IditaProject Forum

Jessie has arrived in Ruby!

Thomas is three miles out ahead of Aaron and Brent Sass. Brent has 8 miles to go to Ruby.

I looked and said - "wow - Waerner's Cripple to Ruby run time!".
Then Sass came in.

btw - from the videos, Sass seems like a really decent sort. Rooting for Jessie, but if he wins that's more than cool as well.

RAIMIS2 wrote:I looked and said - "wow - Waerner's Cripple to Ruby run time!".
Then Sass came in.

Peering at the analytics, Thomas stopped for an hour on the trail about half way through the run (and that was after a 5 hour stop in Cripple), so his actual run time is pretty close to Brent's.

From what Brent said yesterday, I'd expect him to take his 8 in Ruby now. Thomas, given that he rested on trail, maybe not.

Jessie's harder to figure out, since she didn't stop in Cripple. Just taking her times and removing how long she appears to have rested on trail = 14.5 hours, with a 4.5 hour stop on the trail, puts her at about 10 hours total - so 30 minutes slower than Brent and Thomas over 70 miles. She could have been breaking trail, somewhat? Remember both Jessie and Thomas took their 24s back in Tak, so their teams shouldn't be as fresh as Brent's - so Thomas' speed is impressive.

On the live feed last night, Dallas was doing commentary and said that he felt Thomas' team looked great, but he was concerned that he was letting them go too fast, too soon. So it'll be interesting to see how that develops.

More peering at the analytics.

Richie and Joar left Cripple together, with Ryan leaving 15 mins later. All after a ~4 hour break.

Richie and Joar both rested 2 hours on the trail on the way over there, while Ryan only got 1.5 hours - which suggests he's the slowest of the three. Extrapolating - their actual run times are a bit less than 10 hours (ish).

After only taking a couple of hour's rest, do they all take their 8 hour in Ruby?

OK, now I'm watching the vids.

Thomas says he'll 8 hour in Ruby - the trail was heavy-going. Dry snow, so sled doesn't slide well - hard work for dogs. Makes a squeaky, nails on a chalkboard noise.

Talks about his wheel dogs - big pullers - King and his son Kong. Also big barkers. He said the dogs are all like that - he often has to stop on the trail because they start squabbling. His lead dogs are K2 and "Bjark" (roughly? Sudal?) and he'll keep using them now because they're performing really well.

Aaron - good trail, but slow trail because of the conditions. Hard-working for dogs - 2-3" of snow, so having to work hard. He did three 7 hour runs. Says he hasn't slept since Tak (been camping out on the trail: -20° on his first camp, 20°F on his second... compared to the guys in Cripple sleeping in "cabins" (guessing wall tents, since there aren't any cabins there)).

Bruce :
It's difficult for the mushers to glean what the others are doing over the Ophir > Ruby run (roughly = two x 70 mile runs). Now on the river, it'll be easier for them to gauge how they are shaping up compared to others because it's shorter runs with more checkpoints.

They then talk about how if they take their 8 here, they'll be leaving at 3 pm - not ideal. So maybe better to go on to Galena.

Says often taking your 8 in Kaltag, before going over to the coast, is really good because it injects speed - worked really well for Pete last year.

Also says there's quite a lot of hills (continuously up and down) on the last stretch.

At this point - looking at them coming into Ruby, he likes Thomas' team, then Aaron's, then Jessie's - said hers looked the most tired. Apparently she had to carry a 60 lb dog for 30 miles - wasn't keeping up with the team.

Weather is starting to blow from now until Monday.

Talked about Libby Riddles managing to get out into the storm to position herself to win. Credit goes to her lead dogs. They said that those two lead dogs lived to be 20 yrs old.

Says the dogs get bored on the river - it's a mile wide and not much wildlife or good smells.

Also says the year he won, he lost both his lead dogs, so went with others... they were getting a bit stressed and down. But he noticed one dog who'd never been in lead who was still banging on his harness, so he put that one in lead and upped his speed by 1.5 mph.

They then talk about Jaeger, Joar's lead dog who "came of age" the year he won - really stepping up.

You're a star, Elsie!

elsietee wrote:His lead dogs are K2 and "Bjark" (roughly? Sudal?) and he'll keep using them now because they're performing really well.

His lead dogs are K2 and Bark (as in the «skin» of a tree)

Jessie is out!! Guess she´s doing the mand 8 somewhere else. Kaltag, I would presume