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Good to be back from my musical holiday and posting here again. But Justin Slaten gave up four runs in the 8th inning and the Red Sox lose to Baltimore, 8-5. The team starts the season 1-4, last place in the AL East, and Rafael Devers is 0-19 with 15 strike-outs.
Hey, but there's always room for improvement, amirite?
A little bit of vacation coming up, a few days away from the sports screens and the computer. I probably won't be posting here again until next Monday.
While I'm out, the Red Sox will start their 2025 season and the BU Terriers will play in the opening round of the NCAA ice-hockey tournament. The Celtics and Bruins will continue their current road trips, probably with very different results.
I'm sure there will be a lot to catch up on when I get back.
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We finally get the band back together - Brown, Holiday and Jrue all returning to the Celtics' starting lineup - when a flagrant foul by the Kings' Domantas Sabonis injures Jayson Tatum in the Third Quarter. Tatum left the game with an injured right ankle, although the Celtics are optimistic that he won't be out for long.
Despite playing only 25 minutes over three quarters, Tatum still led the team with 25 points, including 5 of 9 from downtown.
Anyway, the Celtics won the game, their 6th straight win, and are now 4.5 back from the idle Mavs, who are in Portland tonight. Boston's long (six game) road trip continues with a game tomorrow night in Phoenix.
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Nest match is Wednesday night in Anaheim against the Ducks (30-32-8).
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The Celts will head south from Portland for a game tomorrow night in California against the Sacramento Kings (35-35).
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Brown is still out but Porzingis steps up with 27 points and 10 rebounds, our daily double double, and 3-for-10 three-point shooting, while Tatum chips in 26 points of his own.
The Celtics have now won four straight while the Cavs have lost that many during the same stretch, and the Boston now trails Cleveland by five games in the East.
The Celts are off to Portlandia next for a Sunday afternoon (6:00 pm Eastern time) game against the Trailblazers (32-39).
The Everest Ice Doctors will be using drones this year to scout a route through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall.
The Icefall is a dangerous section at the base of the Khumbu Glacier that climbers must pass through in order to get from Base Camp to Camp 1 on Everest. Full of overhanging seracs that can fall at any moment, the Icefall accounts for a significant portion of climber and Sherpa deaths over the years. And since the glacier is moving, the route through the maze of crevasses and seracs changes every year, and the first job for the guides and Sherpas is to establish the least dangerous route through this perilous stretch. The Ice Doctors are the designated guides to establish the best route through the Icefall each season.
This year, rather than a trial-and-error attempt to solve the maze by blindly walking through, the Ice Doctors will use drones to scout a route ahead of them. The drones will also be used to carry ladders and ropes and even to move supplies and provisions to Camp 1 once a route through the Icefall is established. The use of drones may save lives that might otherwise be lost while exploring this year's Icefall, and is more environmentally friendly than the use of large military helicopters to transport supplies.
Actual climbing usually begins in early May when the winter winds subside but before the monsoon season begins.
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Surprise. The 7th-place Bruins lose again. However, their 69 points so far this season puts them out of playoff contention by only five points with 12 games left to play, so anything can still happen. Not that we have any high hopes for them qualifying, or winning any postseason games even if they do.
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BU previously beat UMass, 3-2, in OT in the semifinals to get to this game. UConn beat Providence, 3-1, in the semis and will play in the championship game tomorrow night. They will face the winner of the ongoing game between Northeastern and No. 4 Maine, currently in OT.
The season's not over for the Terriers. They didn't get the Hockey East champion automatic bid to the NCAA national tournament, but as a Top 10 team in the country, they'll most likely got an invite to the Frozen Four.
Now that the Iditarod is complete we can turn out attention to the Berkley Marathons, but no one was able to complete the 130+ mile event this year.
The Barkley Marathons is a near-mythic event that is probably the most grueling race in outdoor extreme sports. The Marathons consist of five 20- to 26-mile loops each with about 12,000 feet of climbing for a total of 60,000 feet, or over twice the height of Mount Everest. Runners are allowed 60 hours to complete all five marathon loops and have to complete each loop within 13 hours and 20 minutes.
But that's not even the hard part. The event is held in rural Tennessee's Frozen Head State Park but there is no fixed route or trial markings. The day before the race, participants are given a topo map of the park with 10 to 15 marked checkpoints. There are books at each checkpoint, and the runners have to find the checkpoints and tear the page out of the book corresponding to their bib number. No GPS devices or phones are allowed and runners have to rely only on the maps and a compass. Runners who complete three of the laps are awarded a “Fun Run.”
The largely off-trail route takes runners through dense, scrubby forest and thick, prickly brambles. It has tough climbs with grades of 30 to 40 percent and if the runners aren't careful, they may find themselves suddenly confronted with impassable cliffs. After the sun sets, participants have to navigate in the dark and one wrong turn can add miles and hours to the course. There are stretches where runners literally are forced to crawl on hands and knees. There's a section through an aqueduct beneath the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary which is so flooded some years that runners have to wade through waist-deep water.
In addition to the steep, dense terrain, runners must also contend with highly variable and often inclement weather. Sometimes it’s below freezing and raining, snowing, sleeting, icy, and foggy. Other days it’s a scorching 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky.
