sc-race-fan wrote:I do remember that there was some issue during this years race, at some checkpoint, where the mandatory equipment was checked on each musher, causing some musher to stay longer at the check point longer than they wanted to stay, rather than a stop, check in, go!
Huslia, and it was that the checker wanted to check at arrival and not after they had parked their dogs.
Anyhow, I don't think anyone disagree that it's a mandatory gear, the question is what's happening if some mandatory gear are missing at a checkpoint or at the finish line. As far as I read the rules you get a fine, you can't start to swap places just like that, then it all will be totally unpredictable for the participants, it's not fair. Anyhow, Dallas didn't ask Nicolas to bring it in, it is (I assume, although I don't know) something Nicolas choosed to do, and as we all know, mushers are free to help each other.
I don't know exactly what's happening with the vet book at the checkpoints, there might even be some special rules regarding this. The vet book isn't like mandatory gear like an axe, the vet book is very important regarding the dogs health but it isn't necessary for survival in case of some kind of emergency. At Safety I think they also puts on their bibs. Dallas dropped a dog so he had some paperwork to do and so must have handed over his vet book. What's happened after that we just can't know, unless someone tells us.