Photos: Iditarod 2012 -- Scenes from Puntilla Lake and Rainy Pass

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An Iditarod dog-sled team approaching Rainy Pass during a snowstorm on the evening of Monday, March 5, 2012.

At Rainy Pass and Puntilla Lake on Monday, top mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race relaxed for several hours before the race leaders pulled their snow hooks in mid-afternoon to begin the trip out of the Alaska Range to an abandoned log cabin at the Rohn checkpoint near the Tatina River. That night, they began the 75-mile push across the Farewell Burn to the Athabascan village of Nikolai. A winter of heavy snowfall slowed most teams, but the trip was smoother than usual, too. Several teams were still running the 16 dogs they left the Willow start line with on Sunday afternoon.