The Barkley Marathons are not open to the public and candidates have to figure out how to apply on their own. The entry fee is a mere $1.60, and the selected participants receive a letter of condolence. First year runners are required to bring a license plate to the start, while veterans must bring an item of Laz’s choosing, which could be a T-shirt, say, or a pair of socks. Each runner who fails to complete the race is officially pulled from the course to the tune of Taps, played on a bugle trumpet like a military funeral.
Runners are allowed one crew member each, but are not allowed to talk to their crew during the race itself. Runners have to carry their own supplies, restocking after each loop. Camping between loops is permitted but RVs are banned.
In the first 36 years, only 15 people completed the Marathons. In 2023, a record-tying three runners completed all five loops within the 60-hour cutoff. 2024 saw a record-setting five finishers, including the first four-time finisher (Jared Campbell) and the first female finisher, Jasmin Paris, who completed the course with just 1:39 to spare. In response, "Laz" made the course even tougher this year by adding a nasty, new 45-minute section, and none of the competitors managed to complete the second lap in less than 24 hours.
The fastest runner this year was Japan's Tomokazu Ihara, who finished the first two loops in an impressive 24 hours, 32 minutes, and 50 seconds. Only two other runners completed loop two, Sébastien Raichon of France and three-time finisher John Kelly. Kelly went on to complete loop three in 39 hours, 50 minutes, and 27 seconds, earning himself a "Fun Run," but tapped out due to exhaustion.
No one completed this year's Berkley event and there were no winners, except possibly the Marathons themselves.
This blog, Sweat Dissolves Water, basically exists to cover Boston sports teams and the Georgia Bulldogs, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about other things as well. We're fascinated by outdoor adventure, and consider events like the Barkley Marathons, the Iditarod Trail dog-sled race, and even the Himalaya climbing season as some of the truest of sporting events. Man and woman against nature, with planet Earth as the ultimate combatant. So when we see or hear about some note-worthy event, it will get included here, too.
What we DON'T find interesting is college basketball's March Madness tournament. Maybe because no Boston teams and few New England teams are noteworthy, and our football loyalty to the University of Georgia doesn't extend to basketball. And SO much happens in so short a time (there are 32 games over today and tomorrow) that it doesn't lend itself well to once-a-day posting, and I'm not about to quit my day job to cover the tournament full time (just kidding, I don't have a day job).
So anyway, hope you enjoy the updated Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins, and Patriots scores, BU Terriers ice-hockey results, and occasional posts about extreme sporting events.
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Who are these guys? Brown is still out with whatever it is that's been ailing him lately and Tatum sat this one out tonight, too. Porzingis stepped up again and lead the team with a 25-point, 13- rebound double double and Baylor Scheierman (who?) went an incredible 6-for-7 on three-point shots and scored a total of 20 points off the bench. Result: Celtics win by eight.
The Celtics will take the rest of the week off (they've earned it) and fly to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Jazz on Friday night. Hopefully, Brown and Tatum will be back in the lineup by then.
New York took a 2-0 lead in the 4th, but Masataka Yoshida hit a two-run homer to deep right in the top of the 6th and tied the game. New York scored two more runs in the bottom of the inning, and a Roman Anthony RBI single in the 7th and a Rob Refsnyder sac fly in the 8th tied it all up again. Neither team scored in the 9th, and they don't play extra innings in preseason practice games.
As long as we're taking this little peek at preseason baseball, the Sox are currently in second place in Grapefruit League play with a 13-9 record. The Yankees (11-11) are at 7th.
Finally, for the very first time on Sweat Dissolves Water, let us say finally say it - Yankees suck!
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The Buffalo Sabres are the worst team in the entire Eastern Division, at least in terms of total points. They're so bad, they can't even spell "sabers" right.
The Bruins can't beat even them. Buffalo outshot Boston 6-2 in the OT. Sad.
The Bruins start a five game road trip Thursday. Sarcastic voice: I'm sure things will turn around for the Bruins then.
Rookie musher Jenny Roddewig of Fairbanks scratched at 5:50 a.m. Alaska time at the White Mountain checkpoint "in the best interest of her team." Roddewig had 10 dogs in harness when she arrived in White Mountain, all in good health.
With this scratch in the race, all teams have now completed their 1,128-mile, 2025 Iditarod. Jesse Holmes was this year's winner with a time of 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes, and 41 seconds. Matt Hall finished second and Paige Drobney, 3rd.
Mitch Seavey, father of 2024 champion Dallas Seavey, finished 7th and Ryan Redington, the 2023 winner, finished 8th. Danish musher Mille Porsild came in 9th.
Samantha LaLonde was the first rookie to complete the trail this year and came in 15th overall. Rookie Emily Ford, only the second woman of color to complete the race, came in 18th and only five minutes behind 14th-place rookie Keaton Loebrich.
Last-place finisher Ebbe Pedersen came in only 5 minutes behind rookie Dane Baker. With Roddewig scratching, Pederson wins the Lynden "Committed to the Last Mile" Red Lantern award.
The complete list of finishers, along with their official times, is as follows:
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Two late-game empty-net goals made the score look worse that the game actually was, but it was still bad. It just looks even worse with those two goals.
