Husky News

The 25th Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race had not even begun before the first major story broke this afternoon - teams will be trucked from the Chena Hot Springs checkpoint to the Mile 101 dog drop checkpoints to avoid a 42-mile stretch that includes a rocky and snow-parched Rosebud Summit.

“The trail conditions … are not adequate for safe travel of the dogs,” first-year race marshal Doug Grilliot told media assembled for a pre-race meeting today in downtown Fairbanks. “There’s not enough snow to control a dog team with 14 dogs.”

Of particular concern were rolling steep descents on the backside of 3,640-foot Rosebud Summit that are littered with exposed shaly, sharp rocks, Grilliot said.

“With the snow up there, we probably could do it, but we’re going to err on the side of caution,” Grilliot said, adding that the final decision was solely his but that he collected much input from others.

What the change means is that once mushers reach Chena Hot Springs 99 miles into the race, five to six hours will be added to a mandatory two-hour break, Grilliot said. That will give teams time to drive back down Chena Hot Springs Road and then up the Steese Highway to Mile 101.

The decision came after much debate over the past few days, Grilliot said.

“We thought long and hard about it. We don’t want to change the integrity of the race,” Grilliot said.

Race rookie Julie Estey supports the decision.

“From a rookie standpoint, I’m breathing a sigh of relief that the Quest has my dogs’ interests at heart,” said Estey, who before this year was on the officials’ side of the equation as the Quest’s executive director.

There is also a tinge of lament, however. Estey knows the beauty of the area because she went there by snowmachine to clean up after the 2006 race.

“As a rookie, you want to see all these things you’ve been hearing about, but not at the dogs’ expense. … It’s disappointing, but it’s not worth risking the dogs’ or the mushers’ health or the sleds’ health,” Estey said.

Rosebud Summit, followed by Eagle Summit — which remains part of the race route — typically wreak enough havoc that several teams end up scratching before the race is 200 miles old. Friday’s decision may mean more mushers ultimately reach the Whitehorse finish line.

The lost distance will not be made up, shortening the 1,000-mile Quest to about 960 miles.

In the previous 24 runnings of the Quest, dogs have been trucked because of poor trail conditions on several occasions, including during the inaugural 1984 race (60 miles from Carmacks, Yukon, to Fox Lake) and most recently in 2003 (79 miles from Braeburn to Carmacks).

Source: NewsMiner