24 HOUR STRATEGY

[Skip95]

Ok I'm trying to get caught up. It looks like Lance, King, and Backen are doing 24's in Takotna ? They have been there a long time. Is that right? Are they waiting for the weather to get colder? JBG

Check out Gwen's blog (Ken Anderson's wife). She's a musher too and she writes splendidly. Really gives excellent insight into the race and strategies...explains a lot.

http://www.windycreekkennel.com (click on "Kennel Updates")

[aren]

Yep, I can't believe it! RAIN! If it does rain then I will have certainly seen everything! I mean I've seen years with too much snow and years with no snow.... too cold and too warm... blizzards and high winds. I thought that over the years I had seen just about everything Mother Nature could throw at the mushers but I never thought I would see rain!

Did sombody say Global warming........... I don't know, but it is a fact that the winters i Norway has become warmer with less snow lately. The statistics are very clear on that.
Has anyone seen any statistics on the weather in AK about this???

aren

[mamamia]

I haven't seen any official statistics on this but I can tell you that in the last decade of this race the warm years have far outnumbered the cold ones. There were a few years there when I wondered if we would ever see a cold, snowy Iditarod again. There was one year during that time when there was actually talk about changing the start date into February. That never went anywhere because of the conflicts it would cause with the other scheduled races. Thinking back it seems that may have been about the time the dogs started getting more "houndy" and looking less like the old style fuzzy husky.

It will be interesting to hear about the findings of Sigrid's expedition.

There is documentation of severe problems in the polar bear population related to shifts in the spring ice break up and the effect that is having on the bears' food supply, the seal. It is to complex to go into here but essentially the ice is breaking up sooner and the seals are floating away with the ice putting them out of reach of the bears so the bears are starving. The seals are affected too because the ice carrying them floats away from their traditional shallow feeding grounds and into deeper water.

[Zpanther]

Dunno how I did that...... but posted this on the wrong thread......

hmmmm..... looks like the current leaders (Lance, Kjetl, King Jeffrey) are all movin' out of Tokotna and Ophir after the long rest. Wonder if that will pay off if the weather cools down a little for them as opposed to what Paul and his group had. Uh....... what's old man Rick doin' runnin' pretty much with this group? Good for him!

Interesting that Paul took took it nice and easy into Cripple. (Hope he didn't have any isses... probably just resting as he goes) Must be going on to the Yukon.... and will probably pick it up now going in to his 24.... He got more rest than the others into Cripple. Paul shouldn't have any trouble being first to the river.... unless his team IS struggling with a bug or something.

Dang.... sorry to see Jason Barron's team had a bug. Was kina hoping to see him do well this year....

Good race.
Zpanther

[jonnybegood]

Hi Z, We know that Paul took a wrong turn and lost about 6hrs getting into Cripple. He may not go as far now for his 24. His dogs may need the rest with a 17 hr run to Cripple. Its to bad this could have been his year to win. I don't know how he got lost I just did the Virtual Flyby from Ophir to Cripple and had no problem following the blue line. HAHA JBG