February 16, 2025
2025 Iron Dog - Day 2 Update
The combination of incredibly good visibility and incredibly poor trail conditions was the summary for Day 1. The inverse of this seems to be true for Day 2 as racers made their way toward the Yukon River where Alaska Safe Riders team member Blake Elder reported that the Yukon was incredibly smooth but cold with limited visibility.
Local resident Peter Aloysius reported -33F in the morning warming to -20 which is far less of a concern than the dense fog.
The talk of the race so far was clearly the Farewell Burn portion of the trail where teams were fighting literal zero snow conditions. Everything from coolers to skis to hyfax were problematic as teams were forced to stop and chip away at what little was available to help cool where most needed, likely triaging the worst problems and crossing their fingers for the lower priority issues.
The above photo shows a bit of what Team 45 was fighting all day yesterday and their Facebook post (embedded below) is an excellent example of the sheer amount of issues and hazards these racers face on a constant basis. Click 'see more' to read the full write up, its good.
In the realm of 'photos you never thought you'd see in the Iron Dog', below racer Kruz Kleewein of Team 5 is shown strapping a bag of ice to his sled for the upcoming section where they turn their snowmachines into ATV's for more than 50 miles after leaving Tatina yesterday.
Wes Selby, running with prior Champ Cory Davis gave this report via Facebook: 'First day went decent. We took it easy on our sleds to preserve them a bit. For a bit vision was pretty bad but otherwise normal running really. As everyone has seen the trail the afternoon part of the trail was the worst thing I can imagine riding a snowmobile through to say the least. After that back on snow and rivers here to McGrath. We'll change some skis and give em a look over and keep on moving when we go back on clock...'
Tim Gossett running with his wife Hillary for Team 26 reported that the trail from Tatina to Nikolai was: ' Insane, you’re lucky if you can stop within 50ft of a tiny snow patch off the trail. I don’t know how the Iditarod could run through 75mi of dirt. No exaggeration, just dirt, frozen dirt ruts, frozen tundra tussocks…. We pulled off on every small lake to spin our tracks and cool the sleds down to 170 or so and continue. We became worried about fuel and both our low fuel lights were on 15mi from Nikolai.'
As if there was more proof needed for how bad this trail was, Team 24 is seen doing what most others were forced to do, which was stop next to any snow they could salvage and take a cool-down session. Link to video 1 here. Link to video 2 here. It's hard to believe that the racers are going to have to go back through this section in just a few short days. The forecast for the area isn't showing any promising signs of any new snowfall on the way.
Equipment issues cropped up throughout day 1 which forced many teams to take a pause on the clock to repair, replace, or address lots of issues. Here's what we've seen so far:
Team 20 - Skis in McGrath
Team 9 - Skis in McGrath
Team 20 - Skis in McGrath
Team 9 - Skis in McGrath
Team 6 - Skis in McGrath
Team 7 - A-Arm in McGrath
Team 29 - Mentioned yesterday they had a suspension bolt break putting a hole in the heat exchanger. This was patched and the team is back on the trail.
Team 7
So far, despite all the trail carnage this year, only 3 teams have had to throw in the towel. They are:
Team 36 - 'Kevin hooked a ski under the ice and ripped a-arm of sled and cracked the frame (bulkhead). At least he didnt get hurt and hopefully we will be back next year.'
Team 47 - 'Brewington had been nursing a wrist injury that he was hoping would be healed in time to race, but instead he had to pull out of the race at the Whiskey Bravo checkpoint.' Excerpt from the Iron Dog website article about the racers and their mission that is larger than the race itself for them. Give it a read!
Team 16 - 'Lots of open water. Dani turned corner and machine fell through thin ice. She was able to pull herself onto ice shelf and out of water. I missed hole and headed to shore. Built a fire on shore and sent out help request and our beyond awesome friends Dan Thibault and Matt Spernak came to the rescue in some rather sketchy situations. They Got us back to Tatina and warmed up.' Photo below shows the location Dani's sled went into the water. Full update at their Facebook page here.
The race to the coast is on this evening as the teams are barreling down the Yukon River toward the Norton Sound via the Unalakleet checkpoint. Most of these teams seem to be pinging between 50 and 60mph while prior champ Tyson Johnson who had been years prior Race Marshall took this updates top spot at 72mph on the ice.
Back at the Ruby checkpoint there are a few teams who seem to be waiting for the dark as that's easier to navigate than the flat light that the river offers when the fog is present. There are lots of little ways teams can strategize this race and sometimes racing throughout the night could gain them an advantage.
The race is clearly far from over, and with far fewer scratches than I had anticipated in light of the insane trail conditions. Layover strategy will come into play in the future but currently the physical order of the teams are:
Team 20
Team 6
Team 14 (Who has been reported to have the fastest splits between the last 3 checkpoints...keep an eye on them)