Just when we all thought the winds would play nice after what they put the top twenty through, well... we were wrong. Currently, seven teams are hunkered down on the Topkok hills buried into the local topography and in shelter cabins hoping they can start moving in short lulls promised to them by weather reports being texted to them from Nome. Behind White Mountain the final four are still able to move, but judging by their speeds being so inconsistent it's easy to assume that the wind gusts are hitting along Golovin Bay as well.
Riley Dyche was out first of White Mountain and is currently holed up in the shelter cabin at the top of the blowhole (where winds are typically even worse than the hills). He's been there most of the morning and it doesn't look like he's moving any time soon. There is some talk that he'd lost his GPS tracker and that he would be coming into Nome any moment... but those moments have turned into hours and there's no indication that he's ever checked into Safety.
And, as if watching trackers not move at all for over 12 hours isnt enough stress, let's throw in a few wonky what the heck is going on trackers into the mix. Gerhardt Thiart's tracker keeps jumping back and forth to where he had been resting with several other teams out of White Mountain to zooming backwards down the trail, only to bounce back. It would suggest that Thiart's race is done just 70 miles from the finish, but right now his tracker sits at yellow in a very random spot.
And in the back of the pack we have to wayward souls running the wrong trail out of Golovin. Eric Kelly and Yuka Honda show as way off course and it's a 50/50 right now if they are truly off course or if Aliens are just really enjoying messing with our technology today.
No matter what the final 11 teams will all have some wild stories to share if they ever make it to Nome. Could this be our new Elim 11?
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