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What's wrong with Jalen Brown? Wednesday night he only scored 10 points against the Thunder, and he sat out last night's game in Miami. Today, he only scored 8 points on 3-for-8 shooting (1-3 beyond the arc). Not a complaint, just a concern.
The good news, though, is Porzingis is back! He led the team today with 24 points. Tatum scored 20 and Jrue Holiday got an 11-11/points-assists double double.
After back-to-back games up and down the Eastern seaboard the last two nights, the Cs will get a couple nights off and then host the Nets back home at the Garden on Tuesday night.
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The No. 9 Terriers (3rd in Hockey East) advance over No. 14 UMass (6th in the conference).
BU got goals in regulation time by Shane LaChance and Sasha Boumedienne, and then Cole Eiserman won it with a goal 2:59 into OT. Mikhail Yegorov made 36 saves in goal.
The Semifinal round will be held at TD Garden on Thursday, March 20. The winners will advance to the Hockey East title game on Friday, March 21 to determine the winner of the Lamoriello Trophy and the league’s automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament.
The Terriers already won the Hockey East women's championship. Now's the time for the men to step up, too.
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The Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter, going on a 10-0 run early in the period and turning a one-point deficit into a nine-point lead with 9:19 left. Jayson Tatum scored 28 points, and Jrue Holiday got 25. Jaylen Brown (right knee) and Kristaps Porzingis (viral illness) both sat this game out. Since the All-Star break, Brown's routine has been to play three games, then rest for one.
The Celtics are 48-19 and eight games back in the Eastern Conference from the Cavs.
Next game is tomorrow night in Brooklyn.
Matt Hall finished in second place three hours later.
Paige Drobny has passed through the Safety checkpoint and is heading for a third-place finish in Nome. No other teams have reached Safety yet, but Michelle Phillips has completed her mandatory 8-hour rest period at White Mountain and is heading toward Safety. Four other teams (Mitch Seavey, Bailey Vitello, Travis Beals, and Ryan Redington) are currently resting at White Mountain.
As of 6:30 am, Mille Porsild is at the Elim checkpoint and is currently in 9th place. Emily Ford (17th overall) has left Shaktoolik and is currently crossing Norton Bay on her way to Koyuk.
It'll be a tough crossing. Paige Drobny reported that a ground storm came up on the ice with snow blowing like sandpaper and head winds of about 30 mph that made it feel like she was being sandblasted for hours.
Overall, it's been a most unusual Iditarod. A new and different route with a start in Fairbanks instead of Anchorage, the longest distance for the race in its history, unseasonably warm temperatures, bare ground in some places and slushy snow in others, and even a sandstorm at one spot early in the race.
Anyway, congratulations to Jessie. It's hard to be humble when you're from Alabama.
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So much for our back-to-back, two-game win streak. David Pastrnak got his 35th goal of the season, and that's pretty much the highlights right there.
The Bruins will return home to play Tampa Bay on Saturday.
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No. 14-ranked UMass beat Vermont, 2-1, last night in the opening round of the Hockey East tournament behind the scoring of Lucas Mercuri and Ryan Lautenbach, and will face the 2025 Beanpot champion and No. 9-ranked BU Terriers in the Hockey East quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.
The Minutemen are 20-12-5 on the season and finished in sixth place in Hockey East play. The Terriers (20-12-2) are in third place in Hockey East and split the season record with UMass, 1-1, with both teams winning in the other's arena. The semifinal game will be played at 4:30 p.m. Saturday on the Terrier's home ice at Aggannis Arena.
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As of 6:30 am Alaska time, Holmes and Hall have left the Elim checkpoint en route to White Mountain, where they will be required to take a mandatory 8-hour rest before charging on to the finish line. Paige Drobny arrived at Elim at 4:00 am, and is still resting there.
After White Mountain, it's only 77 miles to the finish line.
Mille Porsild has dropped behind Michelle Phillips to fifth place, and the two, along with Mitch Seavey and Ryan Redington, have crossed Norton Bay and are currently heading toward Elim. The rest of the mushers are spread out between Shaktoolik and Eagle Island, and rookie Emily Ford has fallen behind fellow rookie Samantha LaLonde and is now 17th overall.
The Iditarod Trail Committee has forced last-place rookie mushers Quince Mountain and Sydney Bahl to drop out of the race. They were too far back, in the Committee's opinion, to credibly ever have a chance to catch the lead, and it wasn't worth the risk, again in their opinion, of pushing the dogs and continuing to keep checkpoints open just to keep them running. Rookie Justin Olnes also dropped out, not due to an ITC decision, but his own estimation of the risk/benefit of continuing.
So the field is now down to 23 teams, but the competitive, real race for the win seems to now be between Holmes and Hall.
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With this win, SGA and OKC sweep the Celtics this season (they beat Boston 105-92 back on January 5). Tatum scored 33 points, but SGA scored 34 and while that alone might not have made the difference, Jalen Brown's mere 10 points didn't help.
