Pete and the Team were into Rainy Pass at 12:38pm. They will probably take a break here before heading out. Weather conditions are fair, far better than I imagined as we had a blizzard this morning and it continues at this moment. It is improving though and the warnings appear to be cancelling. That’s good news as I was fearing for a storm run into the Alaska Range and that wouldn’t be much fun!
Rainy Pass Checkpoint
Good Morning Race Fans!
It looks like Race Strategies are definitely at play. Pete and several other teams were in and out of Skwentna with no rest which means they are on a rest – run schedule already this early in the race.
Pete and Team Kaiser were into Skwentna this morning at 01:14:00 with 16 dogs. He quickly was out at 01:18:00.
GPS now shows him just into Finger Lake and only a couple of miles behind the leader Ray Redington.
Mushers are pretty picky about their run – rest schedule and in some ways many see that as their secret weapon. They learn little things about the team and find that over stressing dogs too early doesn’t help the effort.
It looks like several teams are resting in Finger Lake. The standings may not show it as teams do not have to actually check in to rest. They may stop and rest the dogs and then check in and out as they leave the checkpoint AFTER the rest.
A slew of teams are into Skwentna, but there are more than a few holed up on river bends before the checkpoint. You have to think that strategy is already a play as big names like Baker, Kaiser, and Seavey are taking their breaks before the Skwentna checkpoint. This is where experience comes into play. A rookie just doesn’t know, but after a couple of Iditarods you have quite a bunch of time to think out what might be a winning strategy. Tomorrow morning will give us a better picture of what is playing out here. The battle of dogs, men, and brains has just begun!
Stay tuned!
Check out the Kaiser Super Dogs in Mushing Magazine!
