Category Archives: 2019 Iditarod

Saturday of the Iditarod. Should call it second Saturday. Imagine that only 7 days ago we were in Anchorage at the Ceremonial Start! In fact, right about this time I was into my second Faceplant 🙂 🙂

As I’m sitting here, I was just thinking of the Kusko Teams. What a cool thing it is to have 5 Teams not only entered, but doing very well. We have Teams at the front, the middle, and we have Victoria bringing up the rear (And doing a GREAT job, oh, by the way!)

Four of the Kusko Teams are into or through Shageluk. Pete and Richie, our Veteran Teams are at the front racing like wild men, but we have two solid rookie Teams, Jessica and Nik, solidly in the middle. They are doing a very conservative race program, but I wondered how their times matched up to Pete and Richie.

What I found is that the times are very similar! Each of the Teams has had fast times over certain portions of the race. One thing to consider when looking at this chart is that both Pete and Richie don’t rest in checkpoints always, so that skews the numbers a bit. In any case, enjoy and be proud of these KUSKO TEAMS!

GO Kusko!!

Nic Petit moved up the trail from Eagle Island 18 miles last night. It was slow going for the musher from Girdwood. He stopped at Mile 610 at 6:30 this morning.

Pete and Joar rested their Teams at Eagle Island before leaving this morning at 7:45.

Looking at the chart in that 18 mile stretch, Pete and Joar were 43 minutes faster. That’s quite a bit for such a short distance. Many factors could be at play and I’m not going to speculate. Just look though at the speed of Joar and Pete. One factor coming to play is Team size. Joar is down to 10 dogs and Pete has 11. The new 14 dog rule makes Mushers way more careful in how they remove dogs from the Teams. Sometimes dropping dogs is a strategy we see much later in the race as it is easier to handle a smaller Team for a tired musher.

Go Team Kaiser!

All Aboard! Kaiser One is off for all points North! Kaltag next stop!

Pete has a plan and it is a bit fuzzy for me right now, but either way, he is out of Eagle Island bound for Kaltag. I am thinking that he is intending doing his 8 in Kaltag and then doing possible the portage in a single run. He has done this before.

Just out of Eagle Island, Pete left just before Joar.

Joar and Nic are the true leaders at this point, but Pete is definitely telling those Teams around him that don’t count out Team Kaiser just yet!!

Go Team Kaiser!!

Eagle Island on a Sunny Winter Day. Low hills and a small cabin. Remote but beautiful.

Good Morning Race Fans! If you are like me and saw Pete and the Team literally burning up the trail last night, it was like Christmas morning getting up this morning to come running out and see if Santa had come!

Pete and the Team were on fire last night on the trail!

After sneaking out of Grayling instead of taking his 8 hour layover, Team Kaiser blew the doors off all of the Teams running up to Eagle Island.

Get this! He was 52 minutes faster that Joar and 31 minutes faster than Nic Petit! That’s an EPIC run by any stretch of the imagination! All I could do was just say… WOW!! That’s the fastest time on that trail since 2007 when Bruce Linton did it in 6 hours 5 minutes.

So what does this do for Pete when he still has to do his 8 hours?

Taking a look at the tracker, it shows Jessie Royer camped before Eagle Island. She stopped her Team at 4:05 this morning. Pete passed that spot at 1:40, giving him a 20 minute speed advantage over her Team. So Pete is faster, but Teams that have already done their 8 hour break have the advantage of being able to leave a little earlier, rest just a little less to catch the leaders and put themselves on their interval. This is a chancy stake, but 30 minutes here and there may help a Team. Mitch Seavey, for example, did this in Iditarod to put himself in Pete’s interval.

All of the Teams are going to do what their Teams require. Jessie stopped before Eagle Island. Was it so she could sneak by or was it because it was almost exactly 6 hours since she began the run? I’d venture to guess it was a little of both.

If Pete decides Eagle Island is the place for his 8 hour, he can leave at 10:28. Nic Petit did not stop at Eagle Island and is pushing North to Kaltag. His speeds show problems though. Tough trail? It shouldn’t be a bad trail with the snowmachine crew bringing all of the supplies down from Kaltag, but on the other hand it could be a nasty soft mess with the warm temperatures. Either way, Nic’s progress isn’t as speedy as it was before Eagle Island. He is camped 18 miles upriver from Eagle Island and it took him 3 1/2 hours to make it to that point. It is definitely slow going after Eagle Island.

Richie just made it into Eagle Island just after Mitch Seavey. It looks like what is going to happen is that right around the time Pete finishes his 8 hour layover, a slew of Teams will have rested and will be ready to push ahead. I would imagine Joar leaving around 7-8 which would put him about 2-3 hours in front of Pete where he has been consistently running.

It is going to be an exciting day of racing. Weather is going to a little warm, but a cooling trend for this evening will be a welcome respite for the Teams.

What a great race we are watching! Go Team Kaiser!

As we close our day today and await the news of the morning, I leave you with our Fan Foto of the day by none other than Kaiser Racing’s youngest musher, Ari Kaiser. Drawn himself for his Dad out on the Iditarod Trail.

Go Team Kaiser! Go Dad Go!