The Celtics set an NBA record tonight with 63 three-point attempts. Horford and White both made 6 of their 12 three-point shots, and Horford's 18 points and 10 rebounds gave him tonight's double double. All those threes still weren't enough though, and the Celtics bookend this seven-game homestand with losses to Cleveland and Oklahoma City, the two teams with the best records in the East and the West.
Time to shake it off and move on. The Celtics play the Heat in Miami on Friday and then the Nets in Brooklyn on Saturday. Lots of air-mile points for the Celtics this weekend.
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The Ice Doctors, a group of Sherpas in charge of opening a route through Mount Everest’s Khumbu Icefall, have left for Everest Base Camp, the first sign of the start of the Everest climbing season. It's sort of the mountaineering equivalent of baseball's reporting of pitchers and catchers.
The Ice Doctor's job, which they've done every spring since 1993, is to find a route through the maze of seracs and crevasses at the base of Khumbu Glacier, which runs from the Western Cwm at 20,000 feet to the base of the mountain at 17,000 feet.
Of the 340 people who have died on Everest since 1953, 48 have died in the Icefall, most of them Sherpa climbers who were working on the mountain. In 2014 alone, an avalanche in the Icefall killed 16 workers.
As the Khumbu Glacier moves about a meter per day, the anchors on ropes and ladders that the Ice Doctors place weaken quickly. The route has to be constantly checked and maintained, so the Ice Doctors will remain on the mountain for the next three months of climbing season.
The work of the Icefall Doctors is organized by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), which also checks climbing permits, monitors illegal climbing, and is in charge of waste management at the Everest base camps. The SPCC was formed by the local Sherpa community and operates as an NGO.
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Matt Hall was actually the first to arrive at Kaltag, to correct yesterday's post (sorry). But I was correct that Hall, even though in the lead, blew right through Kaltag and Jessie Holmes had to stop there to take his mandatory 8-hour rest.
After completing his rest, however, Holmes passed Hall on the trail and was the first to arrive at Unalakleet. Hall made it there some 90 minutes later, and Paige Drobny five hours after that. No one stayed at Unalakleet for long, and as of 6:00 am Alaska time, Holmes and Hall had arrived in Shaktoolik, Holmes arriving 11 minutes before Hall. Neither rested in Shaktoolik and both are currently crossing the frozen Norton Bay (markers on the bay are young spruce trees frozen into holes in the ice) on their way to the Koyuk checkpoint. Drobny is still en route to Shaktoolik.
Mille Porsild has left Kaltag on her way to Unalakleet and is currently in fourth place. Six teams are on the trail behind her, and two are still in Kaltag. Rookie Emily Ford is 13th overall and is still en route to Kaltag. Rookie Bryce Mumford of Idaho dropped out at Grayling on the southbound leg of the loop, citing the best interests of his dogs.
This is getting exciting. After Koyuk, it's only 170 more miles to the finish line, although there's a final, mandatory 8-hour stop along the way at the White Mountain checkpoint. This year's winner seems likely to emerge from the Holmes-Hall-Drobny group currently at the front of the pack. Some veteran Iditarod watchers have stated it appears that Holmes and Drobny are sticking more or less with planned race strategies, while Hall is more reacting to events as they play out and fighting to stay near the lead. This could very well work out for Hall, or Holmes and Drobny's teams could exhaust Hall's dogs as he continues to push while either take their breaks, and leave him with little speed or energy for the final push.
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The Florida Panthers decided not to play their newest team member, one Brad Marchand, because of reasons, snd the Boston Bruins, fresh off their weekend win over Tampa Bay, beat the Panthers, 3-2. All of Boston's scoring came in the third and after they trailed Florida, 2-0.
Pastrnak ended the potential shutout with a power-play goal, Mason Lohrei tied it up, and then Pavel Zacha scored the game winner. Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves.
Congratulations, Boston! We were starting to wonder if you still had it in you. We also note that you're 2-2 against the Panthers this season (lost the first two, won the second two).
Let's keep this going, okay? Next game is in Ottawa against the Senators (34-25-5).
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As of 6:30 am Alaska time, we have a new leader and some fresh snow ahead of our teams.
As expected, Jessie Holmes was the first back to the Kaltag checkpoint, where he finally took his mandatory 8-hour rest. While he was resting, Matt Hall blew through the checkpoint and is now in first place. However, Holmes left Kaltag a mere 30 minutes after Hall passed through and can very possibly catch back up and retake the lead by the Unalakleet checkpoint some 81 miles ahead.
Paige Drobny has arrived at Kaltag as well, and even though she's already taken her 8-hour rest, she's been there for some three hours now.
After passing Kaltag, the teams are finally done with the Yukon, which they've been following for the past 583 miles. The slushy conditions have slowed everyone's race times, although trail reports say the dogs have reacted positively to the well-worn return trail and are excited when they pass teams going in the opposite direction. But from here on in to the Finish Line it will all be fresh, new trail (at least for the leader) and hopefully more snow.
For hundreds of years, Kaltag was the gateway between the Athabaskan villages of the Alaska interior and the Iñupiat settlements on the Bering Sea. The Kaltag Portage runs through a 1,000-foot pass down to the Iñupiat town of Unalakleet, on the shore of the Bering Sea.
