Getting to Nome the easy way

[Blue_In_AK]

Here are a few shots from the air which will give you kind of an idea of the terrain that the mushers and their teams are dealing with along the trail.







The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta


These little serpentine rivers looked like script handwriting from the air.


The mighty Yukon making its way to the sea


Norton Sound


Approaching Nome, which sits right on the banks of the Bering Sea



For some perspective, this is the Iditarod trail map. This shows the restart in Wasilla, but in recent years the restart has been moved to Willow, a few miles to the north where there is more snow and less population. This year the teams took the southern route. The mushers are required to take one 24-hour layover wherever they like, one eight-hour layover at any checkpoint along the Yukon and a final mandatory eight-hour layover at White Mountain. From there, it is approximately 77 miles into Nome, a 10-hour (more or less) run. Whenever we got word that someone was in Safety, we could assume they would be in town in about three hours.

There are 26 checkpoints along the trail where each team is thoroughly checked by the 41 veterinarians who monitor the race.




Wikipedia has a pretty good overview of the race here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_Sled_Dog_Race

[tekisui]

1. Wow.

What an impressive venture. My heart is racing just thinking of those taking part. Thanks for the shots. They are majestic.

[NV Whino]

2. Thanks for the map

(not to mention the photos) it gives you a good idea about the race.

[Tindalos]

3. I love aerial shots of geological features.

The scientist in me is sitting here fascinated by the cirques, oxbows, and remnants of old river beds. That would be difficult terrain even in the best of situations and it sounds like conditions were far from ideal. The competitors and their teams have my full respect. They had it before , but I'll gladly say it again. Total respect.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. It was a very, very tough race this year.

The Norwegian, Bjornar Andersen, who probably could have given Lance a run for his money, had a serious wipeout early on in the race and suffered internal injuries bad enough that he was vomiting and peeing blood. A few mushers had to be rescued, and even the old veterans had to hole up in Shaktoolik because of the extreme blizzard conditions. Six dogs succumbed to the conditions, which is always very sad. One of the female mushers saved her lead dog by taking him in the sled with her and laying her body over his until the next checkpoint where she dropped out of the race rather than continue on without him, even though her other dogs were still strong. One musher, David Sawatzky, had to scratch just six miles outside of Nome because his dogs decided they weren't going to go any further. They were all fine, in good health, they just drew their line in the snow, so to speak. Here and no further. You really can't make them go if they don't want to go.

People's stories were just amazing.

And the dogs are phenomenal. They come bouncing down Front Street like they could go another thousand miles. And they have such sweet dispositions. All the little kids would come into the chute at the end of the race and hug on the dogs, scratch their ears, and the dogs were licking them in the face, rolling over on their backs. It's so obvious how well they're trained and how much they're cared for. They're very special creatures.

[Tindalos]

5. That does sound very difficult

It must have been extremely hard this year, given those conditions. I know how much the dogs like to run. They'd keep going forever if they could and it can't be an easy decision to drop out of the race. It's sad there were so many injuries and deaths. That must take a toll on the whole team (humans and dogs).

[janx]

6. Breathtaking aerial shots!

You should send them to Mushing Magazine!