Four Mushers In Tight Pack; Iditarod Down To 400 Miles

The Iditarod’s four top mushers left Nulato in a dense pack Saturday afternoon. Just 2 minutes separated the remaining contenders as they headed for Kaltag, 42 miles down the trail. Nome was just 401 trail miles away.

But the teams are getting smaller. Martin Buser, who won the race the last two times it was run on the northern route, left two dogs in Nulato to bring his team to nine.

Buser departed at 3:33 p.m., followed immediately by defending champion Doug Swingley. Swingley dropped one dog to leave the check-point with ten dogs in harness.

Jeff King, the 1993 Iditarod winner, and frequent contender Dee Dee Jonrowe left Nulato 2 minutes later. King dropped one dog at Nulato to bring his team to eleven. Jonrowe arrived and left with eleven dogs.

Tim Osmar was the only other musher within striking distance of the front four. But he had just nine dogs left in his team when he arrived in Nulato nearly 3/2 and a half hours after the leaders.

It’s unlikely for mushers further back at this point to make up the time. No musher has been more than 3 hours behind the leader this far into the race and won.

King had led Buser into Nulato with a 1-minute lead, reaching the Yukon River checkpoint at 10:12 a.m. Saturday. Buser had left Galena with a 15-minute lead over King, but lost it on the 52-mile run to Nulato.

Swingley was third into Nulato at 10:45 a.m., and Jonrowe followed 9 minutes later.

The top racers were 2 to 4 hours ahead of Buser’s 1994 record pace for the northern race route being run this year. They’re making good time on the Yukon River trail.