After our three leaders, six teams (Michelle Phillips, Bailey Vitello, Nicolas Petit, Mille Porsild, Mitch Seavey, and Travis Beals) are currently between Eagle Island and Kaltag. Ryan Redington (10th place) and Riley Dyche (11th) are still at Eagle Island
Emily Ford is still the lead rookie. As we suspected, she stayed in Grayling on the southbound part of the loop trail and completed her 8-hour rest there. However, after turning and heading northbound at Shageluk, she passed veterans Matthew Failor and Lauro Eklund and moved up from 14th place to 12th overall in the race. She is currently on the trail between Grayling and Eagle Island.
Worth keeping an eye on: rookie Samantha LaLonde left Grayling at the same time as Emily and could possibly arrive at Eagle Island ahead of her. The race is on between the two rookies between the two checkpoints.
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The game after the big prime-time Lakers showdown. Tatum and Horford off for the night, but 33 big points for Sam Hauser, including 9 for 19 outside the three-point line. Jalen Brown scored 26 points, and Derrick White got a 18-point, 10 assist double double.
That's five in a row for the Celtics. They travel to Oklahoma mnest (sorry, guys) for a showdown with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder.
Jessie Holmes is still in the lead, and Paige Drobny and Matt Hall are still pursuing him at the No. 2 and 3 spots, respectively. However, Drobny and Hall are five to seven hours behind Holmes, who has yet to complete his mandatory 8-hour Yukon rest, and could catch up or even pass him by Kaltag checkpoint.
Mitch Seavey has moved up to fourth, but like Holmes has yet to take his 8-hour rest. A fully rested Mille Porsild is about an hour behind him and should be able to catch up to and pass him by Kaltag.
So that's our top five (Holmes, Drobny, Hall, Seavey, and Porsild) and the winner will likely come from that pool. All five have left Grayling checkpoint on the return leg of the Southern Trail loop and are heading back to Eagle Island before finally returning to Kaltag and fresh snow in the Bering Basin.
Eagle Island (population: 0) is not much more than a snowy patch of land and a few tents, just up a hill from the Yukon River. A 1997 musher said that “Eagle Island is so remote it’s actually beyond the edge of the planet: it’s as if you´ve gone to the edge, fallen off, and discovered that the Place Down Below really has frozen over. The local wolf packs howl all night to vent their indignation at all of their uninvited cousins intruding on their territory." So I guess we can safely rule out either Holmes or Seavey taking their 8-hour Yukon rest at the checkpoint and instead pushing on to Kaltag for their extended stop.
Emily Ford is still the lead rookie in the race and still 14th overall, but hasn't yet taken her 8-hour rest either. Although it seems her race strategy includes taking her breaks as late in the race as possible, she's been at Grayling checkpoint on her first pass for over four hours now, and it remains to be seen if she pushes on to stay within striking distance of the leaders or if she just waits another four hours to check off the mandatory rest. Meanwhile, fully rested veteran Jason Mackey is on his way to Grayling from Eagle Island and might blow right past her if she takes the full break there.
It's taken most teams about seven or eight hours to mush from Eagle Island to Grayling (Mackey is at hour seven right now), but Emily took 16 hours, indicating that she probably stopped somewhere along the way to rest on the trail. It may seem unwise to take an 8-hour break along the Yukon away from a checkpoint where you don't get credit for the rest, but it also means that her team is well rested and healthy as she reaches the halfway point of the race.
You've heard of "Monday-morning quarterbacking." I'm literally Monday-morning mushing.
Oof. Tough seeding. The No. 13 BU Terriers, the Hockey East conference champions, will face No. 9 Clarkson in the regional semifinal on March 13 (Thursday), and then, after winning that (they will win, right?) take on No. 1 Wisconsin . . .in Wisconsin. And even all that is just to make it to the Frozen Four in Minneapolis, where they'll have to beat two more top-ranked teams to win the national championship.
No fear. You got this, Terriers.
Jessie Holmes is in the lead. He arrived at Anvik, near the end of the Southern Route loop portion of this year's race, and took a 5½-hour rest before departing. He still hasn't taken his mandatory 8-hour Yukon rest yet and I wonder why he didn't just spend three more hours there to check that rest off.
I'm sure his trail wisdom and sense indicated good strategic and dog-care reasons for his decision, but perhaps he simply heard the barking of Paige Drobny's pack coming up behind him. About a half hour after Jessie had left, Drobny arrived at Anvik and immediately pulled out within one minute. Ditto Matt Hall some 40 minutes after Paige had left. So our leaders right now, 9:00 am Alaska time, are Holmes, Drobny, and Hall, all on the "short," 28-mile run between Anvik and Shageluk.
Anvik is a small town (population 85) located west of the Yukon at the mouth of the Anvik River. It has an airport with a gravel runway and is connected to the Iditarod by a side trail. Shageluk, the next checkpoint for the three leaders, is even smaller (population 83), but also has its own runway. After Shageluk, the race will head up the Yukon back to Kaltag and the descent down to the Bering Sea.
