Up to 7 inches of fresh powder coated Anchorage by midday, with more arriving that afternoon. Winter was back.
That brought smiles to the faces of 26 mushers who will harness long strings of dogs on Fourth Avenue this morning for the noon start of the richest Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship in history.
After all, just days ago, rivers of meltwater cascaded down city streets as temperatures climbed as high as 44 degrees. Mushers didn't need much of a memory to recall that four Rondy races since 1985 had been canceled because of lack of snow.
"It completely changed everybody's thoughts of what it would look like earlier in the week," said race manager John Rasmussen of the Alaska Sled Dog and Racing Association. "It's gonna make it better. The bike trails were pretty hard. This will make them a little softer, give the dogs a little cushion to run on."
At midday Thursday, Rasmussen was guiding the Rondy mushers on a tour of the course's nuances using snowmachines towing a chain of sleds.
"I know one thing," Rasmussen said later. "Now they have to go home and redo their strategy. They wax like crazy nowadays. They'll be all over that."
In 40 years of the Rondy races before 1986, the world championship race went off without a hitch. Then came winters of warm weather, chinook winds and rain -- and regular cancellations.
But perhaps a new streak has begun -- 2010 marks the fourth-consecutive year the race has gone off fine.
With 26 dog teams, this year's field is the biggest since 1978, when George Attla, the famed Huslia Hustler, conquered a field of 32 rivals to win the seventh of his 10 titles.
How long ago was that?
Dr. Roland Lombard of Wayland, Mass., an eight-time Rondy champion who died in 1990, finished fifth in a field that also included sprint racing pioneer Earl Norris and 1975 Iditarod champion Emmitt Peters.
With mushers leaving the start line every two minutes today, it will take nearly an hour to get the everyone started. Last year, eventual champion Blayne Streeper finished his first day of racing in 83 minutes, 43 seconds.
That means there's a of prospect head-on passes involving teams going out and teams coming in, an always-tricky maneuver that's especially difficult on a trail that includes bridges and narrow bike trails.
Race marshal Janet Clarke is worried.
"We have a large enough field that creates not just the possibility, but the probability of head-on passes," Clarke said in a note to mushers. "We have two elements on the trail that are relatively new to the Rondy trail -- the "tricky bridge" area and the Tudor Road overpass. Both create a heightened anxiety."
More snow will help mushers trying to set a snow hook to stop their team and avoid head-ons, though the fact the snow is fresh and loose may boost the chance of a team pulling free.
The large field may also put a premium on experienced dog drivers, and four-time champion Egil Ellis of Willow got an edge by drawing bib No. 2 earlier this week. If he can pass Brent Beck of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, he'll have a clear path at the front of the field.
Defending champion Streeper will be the 12th musher to leave the start line. Last year's runner-up, Bill Kornmuller of Willow, starts eighth, and top contender Arleigh Reynolds of Salcha will go off seventh.
A second team from Streeper's kennel will be driven by four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King, the Rondy world champion debut of the Denali Park musher. King is the latest in a long line of Iditarod mushers to try their hand at the big sprint race.
Only one, the late Carl Huntington of Galena, pulled off a championship in each race -- winning Rondy in 1973 and the Iditarod a year later.
Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.
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