3-8-2010 9:18pm

(Update) The GPS Tracker has him out of Rainy Pass about 5 miles towards Rohn. [It has been wrong before!]
The front runners are into Rohn, Averaging 4 hours for the journey.

Pete has his work cut out for him tonight. The famous Dalzelle Gorge-

-From Wikipedia
From Rainy Pass, the route continues up the mountain, past the tree line to the divide of the Alaska Range, and then passes down into the Alaska Interior. The elevation of the pass is 3,200 feet (980 m), and some nearby peaks exceed 5,000 feet (1,500 m). The valley up the mountains is exposed to blizzards. In 1974, there were several cases of frostbite when the temperature dropped to ?50 °F (?45.6 °C), and the 50-mile-per-hour (80 km/h) winds caused the wind chill to drop to ?130 °F (?90.0 °C). The wind also erases the trail and markers, making the path hard to follow. In 1976, retired colonel Norman Vaughan, who drove a dog team in Richard E. Byrd’s 1928 expedition to the South Pole and competed in the only Olympic sled dog race, became lost for five days after leaving Rainy Pass and nearly died.

The trail down Dalzell Gorge from the divide is regarded as the worst stretch of the trail. Steep and straight, it drops 1,000 feet (300 m) in elevation in just 5 miles (8.0 km), and there is little traction so the teams are hard to control. Mushers have to ride the brake most of the way down and use a snow hook for traction. In 1988, rookie Peryll Kyzer fell through an ice bridge into a creek and spent the night wet. The route then follows Tatina River, which is also hazardous: in 1986 Butcher’s lead dogs fell through the ice but landed on a second layer of ice instead of falling into the river. In 1997, Ramey Smyth lost the end of his pinkie when it hit an overhanging branch while negotiating the gorge.

I just got off the phone with Myron Angstman, an Iditarod veteran. He told me that the tricky part is about 5-6 miles at a pretty good grade downhill. “It all depends on how the trail is put in,” he said. Sometimes the snow can be crusty on top and musher can end up dropping through the crust into powder. He related how one time he dropped a couple of feet through to about 6 inches of water underneath while the dogs were raring to go down that hill. Apparently it is pretty narrow and there really are only a couple of ways through it. He also said that it can be a bit of a traffic jam as teams go through.

Rainy Pass to Rohn Description

Where’s Pete Page

Dalzell Gorge Entrance

Pete made it into Rainy Pass at 5:36 pm. He made it from the Finger Lake Checkpoint in 4 hours. The next stretch of the trail can be a bit treacherous, so I imagine he may take a break here. The trail has been pretty soft according to Iditarod reports. Weather shows a band of precipitation overtaking the mushers.

According to Bruce Lee, Iditarod’s reporter, “It’s snowing hard enough that the aircraft is grounded here at Finger Lake but the teams are still moving up the trail. Most mushers reported soft trail conditions that slowed their planned travel time here and threw a few mushers off their game plan. Some rested at Finger Lake when their original plan was to go further up the trail before resting. For the mushers towards the back of the field, the trail conditions seem no worse or better than the lead pack’s.”

Pete was the 34th musher to reach Rainy Pass. The Iditarod site will show mushers ahead or behind based on when they leave a checkpoint. Arrivals are more important as they tell how a musher is doing. 34th is GREAT!! That means he has moved forward in the standings and is doing a very nice job. He was the 5th of 20 rookies to arrive.

Way to GO!!!

Pete was in and out of Finger Lake at 13:33 this afternoon. No dropped dogs and on his way to Rainy Pass.

Presently it looks like he is about 6-7 miles from Rainy Pass checkpoint. Rainy is the white dot on the left of the image.

Rainy Pass Checkpoint

Pete made it into Skwentna early this morning at 3:17am. He arrived right after another local musher, Mike Williams Jr. They are both back on the trail onward to Finger Lake. Iditarod doesn’t have his out time at Yentna, so we don’t have any statistics for this stretch of the trail. Weather conditions presently at that section of the trail are 7 degrees and light snow.

Pete Kaiser- IN- 03:17am OUT- 03:24am DOGS- 16

Iditarod Tracker shows him about 10 miles out of the Skwentna checkpoint. Skwentna is mile 194 (The mileages are a bit skewed because they count race miles from Anchorage)  It is 86 miles from the Willow restart. Finger Lake is 30 miles from Skwentna.

Skwentna Checkpoint in the Daylight

Finger Lake Checkpoint

Pete made it to Yentna at 8:15pm. His time over the stretch was 4 hours 5 minutes at an average of right at 11mph.

The Willow to Yentna stretch is 52 Miles. (About the same as the Bethel to Tuluksak Run on the Kuskokwim 300)

Next Checkpoint is Skwentna- 34 Miles.
After that will be Finger Lake (45 Miles) and Rainy Pass (30 Miles). 109 miles for the next stretch for tonight.

At his Average speed of about 11mph which may slow a bit, I anticipate him into Rainy Pass around lunch tomorrow.
(Just in time for a burger???) In any case Luck to Peter for the evening and safe travels. Weather looks just beautiful for a night run. 14 degrees and clear visibility with light winds.

It looks like he is taking a little break at Yentna. Give the dogs a bit of a snack and get one himself. Onward Mr. Kaiser!

Trail Descriptions-
Yentna to Skwentna
Skwentna to Finger Lake
Finger Lake to Rainy Pass

The trail that Pete is on right now is on the Yentna River. He is approaching the Yentna Checkpoint, approximately 40 miles from the Starting Line. The fastest time from Willow to Yentna so far has been 3:20 by Jim Lanier. Yentna is the white dot on the picture below. Pete is #67