Anchorage Daily News

It would be foolhardy to say Alaska's sled dog racing season -- sprint and long distance -- is off to a blistering pace.

Hurricane-like winds blasted the first few teams that finished last weekend's Gin Gin 200, a rugged long- distance race that follows the remote Denali Highway from Paxson to Mac-laren Lodge and back.

"The first few teams got hammered," said race director John Schandelmeier.

Winds gusted up to 55 mph, he said, forcing men's winner Lance Mackey to basically crawl past the finish line and making the trail spotty in some places.

"Some mushers said it's too punchy," Schandelmeier said.

But he was quick to remind mushers of their fortune. Other race venues are praying for more snow, while others are racing on minimal conditions.

The Sheep Mountain 150 was cancelled in December for of the lack of snow pack in the Talkeetna Mountains between Palmer and Glennallen. It won't be rescheduled.

The Alaska Sled Dog & Racing Association season is on hold for the next three weeks unless Anchorage gets at least two feet of snow, according to president Ken Ford. This weekend's season opener was cancelled and the second, the Orville Lake Memorial, has been postponed to Jan. 26.

"I'm not real optimistic right now," Ford said.

There's not enough snow on Tozier Track's trails off Tutor Road to run snowmachines, which groom paths for sprint teams. Major stretches of trail have overflow and tussocks protruding from the frozen swamps.

"I could hardly snowmachine the trail," Ford said. "I can't imagine running sled dog teams over it."

It doesn't help that some of the trails, bridges and underpasses, Ford said, are not fully completed from the recently finished Elmore Road project.

And one stretch of trail, he said, is impassible to dog sleds. It's been destroyed from the new 48th Avenue project that parallels Tutor Road from Boniface Parkway to Elmore.

But at least the junior races, Ford said, have provided the mushing community with some hope. Tozier Track hosted its first races in three years last weekend with one- and two-dog classes.

Home to ASDRA races since 1946, Tozier Track has been vacant for two winters because of the Elmore Road project. But Dowell Engineers told Ford the mile or so stretch of trail that needs rebuilding should take about a week.

Then it all depends on whether Mother Nature provides the trails with necessary snow pack to save the season.

Across the Knik Arm, trail conditions aren't great, but good enough to hold this weekend's Knik 200-Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race.

"It's definitely a go," said race director Bruce Braden. "Cancellation isn't in our language."

Dedicated to the late Joe Redington Sr. known as the "Father of the Iditarod," the 24-year-old race kicks off Saturday on Knik Lake off Knik-Goose Bay Road at 11 a.m.

For rookies, it serves as a qualifier for the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in February and the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in March.

The Iditarod has 39 rookies signed up for the enduring trek from Anchorage to Nome.

But "signed up" means nothing if rookies can't meet qualifying standards. To race the Iditarod, rookies must:

• Complete two approved qualifying races, totaling at least 500 miles (or); Complete one race of at least 800 miles in the last five racing seasons and a 300-mile race in either the current or previous season.

• Complete any qualifying race among the top 75 percent of the finishers, or in an elapsed time of no more than twice the elapsed time of the race winner.

In Alaska, mushers have seven long-distance qualifiers --- Gin Gin 200, Knik 200, Cantwell Classic 200, Copper Basin 300, Kuskokwim 300, Tustumena 200 and Klondike 300.

Of all the races, Braden said the Knik 200 is a must-do for the rookies. Some 90 miles of the Knik 200 trail follows the Iditarod Trail.

Some stretches of frozen rivers have scattered "jumble ice," Braden said, also known as ice boulders from the freeze, thaw and freeze effect.

"They look like little Volkswagons," he said.

One could perhaps compare the sled dog racing season's slow start to the way Braden deals with jumble ice.

"Everyone will have to navigate around it," he said, "If you don't want to do it, then you shouldn't go on the Iditarod."

Find Kevin Klott online at adn.com/contact/kklott or call 257-4335.

KNIK 200

SATURDAY: The race begins at 11 a.m. on Knik Lake off Knik-Goose Bay Road.

ADVERTISEMENT