|
Wind-sculpted snowdrifts that form roof-high around the cabins of Kaltag each winter greeted Montanan Doug Swingley on Saturday as he led the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race off the bitterly cold Yukon River. After eight hours of battling a 20-mph headwind and minus-35 degree temperatures coming upriver on the frozen Yukon, Swingley pulled his team into this village of 250 at 7:05 p.m. for a much-needed break. He was alone, but he wasn't the only musher struggling in the weather. "If there had been somebody out there, I would have mugged them and taken their clothes," said Willow musher Linwood Fiedler after a seven-hour run along the river from the village of Grayling to Shageluk. Fiedler was among several teams warming up in Shageluk. Inside the community hall, which serves as the checkpoint, mushers clustered around a warm stove while others, including John Baker and Sven Engholm, napped on cots. "It's miserable," said Mitch Seavey of Seward as he headed out the door. To help rebuff the arctic wind, Seavey had outfitted his sled with a plastic windshield for the rest of the run up the river. The bitter conditions had already forced DeeDee Jonrowe, an 11-time top-10 finisher and one of the Iditarod's best known names, to drop out of the race after her team revolted. Her dogs had seen more than enough of the Yukon's frigid headwind, she said. They didn't want to continue. As Jonrowe and the team headed home to Willow on a warm airplane, however, other racers continued to fight their way up the river. Behind Swingley were, in order, three-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser from Big Lake, five-time champ Rick Swenson from Two Rivers and three-time champ Jeff King from Denali Park. All know more than a little about battling the wind and cold. The last time Swenson won the Iditarod, in 1991, he harnessed himself to the front of his team and walked the dogs through a coastal blizzard that turned back four-time champ Susan Butcher, former race winner Joe Runyan and several others. Behind Swenson that night, only one other team managed to battle on into the wind and blowing snow. That was the team led by Buser. King was at the time running only his second Iditarod, and he was far enough back in the field to avoid the storm. But he had been thoroughly tested in the wind before on the way to victory in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. A few mushers took the chilly Yukon River run in stride, including Baker of Kotzebue, who was happy just to be back in familiar terrain. "My dogs like the open, flat country," said Baker, in 14th place Saturday night. "They don't like the run from Anchorage." But as the first week of racing drew to an end, this Iditarod had become Swingley's to lose and was reminiscent of his record run of four years ago. He set the course record of 9 days, 3 hours in that races. In 1995 he also: * Broke away early by pushing his team to the halfway point of Iditarod before taking his 24-hour layover, a strategy which, at the time, was bold and untested. * Continued to pull away from the field over the second half of the race, with Buser struggling to hang on. * Faced a cold bitter headwind with windchills to minus-65 degrees while mushing up the Yukon, arriving in Kaltag in midafternoon on Saturday with a two-hour lead and a team of 12 strong dogs in harness. Although Swingley is several hours behind his record pace, he has opened a wider gap on the competition this year. Swingley left Eagle Island four hours ahead of Buser, his closest pursuer. Swenson and King were more than three hours behind Buser. Swingley left the Yukon River checkpoint of Eagle Island at 11:15 a.m. behind 13 dogs; Buser left at 3:15 p.m. with just nine in harness, followed by Swenson at 6:41 p.m. and King at 7 p.m. Most mushers conceded Swingley would be hard to knock from the top spot unless a storm pinned him down on the coast. Snow was in the forecast for the Seward Peninsula today, but no more than three inches was expected and temperatures were forecast to rise into the teens. "Doug's in really good shape," said Rick Mackey, while resting in Shageluk. "But then, well, you never know what can happen." Asked at Eagle Island if he thought he could catch Swingley, Buser said, "I don't think so, but I'll keep on trying." Swenson also said Swingley would be tough to reel in. He figured he would hold onto third place "if I can hold it together." Last year, Swenson was in the same position, but his lead dogs faded late in the race and he dropped to 11th, his worst finish in 22 Iditarods. Swingley has racked up a number of firsts in this year's race. He earned $3,000 by being first into the namesake checkpoint of Iditarod and another $3,500 for being first to reach the Yukon River. His success came despite breaking two sleds - and quickly repairing them well enough to continue. "My dogs are running fine," Swingley said Friday in Anvik. "I'm just having a good time."
|
