Iditarod grants blind teen-ager conditional entry

ANCHORAGE -- Meeting Friday behind closed doors, the Iditarod Trail Committee crafted a compromise that may allow a blind teen-age girl to compete in next year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Rachael Scdoris, 18, of Bend, Ore., asked the committee earlier this year to approve special accommodations to allow her to compete. She wanted permission for two people on snowmachines to accompany her and act as her eyes, warning of upcoming hazards and needed turns. They would use two-way radios to communicate.

The ITC indefinitely tabled that request in June. However, members reconsidered during the special meeting last week and ruled that she may use radios and an extra sled dog team with driver. Likewise, she must use a sled dog team in her qualifying races, rather than snowmachines. The ITC waived the second team's entry fee.

"I'm happy," Scdoris said after the decision. "I was hoping for a snowmachine but I'll take what I can get. I consider it a win."

The new twist will be more expensive for Scdoris, whose father Jerry makes a living giving sled dog rides in Oregon. She'll have to transport two dog teams, not one, to Michigan for the UP 200 and the Seney 300.

Scdoris said she believes it's possible to do the qualifiers and be at the starting line in Anchorage in March 2004. She's already paid the entry fee of nearly $2,000.

But Iditarod veteran Dan McEacham of Aspen, Colo., who plans to be linked to Scdoris by radio, says that even with the waiver there will be a big cost to train and transport two teams to qualifiers and then the Iditarod.

"The entry fee is a minor part of the cost to run the Iditarod," he said.

Although acknowledging that snowmachines would have been logistically easier, as well as cheaper, he applauded ITC's decision.

"We're not belittling what they did," he said. "They bent over backward to make a tremendous concession."

He added that finding sponsors will be easier now that a decision has been made. Scdoris, currently sponsored by AttaBoy dog food, has been approached by several other companies that were holding off to see what ITC did, McEacham said.

McEacham has finished the Iditarod seven times, and has been a Scdoris family friend for several years. He competed in one stage stop race in which Rachael was entered.

"She's quite accomplished," he told the committee. "She can do this. I know she can."

Scdoris fielded dozens of questions in the glare of television news cameras during the meeting.

"I can see the team," she told the committee. "Always. The thing is, the team is one-dimensional. I can tell if there's a problem in the team. If a dog goes down I can see it, or feel it in the sled.

"I have done night runs. At night I don't have to deal with the glare of the sun off the snow, and I can see the dogs better because of the reflectors on their harnesses."

Committee member Mark Moderow asked Scdoris if she could see the change in a dog's gait while it is running.

"No," she said.

"That would be my job," McEacham said.

Committee member Rick Swenson suggested that having a snowmachine ahead of Scdoris' team would be like a carrot before a horse, providing her with an unfair advantage.

"Wouldn't it be an alteration of the event to always have that snowmachine out in front of her?" he asked.

McEacham said he would not be pacing Scdoris' team. Swenson said it would be impossible not to do that on parts of the trail that are very twisty.

Committee member Richard Burmeister wondered about moose or buffalo attacks on the trail, and how Scdoris could protect her team in that situation. She said that's what radio communication is for.

Moderow said having one or two people along might be an unfair advantage in decision making.

"Everybody else is going to be making their own risk assessments," he said. "If we make this accommodation, you will not. An essential element is the wilderness decision making. I know from climbing mountains alone that it's an intensely different event than climbing with other people."

Gwen Holdman, who finished 30th in her only Iditarod attempt, also had planned to be on a snowmachine to communicate with Scdoris. She rejected Moderow's suggestion about making decisions alone.

"There are entourages following some mushers in airplanes," she said. "How alone are they?"

Holdman, of Fairbanks, said Scdoris represents the Iditarod ideal.

"The Iditarod is all about overcoming adversity and making things happen that other people said couldn't be done," she said. "It's the spirit of what Iditarod is all about."

After nearly three hours of asking questions, ITC went into executive session to discuss things. When committee members reconvened in open session, they voted unanimously for the compromise and made no other comment before adjourning.