After the lead three, 4th place Michelle Phillips has pulled out of Grayling and is heading toward Anvik; Ryan Redington, Mitch Seavey, Nicolas Petit, and Mille Porsild are all resting in Grayling; Bailey Vitello, Travis Beals, Riley Dyche, and Matthew Failor have each pulled out of Eagle Island and are heading toward Grayling; and Gabe Dunham is currently resting back at Eagle Island.
Emily Ford is still the lead rookie in the race and is in 14th place overall. She pulled out of Kaltag about 12 hours ago after completing her 24-hour rest, and should be pulling into Eagle Island any time now (the teams ahead of her completed the run from Kaltag to Eagle Island in 12 to 13 hours).
All of the remaining 28 teams left in the race have completed their 24s, except for Quince Mountain, who started his rest at Kaltag about five hours ago. Three teams (10th place Travis Beals, 11th place Riley Dyche, and 16th place Jason Mackey) have additionally completed their 8-hour rests as well.
Folks are still reporting that the warm temperatures and poor trail condition are impairing the run times and putting a strain on the teams. This situation might remain until the teams pass through the Kaltag Portage and finally leave the Yukon Valley.
Update: At 8:03 am Alaska Time, veteran musher Gabe Dunham of Willow, Alaska pulled out of the race at the Eagle Island checkpoint "in the best interest of her team."
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Yes! The Celtics do it! LeBron and Luka come to the Garden with all the rest of the Lakers in tow, and after the First Quarter ended with a 33-33 tie, the Celtics explode in the Third, scoring 29 points to the Lakers 13. At one point, they had a 22-point lead, although beating the Lakers is never easy and L.A. got the score back to within four before Boston's final push.
Tatum scored 40 points and had 12 rebounds. Brown scored 31. By comparison, Doncic had only 34 points and LeBron, 22.
The Celtics next game is against the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
What a day it's been! The Celtics beat the Lakers, Paige Drobny took a morning lead in the Iditarod, the BU women won the Hockey East Conference Championship, and the BU men ended their regular season with a resounding win. Even the Bruins managed to win a game!
March 8, 2025 is a day that will live in infamy.
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After the women's team won the conference championship earlier today, the No. 10-ranked men's team ended their regular season with a decisive 6-1 win over Vermont. After last week's 8-2 thumping of Providence, that's two blowout wins in a row. Great way to head into the conference championships.
Quinn Hutson scored twice, his brother Cole scored once, the other Cole (Cole Eiserman) scored, Devin Kaplan scored, and Jack Hughes scored. Goalie Mikhail Yegorov made 21 saves.
The Terriers end their season with 46 points and third place in Hockey East. They get a first-round bye in the conference playoffs, and will have to wait for the March 12 opening round results to see who their quarterfinal opponent will be. That game will be played March 15, time TBD.
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The 7th Place Boston Bruins, one of the worst teams in the Atlantic Division (they're only one above the last place Buffalo Sabres) somehow managed to beat the 3rd Place Tampa Bay Lightning today, 4-0.
Cole Koepke scored two goals, Mark Kastelic scored one, and Nikita Zadorov scored one. Jeremy Swayman made 26 saves.
We need to savor these few brief moments of victory while we have them. Next on the schedule is a Tuesday night game against the first-place Florida Panthers, the Bruins' personal kryptonite team, so the misery is sure to return.
Rookie Musher Mike Parker, who was near dead last place and some 250 miles back from the leader, has dropped out of the race. Also, and sadly, rookie musher Daniel Klein had a dog die on the trail and scratched as well. The rules require any musher who experiences a death in their team to pull out of the race immediately, but I suspect Klein would have dropped out anyway even if not required by the rules.
Before you jump to any incorrect conclusions that the tragic loss of a dog somehow indicates cruelty or neglect on the part of the racers, veteran musher Jeff Deeter has also scratched as well in consideration of the long term health and attitude of his team. He could have continued on and risked physical damage to his core, prime-age dogs, and possible mental damage to his younger dogs as well. By pulling out of the race now, however, he felt the entire team will have had a positive experience up to this point. He will hopefully have a stronger group of healthy, happy, well adjusted dogs for seasons to come.
One of the factors leading to Deeter's decision (and possibly the death on Klein's team, although I don't know for sure) has been the warmer-than-usual temperatures this year. By "warmer," I mean around the 32° F freezing mark. This has led to uncovered spots of bare ground in some places, soft, slushy snow in other places, and hard ice in some spots after the melted snow refroze overnight. That hard ice is tough on the dog's paws, even with the protective booties they wear. Further, the dogs are bred, trained, and conditioned to perform in sub-zero temperatures, and the warmer conditions places a strain on their system and reduces overall performance.
Anyhow, according to the leaderboard, Paige Drobny is back in first place. After her mandatory 24-hour rest, she was the first to leave Kaltag for the 329-mile loop down and back part of the Southern Route of the trail. Seven other teams (Matt Hall, Michelle Phillips, Jessie Holmes, Ryan Redington, Mille Porsild, Mitch Seavey, and Travis Beals) have left Kaltag as well - all have taken their mandatory 24.
Nicolas Petit, lead rookie Emily Ford, and Anna Berington are still in Kaltag, presumably completing their 24-hour rest. Bailey Vitello and Gabe Dunham are currently in Kaltag as well but have already taken their 24-hour rest and probably won't stay there for long. Riley Dyche, who's also completed his 24, has left the Nulato checkpoint and was heading toward Kaltag as of 6:30 am Alaska time.
