Iditarod: Holmes and Drobney on the Yukon

 

Jessie Holmes and Paige Drobney have both reached Ruby (mile 495), the first checkpoint on the Yukon River. Holmes is in the lead, arriving at Ruby a little over two hours before Drobney. Paige had left Cripple (mile 425) some 2½ hours before Jessie, but Holmes, who had taken a 5-hour rest at Cripple, still arrived at Ruby sooner that Paige, who had blown through Cripple with only a 16-minute break. One assumes that Drobney must have rested somewhere along the trail between the two checkpoints, and Jessie had passed her enroute. 

Both are currently resting in Ruby while 14 other teams have left Cripple and are presently enroute to Ruby.

The race looks like it will come down to a showdown between 2025 champion Holmes and contender Drobney. Both still have nearly-full teams of dogs (Holmes 15 and Drobney 14) and the win may come down to time/rest management and strategy more than speed and power. At this point, I'm pulling for Team Squid - nothing against Holmes, but he's had his championship and Drobney has been a close contender for years now and is due her win.    

After Drobney, Ryan Reddington led the next team out of Cripple. Mille Porsild and Matt Hall left about 3½ to 4 hours after Redington, and four other teams (Jeff Deeter, Riley Dyche, Travis Beals, and Michelle Phillips) about an hour or so after Hall. Six teams are still in Cripple, and the last 11 are somewhere between Ophir (mile 352) and Cripple. All teams have taken their mandatory 24-hour rests. That's pretty close for this stage of the race, and so far there's still been only one scratch.

Ruby (population 131) is a former gold-rush town on the Yukon River which became an Athabaskan village. From Ruby, the trail follows the Yukon, the longest river in Alaska, for the next 234 miles to the Kaltag checkpoint (mile 629). The stretch of trail along the river is swept by strong winds which can wipe out the trail and drop the windchill to below −100° F. It's currently -9° in Ruby, and the Accuweather forecast is for mostly sunny skies but very cold, with a low of -18° by Tuesday night. However, an even greater hazard is the uniformity of the trail along the Yukon, as the mushers, suffering at this point from sleep deprivation, have report hallucinations along this long stretch. 

With an 8-hour rest required along the Yukon, it will be interesting to see when and where Jessie and Paige choose take their breaks as they try to out-maneuver one another for the lead. As of 9:30 am Alaska time, Holmes has been at Ruby for 4½ hours - will he rest another 3½ and complete his mandatory 8? Paige, fresh off her rest on the trail, has been in Ruby for 2½ hours - will she leave there before Jessie to regain the lead and then take her mandatory later? 

You've heard of 3D chess. This is -0° chess.