by eorogers » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:36 pm
Moose
Good question.
To put this years weather in perspective, in 1983 the front runners where held up in Shaktoolik by 70 mph winds that blew for 53 hours (from the summary in the 1988 video) - I'm sure our friends that have been through a hurricane can relate to that. Herbie Nayokpuk, a very accomplished native musher from the coast, tried to go to Koyuk in the storm and got pinned down. He came back about a day later saying it couldn't be done and that was the coldest night he ever spent. It puts Libby doing the same thing at the same place 2 years later in perspective.
I was at the ITC board of directors meeting Friday and nobody said anything about the weather. It was no biggie, but not in the "we don't have to worry about it for 10 years" mode, it was more along the lines of "this is what we should expect, and we should be prepared for worse" mode. How we qualify rookies for the race has always been a major topic of discussion, and that was the focus of attention. Everyone knows that while necessary, just completing a 200 and a 300 mile race is not sufficient to qualify you to run Iditarod. That is particularly true if you run the easy qualifiers. That is why they changed the rules so that you cannot run the qualifiers and the Iditarod in the same year - from now on it will take at least two years, forcing rookies to have that much more experience, but it still isn't enough. How do you take the dreamer from Florida, who has wanted to run Iditarod his whole life and who adds so much to the race by his presence, and insure that he has learned enough to handle the Alaskan wild without making it prohibitively difficult and expensive. Very tough questions. I expect we will see tougher rookie qualification requirements and that it makes it better, but not completely solve the problem.
Another group getting attention is the veteran with just a few races under his belt. It is easy to think that you have seen it all and are ready for anything Mother Nature throws at you, then your reality check bounces. When conditions are good you can get away with a lot, but when Momma gets unhappy....
Any dog death is a tragedy. This year hit us like a body blow. What went wrong? Is this something we should have seen coming? Were there warning signs we should have seen? Are my dogs at risk from something I don't know or understand (this is the big one from a my perspective)? The final pathology results are not in yet, so we don't have root cause of death, but the Iditarod is absolutely committed to finding a solution. Stu Nelson's motto is to "Let no dog die in vain", meaning we should learn from every death and find ways to prevent it. We have come a long way making major reductions in sled dog myopathy, aspiration pneumonia, and this year in stomach ulcers. Obviously we still have a long way to go.
I think most mushers are constantly asking themselves "What will I do if ..." and choose their gear as a result of that. I'm constantly tweaking what I carry and looking for better solutions. This years I had new boots - finally found one I liked, and new gloves - still wish I had better. Jeff King had a new $450 LED headlamp that looks pretty sharp and a new modification to his sled design. I imagine most of us will take another look at what we carry. I think the big change here will be how much dog food we carry. On Sled Dog Central Joe May posted that during the 85 and 86 Yukon Quest they had to carry 25 lbs of dog food / dog for the 200 mile run from Pelly Crossing to Dawson (the Quest actually weighed the load). They ran 10 dog teams, so that meant 250 Lb of dog food in the sled along with everything else for the greatest elevation gain in the race. I think I was pretty well prepared myself, but may add a little more safety factor for some runs now. ITC is considering rule changes here too.
I guess it is a little like watching a duck move across the water. From the shore they look serene and relaxed, but underneath they are working like bandits.
I hope that helps
Keep 'em Northbound
Eric