First musher steers out of checkpoint of Iditarod

March 9, 2007

Sheep Mountain's Zack Steer was the first musher to leave Iditarod Thursday night.

Steer took a lead in the 2007 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race when he left Iditarod, the 10th checkpoint on the trail at 9:18 p.m Thursday. Steer has already taken his mandatory 24-hour layover.

As of press time Thursday night, 10 mushers were still in Iditarod.

Lance Mackey (Fairbanks) was the first musher to reach Iditarod Thursday morning.

Mackey, winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race less than a month ago, reached the town that bears the race's name at 12:11 a.m. Thursday, just six minutes ahead of second-place Paul Gebhardt (Kasilof).

Ed Iten (Kotzebue), Mitch Seavey (Seward), Tollef Monson (Kotzebue) and Cim Smyth (Big Lake) have also reached Iditarod before 9 a.m.

Thursday afternoon, one former champion, Martin Buser, slipped into Iditarod three minutes ahead of another former champ, Jeff King. Buser hit the checkpopint at 4:35 p.m.

Also reaching Iditarod Thursday were a pair of mushers with the same first name - Ramey Smyth and Ramy Brooks.

As of 10:30 p.m. Thursday, 18 mushers were en route to Iditarod from Ophir.

The 90-mile stretch from Ophir to Iditarod is seen as one of the toughest spans during the race.

Mackey, Iten, Seavey and Cim Smyth each needed more than 17 hours to get between the two checkpoints.

Gebhardt blazed, doing it in 13 hours and 53 minutes.

The Iditarod saw its 15th musher scratch on Thursday. Ben Stamm (Argyle, Wisc.) took himself out of the race in Nikolai, after suffering a knee injury along the trail, according to a press release issued by the Iditarod Trail Committee.

- Jeremiah Bartz