McGrath S - N - Rohn - RP - FL - Skwentna

[Fool]

Yeah, I think it will be really interesting to see what Joar ends up doing. It's not unheard of for him to string together some LONG runs late in the race like this. On the other hand, his team has been battling the same bug that took Pete Kaiser's team out of the race, so who knows. Three 10+ hour runs back to back to back seems a little ridiculous, so maybe he'll play it safe and get to Skwentna in three more shorter runs.

I'm really intrigued right now that Ryan Redington appears to be going all the way to Rohn from Nikolai. That would put him in position to be at least within striking distance of Dallas when they reach Skwentna. Aaron Burmeister should be into Rohn in just a little bit! Then on to the Gorge.

[Fool]

(It is just me, or do the teams seem larger than usual for this late in the race? Mushers holding onto their dogs so they have the power to get back through the mountains?)

I've got to think that's at least partially a factor. Even if it's a musher being more reluctant to drop a less-speedy dog from their team if that dog adds in some strength.

[elsietee]

Joar is on the move again after four hours. He's pulling back onto the trail 9 miles ahead of Jessie Royer.

Suspect that Dallas likes to have Brent and Aaron ahead of him so he can get a good look at their teams and see how they're doing. He already passed Ryan and is gaining on Brent.

[Moose]

I wish they'd marked the Steps and Gorge on the satellite view. Hard for me to tell where they are.

[elsietee]

This is where the Happy River Steps are:

HappyRiverSteps.JPG

And this is the Dalzell Gorge. The actual pass itself is ringed in red. I don't know how far down the "dicey" trail extends - possibly as far as I've highlighted in yellow - but I believe (looking back at the tracker) that Aliy fell and hurt herself around the green circled area, so it's still difficult there:

DalzellGorge.JPG

[Moose]

Thanks, ElsieT. I'm blown away by the distance Aliy traveled with her team after the accident. Was it 5 miles, or 2 miles? Either way, jeez. That woman is amazing.

[klmobile]

elsietee wrote,,,Suspect that Dallas likes to have Brent and Aaron ahead of him so he can get a good look at their teams and see how they're doing. He already passed Ryan and is gaining on Brent.

I was wondering if he wanted to have a look at their teams for evaluation

[klmobile]

And that son of a mitch is out of Rohn!

[elsietee]

Dallas is safely over the top of the Pass. By my calculations, it took him 2.5 hours from Rohn to the top. Let's see how the others fare!

* * *

Just noticed that Travis left Nik around 4:30 pm, went a couple of hours down the trail, but then turned around and went back to Nik and is still there resting.

[elsietee]

Both Aaron and Brent took a 4 hour break in Rohn.

Aaron in Rohn:
Was about 6 hours behind Dallas in Iditarod and is now about 2 hours behind. He's been making up about 30 minutes run time on each leg. Can he make up 2 hours in the next 200 miles to the finish? He says he's not willing to cut too much rest to do that - prefers to have a fast, healthy dog team. Says the team is very strong (but that Dallas' team is also strong).

Brent in Rohn:
Says he's going to go up over the mountain, assess the team and if all looks good (and they looked great coming into Rohn), he's going for the 100 mile run straight through to SKW. He says he's going to jettison everything that's unnecessary and make the sled as light as possible, and go for it.