The race continues at a record pace, despite punishing trail conditions that forced more than half a dozen to scratch in the Alaska Range. Three teams pulled into Ophir between 2 and 4:30 this morning, with Zack Steer in the lead by more than an hour. He was followed by Jeff King. Both took 2 hours and 38 minutes for that short leg of the trail. Martin Buser’s team made the run in just 2 hours and 12 minutes (about 11 mph).
Buser continues his strategy of staying with the front pack in the race. He made it through conditions that took out a number of veterans by destroying their sleds or beating them up.
Lance Mackey remains a top competitor as the next musher out of Takotna, just under two hours behind Martin Buser’s departure. Mackey had been running with 16 dogs all the way from the Willow restart, but finally dropped one dog in Takotna. Meanwhile Jeff King, already resting at Ophir, still had his full team on the line. Out of the top 15 teams on the leaderboard, only King and Ed Iten were running with 16 dogs as of this report.
In to Takotna early this morning, in order, were Jason Barron, Paul Gebhart, Aliy Zirkle, Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, Tolef Monson, Ken Anderson, Ramy Brooks and Aaron Burmeister. John Baker arrived at McGrath just after 11:30 last night. Tolef Monsen, running his puppy team, is now ahead of him. Jim Lanier was in at 1:47 a.m., followed by Robert Sorlie, Hans Gatt, Cim Smyth, Rick Swenson and Tim Osmar.
Back at Rainy Pass, one more musher dropped out: Tom Roig, rookie racer from Ohio. Roig suffered serious sled damage like many other teams, and cited “team welfare” as a reason for scratching.
I pick you for a musher for Sheldon School assignment in the class room. It’s doesn’t matter what place you came in. I am proud that you were in first place and I am still proud of you now. I’m happy if your happy.