Alaskan Odds & Ends . . . with varying results

I wrote about the Iron Dog snow machine race earlier this week and wanted to report that the 2000 mile race is over now with the following results as reported in The Anchorage Daily News:

Marc McKenna of Anchorage and Eric Quam of Eagle River roared across the Fairbanks finish line early this afternoon to win the 25th Tesoro Iron Dog snowmachine race, one of the most rough-and-tumble affairs in recent years.

This Iron Dog was a race that completely changed in the second half of the 2,000-mile run from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks, and again reminded both riders and fans why it is both the longest and toughest snowmachine race in the world. The second-half run on the frozen Yukon and Tanana rivers from Kaltag to the finish line proved far more difficult than most anticipated and bounced some top contenders from the race.

. . . But the Iron Dog can be a race of attrition and that was seldom more apparent.

Minnick and Olstad ran into problems on the river and eventually scratched in Galena. Aklestad and Johnson scratched in Tanana.

And the defending champions Scott Davis of Soldotna and Todd Palin (our Governor’s husband) of Wasilla pulled off a minor miracle just to reach the finish line in 11th place.

Palin hit a barrel hidden beneath the snow on Friday that launched him 70 feet in the air and left his Arctic Cat with one ski bent perpendicular to the other. Palin was checked out at the clinic in Galena and pronounced fit.

After repairing Palin's sled, the team limped into Fairbanks.

Other winter happenings this week is the 1000 mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race which runs from Fairbanks Alaska into Canada through Dawson City with the finish in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Lance Mackey, who astounded mushing fans with back-to-back marathon victories last year, was driving his dog team 101 miles between checkpoints Tuesday night, aiming to break open the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race and capture a record fourth consecutive title. Last year after running the 1000 miles and winning took off a couple of weeks and then ran the Iditarod’s 1100 miles winning it with the same dog team. He appears to be running many of the same dogs this year as well.

Mushers take a mandatory 36-hour break in Dawson . . . time for humans & canines to recover and veterinarians to check out the dogs . . . before resuming.

For the race start last Saturday in downtown Fairbanks, temperatures of 30 to 40 below were common as expected. Week long lows along the Quest trail were 45 to 60 below zero.

At the halfway point in Dawson City . . . Lance Mackey is leading Ken Anderson by 33 minutes. Who knows what the trail brings this week as Iditarod XXXVI is now only 13 days away. Several mushers will finish the quest and move on to Anchorage for The Last Great Race.

I made a trip down to Seward yesterday to attend a prebid conference on a proposed 40 bed long term care facility. The weather this pass week had warmed a bit from the three weeks of below zero temperatures and with it came snow with the mountain passes poised for avalanche danger as the heavy snow and high winds are a combination poised for disaster.

While we drove down to Seward as we climbed out of the low clouds and light snow along Turnagain Arm we could see many people making their way to an early weekend of snowmachine fun in the fresh powder. We saw several areas on the mountains where already there had been small slides as snow on the cornices of the ridges had broken off and made their way down the mountainside.

We arrived for our meeting as planned and went over all of the details with the engineers and architects along with the City Council members of Seward. We grabbed a quick lunch at Subway before heading back to Anchorage making a few phone calls before we lost our cell service a couple of miles from Seward.

Seward was clear of any clouds and with the fresh snow on the mountains everything had a nice sparkle to everything. The drive back through Moose Pass was breathtaking. There were bald eagles all over Seward and many were seen along the drive back towards Anchorage. The sun had brought out many people looking for the fun of an early weekend with their skis and snowmachines.

You could see the tracks going up and over several mountains and many pull offs where thick with rigs and trailers awaiting the return of those playing in the fresh powder. We approached Turnagain Pass as the weather started to deteriorate back to the snowy overcast as we made our way down off the mountain. We came upon an accident with several State Troopers on scene. It was bad as many are in that area coming off the mountain. As we made the turn towards Portage there were several more Troopers headed up the mountain pulling snowmachine trailers, lights and sirens blaring in the late afternoon so we figured something else may be going on.

We learned about 30 minutes later that just after we passed the mountain let loose an avalanche 200 foot wide and came down upon 6 people who had just started their ride. It covered 3 of the 6 riders as everything came down the mountainside. All had locator beacons on and the others found the three who were buried but by the time they were uncovered only one survived. Two lost their lives “doing what they loved to do” (as one mother said) with the weather & wind settling in today the bodies are still on the mountain. It was too dangerous for the helicopters to land or other snowmachines to recover the bodies.

Life changes every day . . . Don’t miss out on it!

A near miss for us on a lonely stretch of highway which shared its beauty and it’s deadly face all within an instant changing everyone who experienced it this day.

Ice