Koyuk > Elim > Golovin Bay > White Mtn

[mira]

I checked the weather information for Elim airport, that isn't too bad a bit warm and windy but not very windy. Visibility of 9 miles, 32F and fresh breeze (gust with strong breeze). But I guess is the amount of wet snow that is the biggest issue now.

[elsietee]

Martin & the crew are on their 36 hour layover in Elim - oh no, that’s another long race.

))

Funny

[libby the lab]

Thx Mike. Wondering with what happened at Safety how long they will let the race go??? Unprecedented times.
On another subject how do you teach remotely???

[Leaddog]

Surprisingly (for a school widely viewed as a lower tier - we were ranked 2nd to last by US News and World Report last year), we are more than adequately set up to handle this. For about 5 years, every lecture to the veterinary students has been automatically recorded and stored on our server so that students could go back at their leisure and download the lecture to review for exams. Now that has become the primary means of teaching: faculty continue to show up to their classrooms at the scheduled lecture time, but they lecture to a completely empty room while the system records and stores it. Then the students watch the recording and email the faculty member questions etc. Exams are going to be a bit of a problem for the next two months, but we were already on contract to install a completely secure online exam system over the summer so that even exams could be given remotely. Honestly, it makes me wonder why were are still working on finishing a new $8 million classroom building.

As far as "what happens next", ironically it may still be faster to let them continue down the trail than the only other option: airlift them out. Elim is not a full-service airport, and they have 116 dogs, 11 mushers, probably 4-5 race personnel, and lots of gear to haul out of there (and that's not counting any of the scratches that might still be there or dropped dogs from teams that proceeded on). That's quite a bit of airlift that would have to be mustered by the ITC, which is probably a major reason why they are still working on letting folks drive the teams to Nome (at which point none of it is the ITCs responsibility).

[libby the lab]

THX Mike!

[flowerpower]

Yes, thanks, that makes sense.

[tanglefoot]

hey Mike!

yes makes sense and at the mo we are potentially within a 14 day finish time for them. with Martin Buser out there leading the Elim 11, i guess they are thinking that they will be in good hands as long as the dogs are fine.

[fladogfan]

This from the ITC site, includes good news about Nic.


Elim 11 plan to move down the trail early Saturday morning
Posted by IditarodTeam in Iditarod
Date: March 21, 2020 12:58 am

Due to poor trail conditions the group of mushers turned back around to Elim on Friday. The group decided to wait until the next morning (Saturday) to head out on their approximately 7 hour drive after all dogs and mushers were well rested. The teams will be following the Old Mail Trail, which a local trailbreaking team will need to reestablish ahead of the teams, bringing them to the backside of White Mountain. Once in White Mountain, mushers have a mandatory 8 hour layover before heading to Nome.

Nicolas Petit’s team has moved on to White Mountain after all and is no longer waiting in the cabin as we reported earlier today. There was a possibility Petit would follow the Elim mushers as they headed to Nome before we recieved news he had moved on. Petit scratched early Thursday morning after being picked up by Golovin Search and Rescue.

Elim 11 mushers include (alphabetical order): Fabio Berlusconi, Grayson Bruton, Martin Buser, Riley Dyche, Magnus Kaltenborn, Dennis Kananowicz, Kaci Murringer, Deke Naaktgeboren, Laura Neese, Damon Ramaker, and Monica Zappa.

[mira]

According to Martin's Facebook they will depart at 5am. That should be about now.

I think it's rely good of ITC to keep us posted about Nicolas as well!

[mira]

I do understand that they can't change the rules, but it feels a bit unnecessary with eight mandatory rest in WM. On the other hand, most of the teams will rest that long anyway