Iditarod Start Moved To Fairbanks, 300 Miles North; 2X In Past 3 Years Not Enough Snow In Anchorage
As the annual Iditarod sled dog race was set to begin Sunday, the starting location and parts of the route had to be changed due to "inadequate snow."
The original course would have begun in Willow, Alaska, just north of Anchorage, and wound north through the Alaska Range, ending up in Nome. This year, the race will start in farther north, in Fairbanks, avoiding much of the Alaska Range and continuing due west to Nome.
Because race officials had to move the start location, they also delayed the start time by an extra day to give the mushers more travel time (since it is nearly 300 miles farther north).
This is the second time in three years that the course has been altered. Alaska experienced record warmth in 2016, logging the warmest May the state has seen in the past 137 years.
How much snow is required to prevent having the course changed? "It depends on the type of terrain underneath the snow," said Mark Nordman, the Iditarod Race Director. If the terrain is dirt- or gravel-based, then about 6 inches of snow is needed for the race. However, once you start getting into the Alaska Range where the terrain is more mountainous and rocky, then racers need at least 3 feet of snow, Nordman said.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/05/us/weather-iditarod-race-moved-north/index.html