This young man misses his Dad a bunch while he’s out on the trail and has an Iditarod career of his own to some extent. Each year he comes to Nome to watch his Dad cross the finish Line! Let’s take a look at Ari’s storied career!

Ari’s Daddy is Home

Look Ma, Another Tooth Missing

Kids having fun

Bethanny and Ari

Ari Kaiser

Young Ari grows up!

Ari and the Lucky Number

What Happened??

We’ve been sitting here all afternoon waiting for the action to get underway. Teams have been making their way into Grayling and resting up for the long run up to Eagle Island. Ryan Air came to the rescue of the Iditarod with two CASA planeloads of supplies were flown from Unalakleet. Iditarod Officials had informed Teams that there were no drop bags or anything in Eagle Island. A few calls to Boyuk and Lee and a plan was quickly arranged to save the day.

“We had a CASA from Nome in Wales. We redirected it to Unalakleet to make the loads and then sent it to Bethel to start the day fresh. It worked out for everyone, but the Mushers mostly,” said Lee Ryan. “Always glad to lend a hand to the Mushers on the Trail!”

Save the day is an understatement! Now Teams headed North know they can take a layover and have food and straw for their Teams.

Nic Petit arrived first into the Grayling checkpoint and took his Yukon 8 layover. Joar Leifseth-Ulsom, who arrived after Nic, but had already taken his layover, also took a good long break.

A few hours later, Jessie Royer, Pete, and Mitch Seavey arrived.

As night settled in Joar finally took to the trail, but an hour later Nic’s layover was complete and he headed off in pursuit.

Pete’s friends like to tease him with the Slippery Pete moniker. I’m not sure if he likes it or not, but they all give him a good back slapping hard time over it. Well tonight, Slippery Pete slipped out of Grayling, not having taken his 8 hour break and in pursuit of Joar and Nic.

I’ve been doing alot of thinking about the strategy. I’m thinking Pete is thinking that if the trail is poor, more traffic will make it worse, so his Team will have an easier time of it following just a couple of Teams. He also has been used as a pacecar for Mitch Seavey for the last 80 miles or so. This will free him from that stress and be chasing instead of leading. One last detail is that warm weather is coming and it is as cool now as it is going to get. So taking advantage of cool slick trails is far better than warmer softer ones. When he gets to Eagle Island he would have probably taken a 5 hour rest anyway, so why not rest during the day and keep it as cool as he can for our favorite Kaiser puppies!

In any case, it is a strategy we haven’t seen before! Awesome! Try something new and see if it will pay dividends!

Thanks again to one of our Prime Sponsors, Ryan Air, for coming to to the rescue of all of the Teams. You guys are, as Tony the Tiger would say, GRREEAAT!!

GO Team Kaiser!

Pete and the Team were into Grayling this afternoon at 14:43 in 4th position. They started their mandatory 8 hour break which will allow them to leave this evening.

But like a bear in the middle of a dogteam, the weather has tangled up the race supplies and mushers are looking again at minimal provisions in Eagle Island. Apparently the supplies were held up in Unalakleet by weather and were just this afternoon delivered to Kaltag. An armada of snowmachines is sledding the supplies to the checkpoint 60 miles from Kaltag and 60 miles from Grayling.

Mushers first heard of the challenges to race plans early this morning in Shageluk and Anvik.

Nic Petit started his 8 hour layover at 11:48 and can return to the trail at 7:48 this evening. The trail is apparently wet snow with the added danger of overflow. In the Bethel area overflow is caused when the tide of the ocean comes in and the ice rises slower so it will pool up on the edges of the river. Going through it is like driving through a mud puddle or small pond sometimes. On the Yukon, however, overflow is a different, more dangerous condition. The Yukon generally has quite a bit more snow than the coastal areas. Snow built up over the river ice will fill with rain water and drainage from the streams and lie under the snow. Teams can fall into the snow and it becomes like mashed potatoes. It is a messy condition that is wet and slow and tough to travel.

Joar hasn’t left at this hour and you have to wonder if he is taking an extra bit of rest to contend with this next section of the race. No one will be anxious to be the trailbreaker for sure.

Teams will be arriving that have already taken their mandatory layovers in Shageluk shortly. Richie Diehl, Ryan Redington, and Matt Failor will more than likely take a rest as well in Grayling. They will have the added advantage of short resting just a few minutes to leave with the second group.

Pete and Team Kaiser can leave at 10:43pm this evening. By that time we should have seen Teams leave on the trail North and should know how the trail is by looking at trail speed.

It’s been a bit of a dramatic day with the news of the supplies at Eagle Island. Who knows what would have happened if the planes didn’t fly. Emerie Fairbanks and some Aniak folks are in Grayling, so we should have a trail report soon.

GO Team Kaiser!

Well, no rest for the Weary!

Pete is out of Shageluk and moving fast with Mitch Seavy right on his Tail.

There is a new plan brewing and I’m not sure what it might be. Maybe an Eagle Island layover?

Well stay tuned as this isn’t over yet.

Weather is good and Pete may be thinking to get as far as he can before it gets warm!

I call Pete, “Doggie Yoda” – I wonder what he has up his sleeve!

Go Team Kaiser!