The remaining teams are all either at or between the Nulato and Galena checkpoints. Rookie Quince Mountain is currently in last place and pulled into Galena some 10 hours behind the current second-to-last musher Calvin Daugherty.
It's 70 more miles along the Yukon River from Kaltag to the next checkpoint, Eagle Island. Although the half-way point of this year's trail is after Eagle Island, that checkpoint is the one closest to half way. Half (14) of the remaining 28 teams have completed their mandatory 24-hour rest and I suspect all will have taken it by the time they leave Kaltag. There's also a mandatory 8-hour rest that's usually required somewhere along the Yukon. As all but 35 miles of the upcoming 329 miles along the Southern Route loop are on the Yukon, I presume the teams will have to take their mandatory 8 somewhere along that long stretch.
As previously noted in a previous post, the Yukon is swept by strong winds which can wipe out the trail and drop the windchill below −100 °F, and the uniformity of this long stretch can cause sleep deprivation and even hallucinations (watch out for the Yetis and zombie moose, y'all!).
The Yukon River has separated the Iditarod teams like organic molecules passing through a gas chromatograph - Jessie Holmes has arrived at Kaltag, the last Yukon checkpoint, while two other teams (Mike Parker and Quince Mountain) have yet to arrive at Ruby, the first Yukon checkpoint, 137 miles back. Holmes will take his mandatory 24-hour rest at Kaltag before moving on.
Four teams (Nick Petit, Michelle Phillips, Mitch Seavey, and Travis Beals) have arrived at Nulato, the Yukon checkpoint before Kaltag, with Petit blowing right through with only a 44-minute pit stop. Seavey, at least, is taking his mandatory 24 at Nulato.
Paige Drobney, yesterday's leader, has pulled out of Galena, the second Yukon checkpoint, after her mandatory 24; only two other teams have taken their break so far and none ahead of her, giving her a distinct advantage at 7th place.
But, and here's the exciting news, rookie Emily Ford pulled out of Galena four hours before Drobney and is currently in 6th place, ahead of veterans Matt Hall (8th), Ryan Redington (9th) and Mille Porsild (10th), who are still in Galena along with eight other teams. Ford will probably time her 24 along with the other leaders to not give up much ground in the race.
Six teams have pulled out of Ruby and are en route to Galena, five more teams are still in Ruby, and as mentioned above, the last two are still heading toward Ruby. That's over 250 miles between the leader, Jessie Holmes, and Quince Mountain. Rookie Charmayne Morrison scratched back at Tanana before starting the run along the Yukon.
Typically, after Kaltag, the last Yukon River checkpoint, the trail drops down the Kaltag portage to the Bering Sea. But because of this year's improvised route, the teams will instead head south after Kaltag and run the traditional Southern Route in reverse - Kaltag to Eagle Island to Grayling to Anvik to Shageluk - and then back to Kaltag again, a 329-mile loop. This puts the half-way point of the race somewhere between Eagle Island and Grayling on the first passthrough. Ironically, this being the 100th anniversary of the Iditarod, the loop stops one checkpoint short of the town of Iditarod itself.
The temperatures continue to be unseasonably warm for this time of year in Alaska. The trail is still slushy in places and bare in others. The daytime heat is also affecting the dogs, not used to the warmth, and some teams are choosing to get most of their mileage in at night. Mille Porsild, for one, is taking her mandatory 24 at Galena today in hopes of moving on after the daytime temps return to normal tomorrow.
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Tatum's back, but Porzingis and Holiday are still out and Brown, Horford, and Hauser sat this on out, too. Still, the banged-up Celtics were able to beat the short-handed Sixers (no Maxey, Embiid or George) by 18 points. Tatum dropped 35 points, and Pritchard and White, while not at the same level as last night's masterpiece, still scored 19 and 12 points, which ain't half bad.
BU's Cole Eiserman scores a hat trick - one goal on a power play and two at even strength -Brandon Svoboda scores twice, and Cole Hutson, Jack Hughes, and Ryan Greene each score a goal as well as the No.10-ranked BU Terriers upset No. 6 Providence, 8-2. Mikhail Yegorov made 34 saves before being relieved by Billy Girard, who added four more saves. Each allowed one goal.
A mighty effort and a team statement as the team near the end of the regular season and the Hockey East tournament.
Despite their lower ranking, BU is in third place in Hockey East play with 43 points (13-8-2) while Providene is fifth with 36 points (10-8-5). BU is now 19-12-2 overall, with one game left this season against Vermont (11-19-3) on Saturday night.
Paige Drobny was the first to arrive at Ruby last night and also the first to leave, despite a 3½ hour rest. Matt Hall, Jessie Holmes, Michelle Phillips and Ryan Redington (in that order) have also pulled out of Ruby and are heading down the Yukon toward Galena.
