2011 Winter Mushing Competition

[PinkPenguin]

:blob: Wattie left White Mountain an hour ago at 3:42 in the morning. He should make Nome in approximately 10 hours so just in time for late lunch... or, if you are running GMT, a midnight snack!

He's a couple of hours behind Johnson and Carter and just under two hours ahead of Savidis. Wind seams to be a major problem on this stretch as Swenson observed and Hendrickson experienced on the sea ice near Golovin When she was rescued and towed into White Mountain by Allen Moore after her team went round in circles and stalled.

Looks like this is a year for records as Jay Petervary cycled into Nome on the 16th making a new record for the same trip by bike (17d 6h)... for an out of the way part of the world seems to be a fair bit of traffic and it's not even the tourist season.

...update later tonight when Wattie comes in to Nome, hopefully before midnight. :)

[PinkPenguin]

:blob: Wattie left Safety just over half an hour ago on the last leg of his journey. He should arrive in Nome in between 2 and 2 and half hours' time. Wind has picked up around Nome and is now averaging 21mph.

Carter and Johnson have already arrived so 36th is his most likely place as he is still ahead of Savidis.

[PinkPenguin]

Wattie came into Nome at 2 pm in 36th place. Total time 11d 23h 1m 33s just over 4 hours better than his 2010 trail which he finished in 45th place. He kept his team together from the Yukon to Nome pacing it evenly and taking good care of the dogs after the problems he encountered in the early stages... no mean achievement. So, congratulations Wattie, on your second complete Iditarod!
:wav:

CONGRATULATIONS JOHNN !
Well done to an officer and a gentleman, if my reading of the avatar is correct ("semper fidelis"). A fine guess for the time and a bullseys on Wattie's place.... Which, as Harry Seagoon might say, earns you a bag of spondooliks for the closest time and another bag of spondooliks for Wattie's place bang on the nail - naturally this will be converted into a single Amazon.com voucher at the local greenback exchange.... all the best johnn and please PM me with an e-Mail to which I can forward said voucher.
:wav:

Current Entries:
johnn 9d 3hr 11min 00s - 36th
Megacruncher 9d 5hr 30m 17s - 37th
Aardvark 9d 8hr 45m 34s - 35th
MacDitch 9d 12hr 20min 00s - 43rd
Reeltime 9d 15hr 30min 30s - 47th
PinkPenguin 10d 2hr 40m 35s - 31st
Captinkid 11d 23hr 31m 14s - 25th

Well, it looks like my fiendishly ingenious idea of splitting the prize over two objectives was foiled by a most devishly intelligent bit of foresight!

... the race is almost over and the wind is picking up. I gather they will have a big shindig up in Nome on Sunday so anyone who wants a shot should get his booties on and head on over. Personally I find all this armchair sport quite exhausting so I am using the dog as a foot warmer and quietly nodding off in front of the toaster... All the best to all. This is RFK (Radio Frozen Kipper) signing out!

... well, not quite, there'll be a brief sputter when the Red Lantern comes in to close the trail. Wouldn't feel right if I didn't after all the nattering I've been doing so far.

[johnn]

Glad I signed up for this one, still haven't quite gotten over it.

:salute:

Thanks Pink...and as Tony Robbins might say... "beliefs have the power to create". Not to mislead anyone, the best I could do was corporal.

[PinkPenguin]

The Red Lantern came in out of the mist and snow about half an hour ago and five days after the leader. If the leader made a new record so did Ellen Halverson, the last musher into Nome, she is the only person to have closed the trail twice....

This Trail has had it's adventures like DeeDee Jonrowe finding herself trapped under the sled on overflow ice and spending the next 100 miles defrosting and drying herself out...

In case any of you like stories it's worth reading and viewing Susan Butcher's interview at http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/but0int-1. She won Iditarod 4 times in the '80s and gives a good account of what it is all about. Here's an extract:

In one race, Joe Garnie and I were neck and neck -- we often are -- and traveling along in the northern arctic, up by Nome. The arctic tree line well below us. There are absolutely no trees up there. Well, I was in the lead and we got off the trail. I went up to the front of my team, and we were in a thick forest, and I had to lead my dogs through this forest. Joe came up behind me and said, "What are you doing?" and I said, "Well, I'm leading the team through these trees back to the trail." He said, "Susan, there are no trees here." And I said, "I know, but I can't make them go away." And he said, "Neither can I." We both were seeing the same trees. We could not make our minds get rid of them and make a straight line to the trail. We wove our way through these trees back to the trail.

[aardvark]

Congratulations Johnn, you should have had £20 on at the bookies, bet you would have gotten good odds