Alaska News

Gusting winds delay start of 225-mile Iditasport

A trail-clearing chainsaw lashed to his snowmachine, Iditasport race organizer Billy Koitzsch set out from Knik into heavy winds on Friday afternoon determined to log his way along the Iditarod Trail to the Yentna River if necessary.

Behind him, 35 mountain bikers, skiers and runners were preparing to challenge Saturday gusts forecast to 60 mph on a jaunt of more than 100 miles from Knik to Flathorn Lake, across the Dismal Swamp, up the Yentna River and on to Shell Lake at the foot of the Alaska Range. Some will then circle back to Knik.

Those in the longer race will go 225 miles for several days in temperatures down to minus-25, destined to be made brutally worse if the winds continue. Conditions delayed Friday's scheduled start of the 225-mile race.

Erica Koitzsch, co-organizer with her husband Billy, postponed the start with winds forecast to gust to 80 mph. People on foot can't walk into that sort of wind, and such gusts will knock cyclists off the trail. Billy was out on the trail trying to tie down the race's warming tents when Erica made the decision to postpone. He didn't find out about the postponement until Friday morning, but was fully supportive.

Billy once road a fat-tire bike for 1,000 miles from Knik to Nome on the snow-covered Iditarod Trail only to turn around and ride another 1,000 miles from Nome to Fairbanks. He knows the dangers of cold -- especially wind-amplified cold.

"It's brutal no matter what,'' he said, but the harder the wind blows in extreme cold the faster the danger of frostbite and hypothermia accelerates. The approximately 35 participants in the Iditasport sufferfest are required to carry mandatory survival gear to deal with this. But even with the best gear, muscle-powered winter travel in the far north can prove difficult.

Interior authorities were alarmed earlier this week when a minimally equipped hiker from the village of Birch Creek set out on a 50-mile hike for the larger community of Fort Yukon to the north. Fifty-two-year-old Lawrence James made it without a hitch in minus-30 cold, but worried villagers set out to look for him on snowmachines before his arrival.

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Such hikes were the norm in Alaska 50 years ago, but the state has become as mechanized as every other -- with only a few throwback events like the Iditasport, the Iditarod Trail Invitational and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race connecting Alaskans to the past.

There was some speculation Friday that some Iditasport competitors might bail out because of the weather -- 20 are entered in the 225-miler and 18 are entered in the 100-miler -- but Billy said late in the day he'd yet to hear of anyone officially bowing to the weather.

They appeared dedicated to the race's motto: "The cowards won't show and the weak will die.''

Contact Craig Medred at craig@alaskadispatch.com

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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