APRN’s Ellen Lockyer reports from McGrath in this Iditarod update. Trail and weather conditions have wreaked havoc with veterans and rookies alike (mostly veterans). Through it all, the dogs appear to be handling things better than the mushers (though Lockyer noted that she found Lance Mackey “sleeping like an angel” at Nikolai).
Meanwhile, several mushers left the Rainy Pass checkpoint but couldn’t find the trail and had to return. Iditarod officials say Montana musher Cindy Gallea left the checkpoint this morning but lost two of her dogs en route to Rohn. She’s looking for them now. Some of the back-of-the-pack mushers are opting to take their 24 hour layover at Rainy Pass, hoping the wind storm will die down.
Next up: First musher to McGrath snags the “Spirit of the Iditarod” award, consisting of a spirit mask and a $500 air freight credit with regional air carrier Pen Air.
Found this coverage shallow and lacking in depth. There was no reporting about tactics. Your reporter seemed to lack a deeper understanding of the race and relied upon platitudes. Suggest your reporter do more homework before covering this race. Perhaps she could read Bill Little’s reports before filing her own. I remember the days of Joe Gallagher when APRN was THE place to go for iditarod news. You would be way better off subbing your reporting to a reporter that had a clue.
Did you get my comment or did you just get rid of it. Somebody has got to tell APRN to get with it or quit trying. The reporting that you are currently doing is an afront to any real Alaskan race follower.
Race Fan — One thing not explained in the piece was that our reporter was caught off-guard by a technical problem with her laptop, so she didn’t have time to prep a more organized or insightful report, complete with interview audio, etc. The laptop issue has since been resolved, so there’s better stuff on the way. Ellen has actually covered the Iditarod from the trail off and on for several years, so she does know her stuff, though she does tend to focus more on the human element and less on the tactical or strategic issues of the race.
One suggestion… If you’d like to offer your insights on tactics or other race elements, feel free to drop them as comments here on our site, or even call us and leave a voicemail at 907-550-8418 and we can post it here on the site. I’m sure others would be interested to see/hear more perspectives than just our own.
As for your comment not showing up immediately on the site — we’re taking the position that initial comments should be moderated, to prevent commenting spam (it’s a real problem in the blogging world). You just happened to drop the comment to us at a time when I wasn’t actively watching the blog. So it took me a bit to find it and approve it. Sorry for the delay.
I agree on the extremely poor coverage. Even given the technical problems, a reporter should be able to offer some insight. This was embarrassing to listen to on the radio tonight. This is a race. Understanding the dogs, strategy, equipment, trail conditions, etc. is a prerequisite to good coverage. Find a reporter that can find a story from the front, the middle and the back of the pack. Otherwise save your travel and production budget.