall who runs the Eagle check point, Scarlett is the mother of our good friend and mentor Matt Hall. In Eagle I opted to drop La Jefa and Bonsai; Bonsai for a gut bug he picked up on the trail and La Jefa for her general attitude. She was not happy about the extended -50 nights and -40 days.
Leaving Eagle we hopped onto the Taylor Highway and climbed American Summit, a gradual and long climb on the roadway that the dogs loved. The team was screaming to go at the summit, and we were also experiencing some slightly warmer temps of -25 or so. Shortly after the summit we camped and the temperatures again dropped to -40 or so. After a quick four hour rest we departed again and entered onto the 40 Mile River, which connects back into the Yukon River again, which would eventually take us to the halfway point of Dawson City for our 36 hour mandatory rest. The 40 Mile was cold, really cold. We were running on it through the early morning hours under a bright sunny blue sky, only the temperature was -55 to -60. Most of the canyon the river has carved was covered in shade from the opposite canyon wall. At one point the sun hit the river, and even though the temperature increase wasn’t significant in the sun, we stopped and spent about 5 minutes just basking in the sunlight. Despite these temperatures this section of trail was one of my favorite because of its striking beauty. The day was clear and we were chasing a small herd of about a dozen caribou down the canyon for quite some time. Front runners in the race reported seeing thousands of caribou through this section. We eventually (my frozen feet swear it was never ending) reached the Clinton Creek Hospitality Stop, home to Yukoners Earl and Sandy who go above and beyond opening their doors to race participants. After resting about six hours here we headed back onto the Yukon River and towards Dawson City. We had an uneventful run to Dawson and were received by my handlers; my dad Keith and friend Aaron who had set up a luxurious camp for the dogs and had a hotel room reserved for me to sleep in. For 36 hours we rested and recouped here.
This is an exceptionally valuable trait in 1000 mile leaders. All of the dogs had notable performances but those two leaders as well as yearling Bugs Bunny and two year old Squirt in the team were exceptional all stars. Bugs and Squirt are perhaps the hardest working and happiest dogs I’ve ever seen, they have very tough heads too and were never down and out about the weather during the race which in turn kept my spirits high.
