Iditarod 36
Published: March 4th, 2008 03:50 PM
Last Modified: March 4th, 2008 04:51 PM
Photo by AL GRILLO / Associated Press /
Canadian musher Karen Ramstead drives her dog team out of the Finger Lake, Alaska, checkpoint of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Monday, March 3, 2008.
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| Rank | Musher (bib) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lance Mackey (6) |
| 2 | Jeff King (11) |
| 3 | Ramey Smyth (48) |
| 4 | Ken Anderson (9) |
| 5 | Martin Buser (13) |
| 6 | Hans Gatt (38) |
| 7 | Mitch Seavey (33) |
| 8 | Paul Gebhardt (69) |
| 9 | Kjetil Backen (42) |
| 10 | Sebastian Schnuelle (68) |
Standing provided by iditarod.com
© 2008 Iditarod Trail Committee, Inc.
Take a tour of the Iditarod checkpoints with photos pulled from our archive of more than 20 years of races.
Norwegian Kjetil Backen pulled into Nikolai late this morning to take over the lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Click to enlarge
Backen still had 15 dogs in harness after making the 80-mile push across one of the most rugged sections of trail in 9 hours 28 minutes. He arrived at 10:39 a.m. and had a lead of 38 minutes over Gerry Willomitzer of Whitehorse, Yukon, who pulled in second at 11:17.
Paul Gebhardt, twice an Iditarod runner-up, arrived at 11:33, and within 13 minutes two other top contenders -- defending champion Lance Mackey and four-time winner Jeff King -- were in town.
Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, a three-time Yukon Quest champion, and Hugh Neff of Skagway arrived shortly after noon.
On Thursday night, defending champion Lance Mackey led a group assault on the Farewell Burn from the abandoned roadhouse in Rohn, the checkpoint before Nikolai. Mackey may have rested his dogs somewhere in the middle of the Burn, something Iditarod mushers frequently do.
By the time Backen was pulling into Nikolai, 40 other racers were somewhere in the middle of their march across the Burn that some years is snow-free for long stretches -- splintering sleds and leaving mushers bruised and vexed. Rough wallows and open water at Bear Creek are a threat. So are the bison that have roamed the Burn since being transplanted there in the 1960s.
This year, however, Iditarod officials have reported more snow than normal on that part of the trail.
"I'm more prepared than I've ever been," Mackey said at the Willow restart on Sunday. In the hours before the race began, however, Mackey had to break up a scuffle between two of his stalwarts, Larry and Hobo.
"Larry looks like he's aged in the last week because of it," Mackey said. "He's got battle scars all over his nose. Hobo's got a few little puncture wounds up and down his forearm, which was unfortunate and something of concern."
In harness, however, the dogs appear to be doing fine so far. He had 15 still in harness at Nikolai.
The top 10 out of Rohn contains mushers who contend most years -- including four-time champion Jeff King of Denali Park; 2004 champ Mitch Seavey; last year's second- and third-place finishers, Paul Gebhardt and Zack Steer; Norwegian star Kjetil Backen and both Smyth brothers of Mat-Su, Cim and Ramey.
Two of the most veteran mushers on the trail appear to be among the fastest between checkpoints in the early stages.
Four-time champion Martin Buser of Big Lake made the run from Rainy Pass to Rohn faster than anyone. And 55-year-old Rick Swenson, the five-time champion from Two Rivers, was only nine minutes slower than Buser on that same stretch. Buser was the 14th musher out of Rohn; Swenson was the 18th to leave.
But Mackey is the one who has won three consective races of 1,000 miles or more, last year's Iditarod and the last two Yukon Quests. He's the musher nobody wants to let get away.
"This is my job, and if I don't do well, I have to get a real job to support my family -- and I don't want to do that," Mackey said.
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