The Yukon 550 champion said that coming into the checkpoint there was a lot of sugar snow and glare ice and that the trail was "punchy" which can often lead to soreness and slower runs for sled dogs. Deeter did not want to run with two dogs in his sled bag the entire distance to the next checkpoint so he turned around and came back to Tanana to send two more dogs home and reevaluate.
During his interview with the Insider the musher confessed he wasn't sure that his Iditarod race wasn't over already. He said that he let them go a little faster than he had trained for believing that the trail would allow for it and he just was not sure if his team could continue.
Deeter isn't the only team staying in Tanana, after a whirlwind night for many of the teams, mushers have chosen to take a long break in the checkpoint. Ahead of the first teams coming through, Junior Iditarod Champion Emily Robinson's facebook page reported that there was a ground storm on the Tanana River. The video looked like grey snow was blowing all over, but it was silt. Mushers reported to Insider that it felt otherworldly (Paige Drobny said she felt like she was on another planet, Gabe Dunham said it was like being on Mars). Anna Berington said her headlamp couldn't find anything but the sand (think like going into hyperspace in Star Wars).
Teams are continuing to struggle to get into Tanana, and the wind is still strong in the checkpoint. Other mushers seem to be having some issues out of Tanana with several showing GPS trackers turning back.
What was supposed to be the "easiest" and "most boring" part of the 2025 route has turned out to be anything but.
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