In all, twelve teams have arrived at Ruby as of 5:15 am Alaska time, including Mille Porsild and her busted sled. No rookies have arrived at Ruby yet, but Emily Ford was the first rookie to leave Tenana checkpoint and is listed as 14th on the leaderboard. Emily is the only non-indigenous person of color in this year's race and said she wants "to continue to represent black people in cold places. . . (w)ith an understanding and drive to show that anyone can adventure and everyone deserves to discover the outdoors, regardless of race, gender identity, or upbringing." We liberal progressive geeks here at Sweat Dissolves Water are keeping an eye on Emily's progress and wish her success and safe passage on the Iditarod course.
The race is now on the traditional Iditarod trail, although the Northern Route normally used on even-numbered years. Reports continue to indicate wet, slushy conditions along sections of the trail due to the warm (by Alaska standards) temperatures.
The next checkpoint is Galena, 50 miles down the Yukon from Ruby. Galena (population 472) gets its name from nearby lead mines that opened in 1918-1919. Galena also hosts a former USAF airfield, now a public state-owned and -operated airport that accommodates daily air traffic from Fairbanks and Anchorage. Galena is the hub for smaller central Alaskan communities who depend on Galena’s capacity to deliver health, education, cultural, social, and other services and conveniences.
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The Celtics played tonight without Tatum, Porzingis, or Holiday, but still managed to beat the Portland Trailblazers by ten. Payton Pritchard and Derrick White exploded for 43 and 41 points, respectively, and 10-16 and 9-17 three-point shooting. Pritchard's 10 rebounds also gave him a double double.
No question the Celts need their three big men back and soon, but it's nice to have the kind of depth that White and Pritchard provide.
The Sixers (21-40) come to the Garden for a game tomorrow night.
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Meanwhile, the Northeastern Huskies beat the UConn Huskies, 3-1, tonight, so the Hockey East championship game will be BU versus Northeastern, a rematch of the Beanpot championship game, on Saturday, March 8, at 12:00 noon. Northeastern won that Beanpot game, 4-1, so the Hockey East title game will be a chance for the Terriers to avenge their loss.
Go, Terriers!
Whatever advantage or disadvantage this year's novel starting point in Fairbanks offers will soon come to an end as the racers set out along the Yukon. This year, the teams didn't have to pass through the "moose alley" between Yentna Station and Skwentna, or cross over the Alaska Range before reaching the Yukon. Theoretically, this could favor rookie teams and downplay the experienced musher's advantage; alternately, it could reduce "surprises" like a random moose attack or a high-altitude snowstorm.
So far, the route has generally followed the Tenana River, but the Tenana checkpoint is where the river meets the Yukon. The stretch between the Tenana and Ruby checkpoints is the longest (117 miles) in this year's race, and the lead teams are currently on this long stretch. At Ruby, this year's route joins the Iditarod's traditional northern route.
Although Jason Mackey was the first musher to arrive at the earlier Manley checkpoint (mile 137), Ryan Reddington, the 2023 champion, was the first to leave. But Mackey passed Reddington somewhere along the 65 miles between Manley and Tenana and was the first to arrive at the latter checkpoint. Mackey and Reddington both spent around three hours at Tenana resting and caring for their dogs, and Canadian Michelle Philips was the first to set out from Tenana and is currently in the lead en route to Ruby.
After Phillips, Denmark's Mille Porsild is in second place, followed by Jessie Holmes, Matt Hall, Paige Drobney, Bailey Vitello, Mackey, and Reddington. Brenda Mackey, Jason's niece, is near the center of the pack in 15th place.
In all, as of 8:00 am Alaska time, 16 teams have left Tenana, seven teams are still at the checkpoint, and ten teams, all rookies, are still on the stretch between Manley and Tenana. Brenda Mackey and Emily Ford are the only rookies so far who've left Tenana for Ruby.
The 117-mile run along the Yukon to Ruby will be the biggest challenge so far. The Yukon is swept by strong winds which can wipe out the trail and drop the windchill to below −100° F, although the current forecast for Ruby is a relatively mild 24 to 33° F and winds of only about 5 to 15 mph.
The uniformity of this long stretch can also be a hazard; suffering from sleep deprivation, some mushers have reported hallucinations. Dog-sled teams travel around 5 mph, so it will take them nearly 24 hours to reach Ruby from Tenana. But as no team can go 24 hours without rest, the mushers will have to bivouac along the trail and care and feed their dogs in the wild, not to mention taking care of their own needs and bodily maintenance, and the time between the checkpoints will be much longer than 24 hours.
I wish all of the teams, both human and canine alike, safe passage to Ruby.
Update: According to race updates on social media, the run from Manley to Tanana was challenging, some even saying it was the worst they had seen. There was even a reported sand storm around Squaw Point, about 11 miles from Tanana.
Mille Porsild's team reports that her sled got busted and needs to be replaced. Her team returned to Willow for their spare sled and drove it back to Fairbanks on a truck. Wright Air Services then volunteered to re-route a flight to Ruby to bring the sled to the Ruby checkpoint. The spare is there now, waiting for Mille to complete the long stretch between checkpoints. Her team reports that she is currently resting at mile 266, about 53 miles from Ruby.
Update 2: Brenda Mackey scratched at 4:35 this afternoon at the Tenana checkpoint. Her dogs were all in good health, so the reason for her scratch is not immediately clear.
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