Update, Feb. 8: Bypassing any checkpoint rest, Brent Sass of Eureka leaped over defending champion Allen Moore to recapture the top spot in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race late Friday night.
Behind 13 of the 14 dogs that started the race, Sass pulled out of the Pelly Crossing checkpoint at 11:36 p.m. after stopping just 16 minutes. Moore led Sass into Pelly Crossing by 65 minutes, but decided to rest there for three hours before heading back out at 1:14 a.m. Saturday. Pelly Crossing is the first official checkpoint beyond the halfway point of Dawson City.
The 2012 champ, Hugh Neff of Tok, arrived in Pelly Crossing more than an hour and a half behind Sass. He was down to nine dogs.
Sass left Dawson Thursday morning with a commanding two-and-a-half-hour lead, though Moore and Neff have slowly chipped away at that. Sass moved quickly during the second third of the race, resting only eight hours over 280 miles.
The combination of sleep deprivation and sharp turns made for quite the adventure coming into the Dawson checkpoint, Sass told Emily Schwing of KUAC Radio. "I lost my cooler, I had a dog in the sled and it jumped out. It was fiasco, but we survived as we always do," he laughed.
Original story: The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race has a new leader.
Race tracking devices show defending champ Allen Moore leapfrogged over a pack of mushers that included Brent Sass as he closed in on Pelly Crossing, the first official checkpoint beyond the halfway point of Dawson City.
Sass and 2012 champ Hugh Neff appeared to be resting Friday afternoon at the Stepping Stone hospitality stop, about 32 miles from Pelly Crossing.
Sass left Dawson Thursday morning with a commanding two-and-a-half-hour lead, though Moore and Neff have slowly chipped away at that. Sass moved quickly during the second third of the race, resting only eight hours over 280 miles.
But now mushers will be positioning themselves for the finish. From Pelly Crossing, it's only 220 miles to the finish line at Takhini Hot Springs, which is taking the place of the traditional downtown Whitehorse finish due to weather. So far, races have set a blistering pace and are expected to finish on late Sunday night, mere days after last Saturday's start in Fairbanks. While the pace might be a record, it's unlikely to be official, since wacky weather has cut about 70 miles off the 1,000-mile course.
While the hard, icy trail has made for fast travels, it's also made for a lot of mishaps. Racers have had to reroute around open water and navigate rocky, icy trails. At least one musher, Canadian Jerry Joinson, had to replace his sled. While the musher faced an eight-hour penalty for the move, the race marshal rescinded that Friday, saying Joinson was not informed that he could repair the sled with no penalty. Live tracking shows that two mushers, John Schandelmeier and Matt Hall, appeared to lose the trail about 15 miles outside the Slaven's Roadhouse checkpoint on Tuesday and then had to double back. And rookie Curt Perano and veteran Dave Dalton both seemed to have trouble finding the trail just outside Dawson, veering far off course before making their way to the halfway point.
All but two mushers have made their way to the halfway point in Dawson. Still making their way there early Saturday morning were Siberian team musher Hank DeBruin and rookie Tony Angelo. Angelo was far behind, just nearing the Forty-Mile Hospitality Stop checkpoint, another 48 miles from Dawson City.
Managing editor Mike Campbell contributed to this story.