Rough conditions slow Iditarod racers

EAGLE ISLAND, Alaska – Iditarod mushers drove their teams into a brutally cold wind Saturday on the Yukon River before finding shelter in this checkpoint of a few tents along a frozen slough 421 miles from the finish at Nome.

For four-time champion Martin Buser of Big Lake, who was leading the race, his rest was likely cut short when defending champion and four-time winner Jeff King of Denali Park pulled the snow brake on his sled and left the Eagle Island checkpoint after resting his team just five hours after a more than nine-hour run.

Buser left 5 minutes later, after resting his team 6 1/2 hours.

“Anybody who tries to make a move on this stretch of trail right now is asking for disaster,” said Lance Mackey of Fairbanks, who has held the lead in the 1,100-mile race but did not try to catch Buser and King. “It just takes the morale right out of them,” he said, referring to the dogs.

Mackey arrived at Eagle Island about the same time as Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof. Mackey said he followed King and Buser into the checkpoint and didn’t mind a bit.

“Breaking trail in that wind, it works on your leaders after a while,” Mackey said. “They’re out front and that don’t mean nothing.”

Temperatures at Eagle Island were hovering around zero degrees, but it was the wind gusting to 40 mph that were made for another miserable day on the Iditarod trail.

Gebhardt wore a snowmobile helmet to protect from the wind and cold along the Yukon. He didn’t realize a small section of skin was exposed. He pulled down his fleece around his face to reveal a crescent of raised skin that was frostbitten.

“It was cold,” Gebhardt said.

Gebhardt, also suffering from a bad cold, said his team had slowed down going 80 miles into the wind on the river. Ramy Brooks of Healy, who was sixth into Eagle Island, said his team did the same thing.

“They’re solid. They’re just not fast anymore,” Brooks said. “I just got to run them real conservatively. I ain’t going to push them.”

“If they had some speed, we’d be doing really good,” Gebhardt said, of his team. “We didn’t gain anything on them (Buser and King) coming here.”

Brooks said he didn’t think Buser and King were pushing the pace of the race. They were in the lead because their teams were peaking at the right time.

“They have teams that are coming together,” he said.

Brooks said when that happens it’s like, “You’re flying and there is magic to it … You can tell when they come together. You can feel the power surging in the team.”

Zack Steer, 33, of Sheep Mountain, who scratched in 2005 and is competing in just his fourth Iditarod, was fifth into Eagle Island. He wasn’t surprised how well his dogs are doing this year. “I think others are surprised,” he said.

Steer said he’s got a good dog team and he’s proud of their performance. He also acknowledged that it is pretty exciting to be up near the front with the likes of King and Buser.

“It is exciting in the Iditarod to hang with them,” he said.

Eighty-two mushers started the race last Sunday. Nineteen have scratched. The winner is expected to reach Nome on Tuesday or later.