Day 7: Deep Freeze
Sunlight through the trees (photo: Zach Pavlik)
It’s been cold, especially overnight, and there has been a full house at Bear Creek Cabin and Rohn. This morning at Rohn, the wind chill was recorded at -70°F, with an air temperature of -35°F and a wind speed of 23 mph. Given these intense conditions (even for ITI standards), athletes need extra rest and may be reluctant to head out and into the elements. At this point, it’s a mind game as well as a physical one that racers must battle. The body and its central governor want to protect us from danger and injury, and overriding those strong signals to stop is incredibly difficult. At the same time, cold-related injuries are a real threat on the course this year. Some racers have been affected by cold injuries or other cold-related impacts, while others have scratched to avoid the risk of cold injury.
Tracie Currie (Fairbanks, Alaska; 350 ski) was one athlete who made the prudent decision to drop today. Tracie is the women’s record holder and defending champion for the 350 ski. She is also an amazing human and an inspiration to us all, and we very much hope to see her back soon.
Jay Petervary has been the only of the 1,000 mi bikers to have left McGrath so far, and he has made it 19 miles to the next village of Takotna. Takotna is the last inhabited village before the 170-mile stretch to Ruby. Because this 170-mile stretch between villages is uninhabited and runs through ghost towns and historic mining districts, the trail does not have regular snowmachine traffic. At this time it is unclear (to the WWW authors anyway) if there has been any snowmachine traffic there since the Iron Dog race passed through the trail there a couple of weeks ago. In the past week, the area received a foot of snow, and the sense among the racers is that there may be feet of unpacked snow. Any travel through this area is expected to be exceptionally slow and challenging, and it remains to be seen whether the route is passable by the racers.
Meanwhile, the women’s 350-mile foot leader, Ellen Humberston, is within two miles of Nikolai (mi 259) and has been moving steadily all day through exceptionally tough conditions. She has a huge lead on the rest of the women’s field. Ellen, an ITI rookie, but no stranger to winter ultra-endurance races, stated in her pre-race survey, “I crave the all encompassing nature of an adventure like this (and other winter ultras) - where life gets pretty damn simple and you only focus on staying warm, eating/drinking, maybe moving forward, and appreciating the incredible beauty of the world around us. As a human, I can get caught up in a lot of dumb drama, and winter adventures give me a new perspective.” We imagine that she is getting exactly the experience she hoped for on the Iditarod trail. As for the rest of the women’s field, Sunny Stroeer is the second female at mile 217, Gillian Smith is in third at mile 210, and Carol Seppilu is at mile 198.
Scott Hoberg (Duluth, Minnesota) is leading the men’s 350-mile foot race and is just four miles away from the finish line in McGrath; three miles behind him is Gavan Hennigan (Ireland), who continues to lead the men’s 1,000-mile foot race.
Kendall Park and Mayella Krause (1,000 bike) are still resting in Rohn. Word is that they are considering a midnight departure. It can be difficult to find the trail out of Rohn, so most racers try to leave in daylight. An athlete must constantly weigh the pros and cons of getting adequate rest versus departing at an optimal time of day at these checkpoints, especially when they may not reach another warm place to rest for several days.
Congrats to race finishers since yesterday’s update -
350 ski - Tucker Costain (Fairbanks, Alaska), who arrived last night for the WIN on skis!
350 bike - Pavel Machacek (Czech Republic)
Now that the 150-mile race has concluded, we’d like to share sponsors, brands, or people that the racers in that distance want to thank for getting them out there:
Dave Walker: My wife, Gussie, has been so supportive. I can't thank her enough. Thanks also to my friend, Brian, for traveling to Alaska with me and accompanying me on my reconnaissance of a good route to the first checkpoint.
Jen Novobilski: My run group for being patient while I practiced lighting my stove on every weekend long run!
Jim Ryan: I owe my slippery slope into winter ultras to my friend Chris Ragsdale. Thanks Chris…I think.
For some racers, this is a vacation (or to be fair, at least it is how they choose to spend their vacation time from work), but for others, they have made this race about something much bigger than themselves. Given that Ryan Haug (Fargo, North Dakota, bike, 350, finished on Thursday evening) is in Alaska and on a part of the Iditarod trail, he thought it would be a good time to do a fundraiser for Homeward Animal Shelter in the spirit of the famous sled dog race! The staff and volunteers there work tirelessly to ensure the animals are cared for and find their forever homes. Please consider donating at https://www.homewardonline.org/welcome.html.
Stay tuned for more updates and stories from the trail!
Written by Madeline Harms, 7:25 PM AKST
Thanks to Wild Winter Women - Allison Carolan, Amanda Harvey, Faye Norby, Jan Redmond Walker, Jessica Roschlan, Kari Anne Gibbons, Laura Wiesmann Hrubes, Leah Gruhn, Lynn Hall, Rashelle Hintz, Rebecca McVay-Brodersen, and Sarah Bergstrom.