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Teams Spread Out Over the Alaska Range

Many will experience the most treacherous portions of the trail tonight

by Andy Moderow

03/06/2006

As the sun set on the first full day of Iditarod XXXIV, teams were spread across more than 100 miles of the trail. Frontrunners in the race experienced many different types of terrain and fanfare during the first 24 hours of the Iditarod: Starting in a chute lined with cheering people on Willow Lake, the teams then traveled up the Yentna river, where they trotted by numerous campfires at dusk, maintained by revelers out to catch one last glimpse of the teams before the trail took them up into the heart of the Alaska Range. Next, the trail left the Yentna River and climbed to Rainy Pass, gaining 3700 feet in elevation. From the Rainy Pass checkpoint, the trail heads down into the Interior of Alaska, where entirely different weather systems, and challenges, await the mushers.

As of Monday night, many of the teams had already signed in and out of the first three checkpoints of Iditarod XXXIV. Yentna Station and Skwentna, both bustling centers of activity the night before, were silent 24 hours later, with the volunteers who helped the night before exhausted from all the action. The third checkpoint on the trail, Finger Lake, was still awaiting the arrival of several mushers when night came Monday, but a majority of the racers had left the checkpoint. The trail to Rainy Pass, the fourth checkpoint on the race, includes the ‘Happy River Steps’, a series of small drop offs that have broken many dogsleds over the years, forcing mushers to stop and make temporary sled repairs. The Rainy Pass checkpoint, above tree line and deep within the Alaska Range, had yet to see most of the race field Monday, but musher Ramey Smyth had already signed out and left, while his competitors rested. From Rainy Pass, the teams lose much of their recent elevation gain, as they careen down a narrow mountain valley and through the treacherous Dalzell Gorge.

On the minds of many mushers during their descent of the Alaska Range will be the recent loss of a great friend of Iditarod: Just two and a half weeks before the race began an avalanche claimed the life of a long time Iditarod supporter, Richard Strick Jr, as he traveled the Iditarod trail from Rohn to Rainy Pass. A resident of McGrath, Richard Strick Jr. had set out to blaze the trail to Rainy Pass, which must be put in each year for the Iditarod. The race depends on the help of many individuals, and this tragic accident will surely be on the minds of each musher as they head towards Rohn.