Iditarod Ramblings

I’ve been fascinated with the Iditarod for many years now and spent some time around current and former mushers who over the years given me different insights into this crazy and wonderful sport.

In the first days out from the Willow restart as you leave the relative flat terrain around the Parks Highway and start the climb into the Alaska Range and the white knuckle experience heading down the steps into Dalzell Gorge.

The miles covered these days are very exciting.  Martin Buser has said, "It takes 2 days to climb to the top of the range and less than two hours to get down the other side." 

I’ve wondered why these people endure the conditions found on the trail and what it takes for one to run in the Iditarod.  Courage would have to be toward the to of the list, the love of the outdoors and spending endless hours alone with the forces of mother nature . . . both good and bad.  Those traits with a love for dogs, and you have the makings for a musher.

If you listen to them, they'll tell stories of experiencing the serenity of a beautiful day on the trail, dog team and musher working as one.  They'll talk of the intensity of the experience.  They'll talk of the challenge of meeting the demands of the world's last great race.

What does it take to get ready to run The Last Great Race?

A burning desire coupled with hard work and so the fun begins.

It takes a lot of hard work, practice, and there's an immense amount to learn as mushers must become familiar with all the equipment.  They have to learn to command the dogs . . . the teams are directed through spoken orders . . . (Gee to turn right and Haw to turn left) and they must learn the ins and outs of dog care and training.

They also must learn to survive.

All mushers have stories of being thrown from their sled.  They know that they must hang on or they could be left alone in the wilderness while the dogs run themselves to exhaustion.

There are endless hours of trail training year round, some of these musher report three weeks a month out running dogs in the Alaskan wilderness.  You must prove your mettle by running in several smaller “qualifying races” and finished to prove your ability to withstand days and nights alone in the cold maintaining your dog team and yourself.

Many people do not realize the money issues of running the Iditarod.  Sure there is an entry fee to race but there is also the dog’s food and supplies for yourself and your dogs.  Almost all of which you pay to have flown into various check points along the trail.  There are certain required items in the sleigh itself, safety equipment, shovels, a rifle for those rampant moose musher’s often startle along the route, add warm clothing, personal care items and a musher’s sled is pretty full.

All the dogs in this race must also be certified by a vet; micro chipped and has several sets of booties to protect their feet from endless hours of running.  Hay bales must be flown in to provide bedding along the trail and a musher must prove they have the ability in the sled to melt water for their dogs to drink.

For those that are negative about running dogs in this environment I can say after watching the start of these races and seeing them on the trail, I have decided that in no way are these dogs ran without their desire.  It was just the opposite, they could not figure out why the musher was not as ready to run as they were.

Strategy for the Iditarod changes amongst the leaders and often times changes by the minute depending on weather conditions and the top contender’s actions.

Most musher’s pre-plan where they will spend their mandatory rest breaks, which consist of one eight hour stopover at a check point of their choice, one twenty four hour again Musher’s choice of check point, and another mandatory eight hour stop when they arrive in White Mountain, just a day’s run from Nome.

Many rules and guidelines now control much of the musher’s strategy, but pretending one is tucked in and asleep until the competition has let down their guard and sneaking off has not been unheard of in recent years.

Another strategy many play is trail breaking, often times the leader has the most work on their dogs so the musher’s most experienced with the trail know when it is time to rest and let another take the lead smoothing the trail and saving their dogs some energy for faster sprints.  At night, mushers and their dogs can burrow in the snow together and watch the natural light show of the Aurora borealis.

At the moment the 2010 Iditarod is running on the North route (even year) with anyone taking this race.  The 24 hour layovers are in play now which is where the strategy begins to separate the contenders into their places setting themselves up for the finish.

Marathon mushers run the Iditarod because it is the ultimate in long distance sled dog racing due to the difficulty of terrain . . . unpredictability of the weather . . . and the distance.

Right now many mushers are idle finishing up their 24 hour stop soon to be back on the trail and into the night.  John Backer is leading with Dallas Seavey having pushed on all day increasing the miles between themselves and the resting pack in Takotna.  With about 100 miles between packs these two are expected to take their layover in Ruby.

It's called the world's Last Great Race for good reason.

Ice