Anja Radano scratches in Nikolai

Overnight the Iditarod reported that Anja Radano of Swamp Dawg Kennel chose to scratch in the checkpoint of Nikolai. The press release stated that she made the decision in the best interest of her dogs. Fans had been concerned much of Wednesday when they watched her tracker leave Nikolai only to return, with some faithful tracker followers noting that her tracker posted speeds closer to snowmachine than dog team on the return back.

This morning the folks running her kennel page while she is away confirmed she has scratched but said they would not comment further on the scratch or make  more posts on her behalf - that they would let her choose when to tell her trail stories when she returns in the next day or two.

Trail continues to be impacted by heavy, wet snowfall near McGrath as teams are in the midst of taking their 24s.

Radano had 12 dogs on the line when she scratched and is the first team to end their race early in this year's Iditarod.

Brent Sass first to Cripple, again.

 As in 2021, Brent Sass is first to the halfway mark of the Iditarod. The musher received 3000 dollars worth of gold nuggets as his prize. Brent should take his 24 in Cripple after what one can only imagine was much of a slogfest of snow and not well packed trail in the heat of the day. His dogs will no doubt need at least a little break before continuing on, and the musher has yet to declare and take his 24hour+differential rest in the race.

Dallas Seavey is running about 20 miles behind Brent, picking up a little bit of time off the front runner who most likely had to break trail. Behind Seavey are Hugh Neff (9miles behind Dallas), Mitch Seavey (3 miles behind Hugh), and Ryan Redington (4 miles behind Mitch). All of the teams on their way to Cripple have yet to take their 24.

Meanwhile back in McGrath Aaron Burmeister is counting down to when he can take off after taking his mandatory 24+. He should be out of the checkpoint sometime after 5:40pm Alaska Time (I didn't do the math to get exact time). The conditions in McGrath are wet, heavy snow and a lot of it. Teams behind those in McGrath are having slow yucky go of it. 

Still no scratches in this year's Iditarod which is a huge feat and I'm not even sure this has happened before. 

Hope everyone's enjoyed a much more relaxing day today. Tomorrow will run about the same as we wait for Burmeister to slingshot past those who are up ahead miles wise now but don't have their 24s completed.

The race will truly start from there.

Brent Sass on the trail to Cripple

As teams begin taking their 24 hour plus differential rests, the leader and the chase pack continued up the trail Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Brent Sass is currently running to Cripple - the half way point of the Iditarod in the Northern Route years - where as Redington, Neff, and Seavey Squared are all camped out further back and just outside of Ophir. With snow hitting the trail and the storm on the way it could be teams are trying to get out ahead of it before breaking trail slows them down. It could also be their strategy set weeks ago.

It's a good bet that these teams will twenty four in Cripple before hitting the Yukon River where they will have to choose a checkpoint to take their first of two mandatory eight hours. For the next day and a half fans need to get in their own mandatory rest. As teams stop along the trail to take their 24s there won't be much to follow, and so catching up on sleep, work, chores, etc should be the priority for those sitting at home.

Sass reported to the Insider earlier that he was surprised and "a little scared" of how fast his team is going, but he says he is taking the same amount of rest at this point as he did in both 2020 and 2019 so he feels his team is just very strong and fast this year. 

As I get ready to post this very short update - it looks like Dallas Seavey has popped the snow hook and started his run to Cripple now. He was camped near his dad Mitch, and will pass by where Neff and Redington are camped shortly. The race to the 24s is on.

Mushing Radio - Iditarod 50: Into McGrath

Burmeister looks to be first to McGrath

With just twenty miles to go, it looks like Aaron Burmeister is set to be the first into McGrath. With that will come the "First to McGrath award", according to Iditarod this year's prize consists of "a pair of musher mittens made of beaver fur and moose hide handmade by Loretta Maillelle of McGrath as well as a musher hat made from beaver fur and beaded velvet made by Lucy Miller of McGrath.  Alaska Air Transit will also be providing hand-made awards in Nikolai." This is the first of the "special awards" given out on the trail. 

Aaron Burmeister has had a solid, strong race to this point having kept right with Seavey and Sass as well as Redington. He narrowly missed beating Dallas Seavey for the top prize in last year's Iditarod and he is hungry to bring home the championship to Nome, his hometown. If he can continue as he is, he'll be right in the mix for first to the finish line.

Behind Burmeister are Richie Diehl, Ryan Redington, and Dallas Seavey. Brent Sass is camped out on the trail. Mille Porsild looks to getting nearing to passing where he's stopped.

The Insider live feed went down I assume they are getting ready to move up the trail, and hopefully they'll have the McGrath feed up soon.

Nikolai is about to get busy

The front teams are making their way into Nikolai as the sun comes up (though it's overcast in much of the State today, including on the Iditarod trail). First three teams of Burmeister, Redington, and Diehl are already in and bedded down their dogs for a nice rest while at least three more teams should be coming in within the hour.

The biggest concern by race fans has been where is Brent Sass? Sass' tracker hasn't updated in almost twelve hours and shows him still near Rohn, however chatter overheard on the Iditarod Insider live view of the checkpoint of Nikolai has volunteers discussing the next order of teams coming in and Brent Sass is somewhere in the mix. They theorize it will be Dallas Seavey next in, followed by Brent Sass, and Michelle Phillips. Hopefully they will be able to reset the musher's tracker in Nikolai.

Trackers not working is pretty normal especially when they are running in areas where the signal is not good. If they can't get a connection for too long, they go into sleep mode. Then there's also factors like where it is positioned in/on the sled bag, if it was damaged coming down the trail, if it was lost, or if it's too cold.... or if someone forgot to change/charge the batteries before race day. A quick swap out or reset button push is typically all that is needed to get it going again, but that is not the musher's job - as they don't know if it's working or not.

Once that trio gets into the checkpoint there will be a short wait for Travis Beals to come in followed by Jessie Holmes and Mitch Seavey. Rounding out the top ten should be either Hugh Neff or Paige Drobny.

Nikolai is about to get very busy. If you are an Insider video subscriber get to the live feed!

Mushing Radio - Iditarod 50: the Steps and the Gorge