There’s still snow in Alaska? But Greta said ...
Ping - decided to post it today instead of tomorrow - Rec Class already on the course with some interesting happenings (getting stuck in chest-deep snow, for at least one sled)!
There was a horrible wreck last year - lots of stressed Iron Doggers until the reports came in that Todd Minnick was “ok”, but had a very serious leg injury. Good to hear he will be back out there this year:
Minnick returns to Iron Dog after serious leg injury
https://www.ktuu.com/content/sports/Minnick-returns-to-Iron-Dog-after-devaststain-567785251.html
During the 2019 race, Minnick crashed into Team No. 8’s Tyler Aklestad just outside of the McGrath checkpoint. The incident forced him to scratch from the race after he sustained a laundry list of injuries to his leg, including tearing multiple ligaments, dislocating his patella, and fracturing a tibia.
“They said it was a one-in-ten-year injury,” said Minnick, referring to his doctor’s reaction.
Good story on the changes in the race for 2020:
New Route, Layovers, and Racers Set Stage for 2020 Iron Dog
Some key points from the article:
Executive director for the Iron Dog, John Woodbury, says this year’s new 400-mile loop through Buckland, Kotzebue, and several Northwest Arctic Borough communities, will add an extra challenge for all racers. Claude Wilson of Kotzebue, an Iron Dog board member, told KOTZ radio the northern communities are looking forward to seeing all of the pro-class racers in their area.
Young or old, Iron dog winners or not, all 58 racers within the 29 pro-class teams will be spending more time out on the trail rather than resting in checkpoints during this year’s race.
To adjust for this new format, Woodbury says the Iron Dog has added an optional feature called a “wildcard layover”.
Besides the new rules and race route instituted ahead of this year’s race, there will also be a slight last-minute change. According to Woodbury, racers will finish the 2,400-mile trail in Big Lake, Alaska instead of Willow, due to the trail conditions in the area.
The pro-class teams registered to run the 2020 Iron Dog are scheduled to depart Fairbanks at 11am on Sunday. Weather conditions for the start include patchy freezing fog in the morning along with temperatures around five degrees below zero.
Where is Greta screaming about burning fossil fuels in her precious Arctic? LOL
Thanks for the link. THAT is a well done website!
Just saw a video on the FB Iron Dog GROUP of a team coming in to Galena with the note: “Team 71 Galena -35 below” . I believe that is the windchill temp ... and then you are ‘at speed’ on your snowmobile. Woo hoo & OUCH/dangerous.
That team was running medium-height windshields & the comments on the post were that they were probably wishing they had higher windshields. Someone ‘in the know’ said they’d talked about it, but overall liked the shorter ones; however, they WERE wearing 5 layers.
Interior is very cold. Kaltag, next stop after Galena, is -5 with a windchill of -23. There was a windchill advisory with these details:
...WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON AKST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...Very cold wind chills expected. Expect wind chills as cold as 55 below zero.
* WHERE...Lower Koyukuk and Middle Yukon Valleys.
* WHEN...Now to noon Saturday.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The cold wind chills will cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes to exposed skin.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A Wind Chill Advisory means that cold air and sustained wind
speeds of 15 mph or more will create low wind chills. Frost bite and hypothermia can occur if precautions are not taken.
The changes they made to the race should make it quite interesting this year :)
Thanks for the info!
Unless he withdrew, Todd Palin is on the list of participants. Team #17
2020 Iron Dog – Day 1 Coverage
https://www.thealaskalife.com/blog/2020-iron-dog-day-1-coverage/
Excerpt:
Front runners covered roughly 400 miles today which included 4 fuel stops. The ambient air temperature in Fairbanks this morning was a balmy -32ºF when racers left the starting line, which adds yet another level of difficulty to this endeavor. Tanana race fans were reporting -44ºF to -49ºF degree temps for the racers.
Team 7 Aklestad/Olstad ran the 408 miles today and averaged 78mph. Mind you that all refueling and oiling of the machines, along with any ticky-tack maintenance is done on the clock. Team 39 is second at a 77.25mph elapsed moving average.
A sad development for Team 3 Boney/Unruh came in the form of them having to watch one of their Arctic Cat ZR 6000 R XC 600’s burn to the ground after it went up in flames due to over-filling the fuel tank which caught fire. Nobody was injured but Team 3’s 2020 Iron Dog has come to and end at the Bible Camp fueling station. [Picture of blazing snow machine at the link]
Early problems for Father/Daughter Team 29 Levine/Levine which had to tow back to the start line with engine troubles. Rumblings of ECU issues, but we haven’t heard anything concrete on what they were facing early in the race. You can hear Danielle Levine on the video below [at the link] explaining her issues to someone on her cell phone hoping to get an explanation and some assistance.
2020 Iron Dog – Day 4 Coverage
https://www.thealaskalife.com/blog/2020-iron-dog-day-4-coverage/
See the link for lots of good info .... from the link, here’s what is waiting the racers in the second half:
Arguably the more challenging part of this race is still to come, and we have already seen lots of chatter on Facebook about snow and trail conditions from Ruby south through Poorman and Ophir and on toward McGrath. The locals are reporting an immense amount of freshly fallen snow and no trail for several hundred miles. There has talk about locals going out with long track machines to break trail before the racers arrive, but nobody is sure how any of that will pan out. A similar story is shaping up further south through the Alaska Range and on toward the finish line. Dumping snow on the north and south side of Puntilla Lake and all the way to the finish line. As teams get farther south of Puntilla Lake, the trails will be open mainly due to the fact that locals use them for daily transportation but from the Farewell Burn toward Shell Lake, racers may have a rough time on what may be largely an unbroken trail.
The Iron Dog board president Rodger Brown was fitted with both a GPS tracker and a Skidoo Skandic super wide track sled to help begin the break-in process in galena headed to Poorman and then south toward Ophir. You can follow Rodgers progress on the main GPS tracking page.
As of writing, 13 teams have been forced from the race while 16 teams are still in the running for the top prize. With the weather, snowfall, and known trail conditions south of Kaltag toward the finish, we do expect to see the amount of teams on the leaderboard to continue to dwindle as the miles to the finish dwindle as well.
“Canadian Expedition” update for Team #37:
Just after 4PM, the last team to arrive to Nome were the boys from rural Manitoba. The Canadians lost a considerable amount of trail time by taking a wrong turn on the new northern loop but stuck with it and has safely made it to the halfway point.
2020 Iron Dog – Day 5 Coverage
https://www.thealaskalife.com/blog/2020-iron-dog-day-5-coverage/
Article has good info:
Wrench times
Robby Schachle’s collar bone x-ray (before/after surgery)
Split times: Nome to White Mtn; White Mtn to Koyuk; Koyuk to Shaktoolik; Shaktoolik to Unalakleet
“We reported yesterday that the Iron Dog board president Rodger Brown was breaking trail south from Ruby and it has been a slow endeavor since then. They are making good progress but one track with snow still falling might mean some interesting trail conditions for these guys tomorrow. We are going to see lots of shakeups due to layover times and the roughest section of trail is still to come.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Updates since article (except T6 layover):
Team 06 laying over in Kaltag [Johnson/George]
Team 05 laying over in Kaltag [Lapham/Weisz]
Team 07 into Ruby (layover)[Olstad/Aklestad]
Team 10 on the way to Ruby [Morgan/Olds]
Team 16 on the way to Ruby [Minnick/Thibault]
Racers Approach Ophir and Finish at Big Lake, Morgan & Olds Close The Gap
https://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2020/02/21/racers-approach-ophir-and-finish-at-big-lake-morgan-olds-close-the-gap/
The top four Iron Dog 2020 teams are out of the Poorman checkpoint and racing towards Ophir, but according to trail organizers, it is unlikely to be an easy ride due to deep snow and trail obstructions.
Those top teams are heading from Poorman to Ophir, where trail breakers have been working overnight to clear the way for racers. According to an Iron Dog press release, heavy snow and high winds have obliterated sections of this trail. Trail breakers have marked areas where large timbers block the trail. Further down the race trail, a trail breaker near McGrath had a frightening incident that Iron Dog shared on social media. A young bull moose charged at the trail breaker, hitting the kill switch on the snowmachine and denting the sled. The volunteer was unharmed, but wildlife is always an obstacle for racers to keep in mind.
More at link.
Note (from Facebook posts) - moose are hanging out on the trail because the snow is very deep (one FB pic of a trail breaker chest deep). The moose are “tired, wore out, pissed” & are not getting off the trail for anybody.