Husky News

One musher out; other 26 hit the trail at 42 below.

Temperatures that hit minus 50 at Lake Louise made the humans miserable Saturday at the start of the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race.

Phones didn’t work, radios didn’t work, and trucks worked only if they’d been plugged in or left running overnight.

As for the dogs?

“The dogs are fine,” race official Julie Sine said Saturday as 26 teams ignored the cold and began their 300-mile journey through the Copper River basin in Alaska’s interior. “The dogs are wonderful. They want to run.”

Maybe so, but not Kasilof’s Paul Gebhardt.

The perennial top-10 Iditarod musher went to the race with a goal of winning. But he withdrew a few hours before it started at the Wolverine Lodge at Lake Louise because of race conditions he called, “dangerous.”

“It was nasty cold up there,” he said.

The thermometer at the lodge read minus 42 at 7 a.m., he said. The air was even colder on the lake.

The air was so frigidly cold his diesel truck wouldn’t start in the morning. He travels with a weed burner torch and spent five minutes using it to thaw out his frozen oil pan.

Asked what it’s like out on the trail when it’s that cold, Gebhardt said, “It’s not fun. One mistake and you can easily frostbite something.”

His sled-dog racing threshold is minus 40. Gebhardt selected that number not for the sake of his own comfort, but for the health of his dogs.

“I’ve never had frostbitten dogs when it’s warmer than 40 below,” he said.

At the Knik 200, Gebhardt entered three teams to compete in the race that runs from Knik Lake to Skwentna and back. The mercury never got warmer than 40 below, he said.

Unfortunately, six of his 36 dogs suffered minor frostbite to their penis sheaths. The area is furless and offers no protection from the cold, he said.

Mushers outfit their dogs. Some use real fox tails to protect their dogs’ under-bellies.

The dogs have spent the past week recovering in his heated workshop back home on the Kenai Peninsula.

Gebhardt won the Copper Basin in 2000 and thought he had the team to win another title. But he’s also training to win his first Iditarod title, so he pulled out of the Copper Basin in fear of exposing more dogs to possible frostbite.

“There’s no sense in jeopardizing my team,” he said. “But I heard the 26 mushers out there are good so far.”

As of 9 p.m., Two Rivers musher Tom Lesatz grabbed the lead after resting only 35 minutes in Glennallen, which is 46 miles into the race. But his lead would likely diminish.

Behind him was defending champion Allen Moore of Two Rivers, who was the first musher into Glennallen. He arrived at 6:06 p.m., a minute ahead of Canada’s Hans Gatt. Fairbanks’ Lance Mackey arrived two minutes later.

Mackey’s 12-dog team ran at a pace of 7.19 mph from Tolsona to Glennallen. They made the run in 3 hours, 12 minutes, the fastest of any musher on that stretch.

The race is expected to end some time Monday.

Sine said the weather was horrendous at the start. It was so cold, cell phones wouldn’t work and radio station KCAM was unable to broadcast as planned. Support trucks were running, though, because they either were plugged into engine heaters or left running overnight.

In 1996, officials canceled the race a day into competition when minus-60 temperatures prevented support trucks from running. Not all of the checkpoints have enough engine heaters for the trucks needed to support the mushers and their teams.

Race volunteer Lisa Christie reported warmer weather in Glennallen, a balmy minus 25. She was happily inside race headquarters.

“Personally, I’m too scared to go outside,” she said.

Copper Basin 300

Results as of 9 p.m., Saturday

Out of Glennallen — 1) Tom Lesatz, 12 dogs, 7:07 p.m.

Into Glennallen — 2) Alan Moore, 12, 5:06 p.m.; 3) Hans Gatt, 12, 5:07; 4) Lance Mackey, 12, 5:09; 5) Brent Sass, 12, 5:23; 6) Sebastian Schnuelle, 12, 5:45; 7) Newton Marshall, 12, 5:52.  8. Joshua Cadzow, 12, 5:54; 9) Chad Lindner, 12, 6:02; 10) Jim Lainer, 12, 6:06;

11) Michelle Phillips, 12, 6:10; 12) Braxton Peterson, 12, 6:11; 13) Ed Hopkins, 12, 6:15; 14) Harry Alexie, 12, 6:16; 15) Sven Haltmann, 12, 6:22; 16) Martin Jahr, 6:24; 17) Aliy Zirkle, 12, 6:36; 18) Mike Ellis, 12, 6:43; 19) Colleen Robertia, 11, 6:44; 20) Normand Casavant, 12, 6:46; 21) Iris Sutton, 12, 6:52; 22) Cynthia Barrand, 12, 7:00; 23) Tamara Rose, 11, 7:06; 24) Mark Sleightholme, 12, 7:10; 25) Emil Churchin, 12, 7:41.

Scratched — Darrin Lee. Withdraw — Paul Gebhardt

Source: The Anchorage Daily News