With winter powder lingering, race director Howard Thies is expecting exceptional conditions for the Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go race high in the Hoodoo Mountains on Friday.

Unfortunately, 2008 champions Marco Sullivan of the U.S. Ski Team and Tesoro Iron Dog veteran Tyler Aklestad will not be back to defend their title.

"It's kind of a bummer,'' Aklestad said Monday. "(But) we both had some other stuff going on. We're going to try to do it again next year.''

With Sullivan looking to compete in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, his coaches were reportedly most reluctant to have him taking risks at Arctic Man where skiers drop off a 5,800 foot peak, go 1,700-feet almost straight down, then grab the tow-rope of a snowmachine that powers them up a gully at speeds reaching the 85 mph range before slingshotting them off the top and down another hill for a 1,200-foot dive to the finish line.

The event has never had any trouble attracting snowmachine racers, but skiers with both the skill and desire to compete are rare. Without Sullivan, Aklestad didn't have much of a pool from which to draw.

Though out of the competition, he is still planning to head for the Summit Lake area for the action that officially starts Thursday and runs through the weekend.

Arctic Man has been labeled by some as an Alaska "Motorhead Woodstock." It is an event hard for dedicated snowmachiners to ignore.

About 10,000 people typically gather at Mile 196 of the Richardson Highway starting about the middle of the week before the race and spend their days riding in the surrounding mountains and their evenings partying. A parking lot is plowed along the highway there and a deserted site is almost overnight turned into one of the state's larger communities.

"I don't know why everyone shows up," Thies said. "It's a spring fling."

The highlight of the week is when the skiers and their snowmobile-driving partners go after glory below that unnamed, 5,800-foot peak near Summit Lake in the Alaska Range.

National ski champion Sullivan found victory last year with Aklestad in a time of 4 minutes, 19:04 seconds over the 512-mile course. They were well ahead of runners-up Eric Heil, the skier, and driver Eric Quam. Heil, a former University of Alaska Anchorage skier, is a four-time Arctic Man winner who so enjoys the event he's been competing for almost 20 years.

Sullivan, a member of the U.S. Ski Team, said he enjoyed the change of pace of Arctic Man after a hectic four-month World Cup season. Arctic Man is looser and wilder than the World Cup and, at least this year, snowier too.

"This is probably the best snow we've had in 10 years," Thies said. "There's no brush to speak of. If you're driving a snowmachine, you better have a long track and a lot of power."

For those who miss Arctic Man live this year, Thies added, NBC is airing a show about the race April 26, and the BBC is planning special coverage as well.

Arctic Man

Where: Mile 196 of Richardson Highway

Schedule

Thursday: Racer meetings at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Friday: Races start 11:30 a.m. There are four races: men's ski and snowmachine; women's ski and snowmachine; men's snowboard and snowmachine; women's snowboard and snowmachine. When those races are done, a snowmachine race will start at the top of First Aid.