The 8 leading teams are not out of the Dawson City checkpoint. As I noted in the last update, Ken Anderson left Dawson City with only 10 dogs on the gang-line at 8:33 (Yukon time) this morning. Brent Sass, with 11 dogs left at 10:06. Sebastian Schnuelle launched his team of 12 dogs at 10:49. Allen Moore apparently dropped a dog at Dawson City and departed at 11:06. Wade Marrs and his short-handed team of only 9 dogs left the checkpoint at 11:33. Dallas Seavey still has his full team of 14 dogs, and left Dawson city at 12:07.
Based on the Live Tracker, it looks like Hugh Neff has left Canada behind, and is now a few miles beyond the Alaskan border. Hans is still a few miles away from the imaginary line in the snow, moving at almost 7 mph, compared to Neff's speed of 6.1. Ken Anderson's team is gaining some ground, trotting along at 7.1 mph as he approaches the mouth of the Fortymile River.
There has been a bit of a change in the weather forecast that is worth noting. According to the National Weather Service we can expect some colder temperatures over the weekend, with night-time lows down to around -40 (F & C). The forecast for snow along the Taylor Highway remains in place.
Generally the region through which the racers are now traveling is considerably colder than Fairbanks or my work-site in the White Mountains. For example, right now at work the temperaturein Fairbanks is about 10 above (F), Eagle is reporting 16 above (F), but expects an overnight low of 15 below tonight, a high of only 8 below tomorrow and a low of 26-below tomorrow night. Teams running further back in the pack may see temperatures of 40-below and colder Saturday and Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment