IditaProject Forum

What's it like to mush a dog team through 45mph winds?

Brent Sass should be having the mush of his life. He's 40 miles from Nome and his first, and very hard earned, Iditarod championship. He left the last camp with a two and a half hour lead, and his team looked great.

Then the wind happened. Right now he's huddled behind his handlebars, while the 45-60mph winds whip his fur ruff around his face. It's a good thing he has it too, no man made materials will keep you alive in this weather. There's a space inside that ruff just bigger than his head, sort of like a big helmet, that's habitable to humans. Outside that space, the world is a million little flakes of snow tearing at his face and clothing, creating a blur of indistinguishable foes.

He can't open his eyes for very long, the wind-whipped snow pellets sting. But when he closes them moisture from his breath freezes his eye lashes together. It's a constant battle to get them to open or close.

He can barely breath. The wind is crosswise to his hood a creates a vacuum, and at times a near-panic feeling hits when he can't breathe.

He can't stand up. If he does, the wind will catch his parka like a sail and send him sliding across the ice.

And the sound. The wind is a near deafening roar. Like the mountains themselves are coming for you.

If he catches his breath and looks up, and manages to get his headlight in the right direction, he can just see the back couple of dogs. Somehow those $#&*ing amazing little dogs can run though this. In principal he knows they have fur, have evolved to do this, are wearing coats, etc. but it doesn't seem possible anyway.

Not only can they run through it, they are doing so fairly quickly, and they seem to know where they're going. Although he can't see them, the lead dogs are somehow staying on the trail, as evidenced by the occasional reflector he sees as the sled goes by. He can't see the next one, but every marker he passes is a momentary relief.

How they can find the trail he doesn't know, but it's a good thing they can, because he sure couldn't. It's pitch dark. His light only shows a few feet through the snow. The markers are too far apart to see from one to the next. The snow has blown from the ice underneath, so there's no definition or track to follow.

Worse, if he gets off the trail, the sea ice is only a few feet over. And a few feet more is open ocean water. And the wind is blowing him that way.

So he puts his head back down, puts his life in his lead dogs paws, and says a little prayer every time he goes past a marker.

He though he loved his lead dog before. They've been though so much together. It's not a 'who's a good dog' kind of love, nor a 'this dog is my kid' kind of love. More of a this dog has saved my life kind of love. But it's more than simply saved, it's an ongoing dependence. A recognition that without that dog Brent would be curled up on the ice crying or dying or both right now. That dog is his freaking hero.

It was dicey for a while. When the gusts hit 60 he couldn't go. Dallas was catching up. It's ridiculous to think of competition in a life and death situation, but he can't help it. He can't fail right at the end. He has to keep going.

But it's getting better, every marker he passes he gains a little more confidence. Nome is one step closer. The wind is a little less.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. But for Brent to be the new champion, he has to beat the old one. And he never expected it to be easy.

Danny Seavey, because who's sleeping now anyway.

mira wrote: for Shaktoolik.
https://metar-taf.com/PFSH - you can see the last 24 hours, which gives a quite good idea.

Metar is observation, TAF is the forecast - all airports must have metar/taf to be able to operate.