In the Hoodoo Mountains of the Alaska Interior, the reigning champions of the Tesoro Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Classic successfully defended their title on Friday, and the rest of the party-down-weekend that draws upwards of 10,000 spectators to a remote parking lot on the Richardson Highway seems to have passed without a major incident.
Arctic Man has been described as a booze-fueled Woodstock for motorheads. The crazy, 5.75-mile downhill, uphill race that teams an alpine skier and a snowmachine racer is the centerpiece of the weekend, but it's largely an excuse for a mob of people to flee the state's larger cities, ride their snowmachines into the wild, and drink beer in the tent set up in a plowed area long the Richardson Highway near Summit Lake. Others party inside the motorhomes many use to tow their snowmachines from Fairbanks or Southcentral Alaska.
Tyler Aklestad, the snowmachine pilot for the winning team in this year's Arctic Man competition, hails from Palmer, though racing partner Marco Sullivan calls Squaw Valley, Calif., home. Finding skiers for the Arctic Man is nowhere near as easy as finding snowmachine drivers. Speeds on the race course surpass 80 mph. There are a lot of snowmachine jockeys happy to go that fast or faster. There are not a lot of skiers in Alaska, or elsewhere, up to the challenge.
Not that most of the 10,000 or so folks at Arctic Man care. Most of them are there to ride around on their own snow machines. That has caused problems in the past. There have been injuries in crashes, drunken and otherwise, and deaths in avalanches. A Fort Wainwright fireman suffered two broken legs last year when he was run over by a snowmachine that just kept going.
Because of past problems, Alaska State Troopers set up camp at Arctic Man every year now -- which makes for some good video for their reality show, "Alaska State Troopers." As of Sunday evening, troopers were reporting the usual problems at Arctic Man: drunks, dopers, and impaired drivers.
The most serious incident reported by troopers involved a snowmachine crash that required the medical evacuation of 25-year-old North Pole resident Eric W. Visser on Friday. He was injured after his snowmachine hit a berm, according to a trooper statement, which added that "during the investigation troopers determined Visser was impaired by alcohol but did not arrest him due to his injuries.'' They said he will be charged later.
Troopers weren't quite so accommodating the next day when they allegedly caught a pair of young Delta men selling marijauna and packing heat. One of the men, 22-year-old Jonathon Carpenter, had a semi-automatic handgun with him, and that was enough to ensure both and his sidekick went directly to jail. "Both were transported and held with no bail until arraignment at the Glennallen State Trooper Post,'' said a statement from the state agency.
Other than that, troopers reported the usual collection of drunken drivers, either on snowmachines or motor vehicles. Fortunately, there were no reports of any of them running down anyone, as is believed to have happened to fireman Larry Hodges last year. Despite a reward being offered for information on the identity of the drivers who hit him, the culprits have never been found.
As for the race itself, Sullivan and Aklestad covered the 5.75-mile course in 4 minutes, 4.8 seconds, one of the fastest times in race history. The tandem of Scott Macartney, another Olympic skier, and Tyson Johnson, another top Iron Dog star, set the Arctic Man record of 4:01.5 in 2007.
"It was a good clean run," Aklestad told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "I'm the middle man, you know, and we got a good pull, decided to play it conservative and got a clean run and finished. You've got to finish to win."
Added Sullivan: "This snow is faster than the past couple of years. There hasn't been any new snow in a few days, and that's usually what slows you down." Sullivan and Aklestad also won in 2008, but Friday's race was their fastest.
Skier Scott Montablo of Anchorage and Tyson Johnson, another Iron Dog veteran, were second in 4:05.70. John Love, a young Girdwood skier, and Cory Davis of Soldotna, a two-time Winter X-Games bronze medalist, finished in 4:06.32 for third place.
Anna Goodman of Pointe Claire, Quebec and Julie Thul of from Side Lake, Minn., topped the women's ski division in 4:14.47.
In the women's snowboard division, which featured six teams, Kaycee Hammond, from Chugiak, and Danielle Levine topped the pack in 5:45.41. Nate Holland and Aklestad teamed up to finish first in the men's snowboard division in 4:47.92.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com