Iditarod

Photos: Iditarod mushers contend with Happy Steps and Rainy Pass

Photos by Loren Holmes and story by Jill Burke

RAINY PASS, Alaska -- Trail breakers spent time Sunday sculpting the section of trail that until a day earlier was out of play for the 2012 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race. The infamous Happy River Steps, one of the race's most hazardous sections, had been declared, at least publicly, history.

Race officials planned, instead, to send mushers through Ptarmigan Valley -- not the steep, windy switchbacks dipping down to and up off from Happy River, but along a modern-day mining road cutting through what has been dubbed the Happy River Flats.

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But Iditarod leader Ray Redington proclaimed the steps "beautiful" Monday morning as he rolled into this high-altitude checkpoint, 100 miles from the race's official starting point in Willow. His 9:02 a.m. arrival time made one lucky visitor at the lodge $140 richer, the winner of a betting pool started Sunday to predict what time the first musher would arrive.

Yukon Quest winner Hugh Neff of Tok chased Redington into the checkpoint three minutes later. Then came four-time champion Lance Mackey of Fairbanks, followed by former Yukon Quest winner Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers. The teams looked good -- barking, whining dogs still raring to go as they were led to parking spots for a rest.

Within minutes of Redington's and Neff's arrival, cloudy, snowy weather settled in, dropping flakes onto Puntilla Lake, the staging area for incoming teams and small planes shuttling people and gear.

The early frontrunners had no trouble negotiating the notorious Steps, something that came as no surprise to scouts who'd been through that section of trail hours earlier.

"The trail is superb. It's really as good as it gets," said Sebastian Schnuelle, a seven-time Iditarod finisher who claims to be in retirement, although his retirement includes driving the race by snowmachine this year. "The steps were as good as I've seen them," he said after quietly slipping into Rainy Pass Lodge about 3 a.m.

Read More: "Iditarod's notorious Happy River Steps more mild than mean"

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