The team made it to Nome with one near miss but all ended well. Rosanne's birthday is today and the past few years we have been here. This makes for a stronger marriage - HA HA. 

Back to the race - Mackey is in Elim at mm 825 and is the only Musher that has moved in hours. Mackey reported his run to Koyuk was the toughest of this race and maybe ever. Baker and Schnuelle are moving now and are out of Koyuk at mm 787.    

M. Seavey and Burmeister are out of Shaktoolik but have not moved in 18 hours. Dallas Seavey and 14 others are in Shaktoolik and have not moved in 14 hours. If the tracker is right a few Mushers returned and lost mileage. 

The weather must be unbearable, with reported 35mph winds and -60. Neff suffered frostbite on his face and received medical attention. 3 rookie mushers, Darst, Matray and Packer have all scratched. Packer was rescued during an airplane search. A Musher fell asleep, woke up when he hit the ice, and was helped by the Musher in front who caught the team and by the Musher who was following that picked him up. This race could go down in the history books for many reasons.

Microchipping is used on each dog. This is like the collar tags used for identification. Each dog is scanned, the record comes up, and all the information is available at all the checkpoints. This along with the collar tag allows each dog to be returned to their owners. With 1,200 dogs in the race imagine what would happen without a system.   

I hope the ground blizzards cease and the race heats up. As of now there are only 3 Mushers moving.

Stay tuned and thanks for visiting the site. The next blog will be very interesting !! 

Lance Mackey is still in the lead at mm 761. Lance was the 1st to arrive into Unalakleet and won the Wells Fargo Gold Coast trophy and $2,500. He won 2 other checkpoint prizes worth $6,500. If he wins the race he receives $69,000 plus a new truck.

King is at mm 731, Backer, Neff and M. Seavey are at mm 729. Dallas is 10th at mm 701.

This part of the race is very cold and windy. Crossing Norton Sound is always risky with temperatures of -40 with 30+mph winds. It was reported that this race has seen an 80 degree swing in temperature.

Rookie Musher Kurt Reich (Bib #63), from Colorado, decided to scratch on Sunday and will call it quits at Ophir. I have noticed over the years that it is very hard to compete with the Alaskans. They train in this brutal climate and it can't be duplicated.

Dog collar tags are use to identify each dog. Each mushers receives tags with their number and a letter. Each dog is then recorded and this report is used to make sure each dog is returned to the owner.  You can find a collar tag from the 2007 race in the Iditarod display case in our corporate office.

Rosanne & I are leaving for Nome in an hour so the next report will come from the Bering Sea. I hope cell phones and the internet are in service this year!!

Note: I will cover dog microchipping in my next blog - thanks for visiting our site.

As mentioned this am, Buser and Lanier are taking their 24 hr layover in Ophir. 20 Mushers have completed their 24 hr layover and are in full race mode.

Burmeister, Neff, Mackey, Schnuelle, Anderson, King and M. Seavey are thru Ophir and only 3 hours separates them.

Dallas Seavey is in 15th, should be thru Ophir and might gain a few spots. Jen Seavey, with the puppy team, is 57th.

Bjornar Andersen (Bib #18), Norway's only entrant, scratched after injuring himself in a sled crash between Rohn and Nikolai. He made his decision 70 miles later in Takotna. He will be transported to Anchorage for medical assessment. 

Stay tuned to this site for updates and special reports as needed.