Iditarod: The Further Adventures of Holmes and Drobney on the Yukon

 

Jessie Holmes has about a two-hour lead on Paige Drobney. Both have completed their mandatory Yukon 8-hour rest back in Ruby (mile 495), and both pulled out of Galena (mile 545) late last night. I was kind of surprised that Drobney chose to take her break when she did, rather than shoot ahead of Holmes when she had the chance to take the lead and put pressure on Holmes to catch back up. Shows what I know about mushing strategy. 

Riley Dyche, Travis Beals, and Wade Marrs pulled out of Galena after the leaders, but neither have completed their Yukon 8's yet. Mille Porsild, who has taken her mandatory rest, has been in Galena for about 4½ hours as of 6:00 am Alaska time, but will probably leave soon. 

Six other teams (Michelle Phillips, Peter Kaiser, Jeff Deeter, Matt Hall, Jessie Royer, and Ryan Redington) are also in Galena. Ryan's the only one of those six to have taken his Yukon 8, so strategically he's in fourth place behind Jessie, Paige, and Mille. Phillips, Kaiser, and Deeter have been in Galena for a little over four hours now, so it's hard to tell yet if they're on their Yukon 8's or just resting up before their next push, like Mille.

It's currently -6° F in Ruby, but expected to "warm" up to 7° today. Surprisingly, that's considered "too warm" for some of the teams, and some have said that the trail prior to Ruby was slow because it was so warm out. Generally, they seem to prefer to rest in the "heat" of the day and do their running during the long, cold nights. Or maybe it's better to run and keep warm during the coldest hours of the night. In any event, teams arriving at Galena now at the start of the day might choose to take their break there during the day, and start again in eight hours as the temperatures start dropping again.

Rounding out the field, four teams have left Ruby, seven more are still in Ruby, and the last ten have left Cripple (mile 425). There still has been only one scratch so far.

There are two more checkpoints ahead on the Yukon - Nulato (mile 582) and Kaltag (mile 629). After Kaltag, the trail leaves the Yukon and drops through the Kaltag Portage down to Unalakleet (mile 714) on the shore of the Bering Sea. 

One final note: billionaire "expedition class" racers Kjell Rokke and Thomas Waerner, who aren't required to take mandatory rests and can get unlimited assistance, including fresh sled dogs, are way ahead of the field and have already left Kaltag. Meanwhile, the third "expedition" racer, Steve Curtis, is still all the way back in McGrath (mile 311). This puts the vets and checkpoint assistants at unnecessary risk, as they have to be at the often remote and inhospitable checkpoints ahead of Rokke and Waerner and then wait around long enough for Curtis to eventually make his leisurely appearance. Curtis should scratch now, IMHO, even if he's having the time of his life and "paid for" the privilege, for the sake of the health and safety of the volunteers.