Iron Dog racers race for Nome

BIG LAKE — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin knows just how to warm up a chilly audience.

“It's too cold to talk,” Palin told a hardy crowd gathered on Big Lake for the 25th Tesoro Iron Dog snowmachine race start Sunday morning.

Palin's opening remarks lasted less than 20 seconds, much to the relief of those who braved temperatures that never rose above zero all morning. A longtime supporter of the race with a vested interest in its outcome — her husband, Todd, is one of the defending champions — Palin wasn't too frigid to want to see some racing.

“It's not too cold to race,” Gov. Palin said.

The all-Palmer duo of Tim Bruns and Rick Fleming made up the first team to roar under the starting banner Sunday as Gov. Palin enthusiastically waved the green flag to officially begin the 1,971-mile race, which is billed as the “world's longest, toughest snowmobile race.”

Rookies and veterans alike were preparing for extreme cold along the race, which runs northwest to the Bering Sea coast town of Nome, then east to Fairbanks in the heart of the Interior.

Iron Dog riders were easy to spot Sunday, as nearly each one sported a fresh layer of duct tape over his cheeks. Galena's Jeff Pelkola, a rookie, explained the tape is needed to prevent moisture from the riders' eyes, nose and mouth from turning into ice and causing frostbite.

“What's gonna happen is our goggles are going to ice up, we're going to get a lot of snot and stuff on us and we don't want it to get onto our skin,” Pelkola said.

Ice forms fast when it's minus 30, which is what temperatures were expected to reach at places along the trail.

“It would just be ice sticking to your skin and you'd just get burned up,” he said.

Running the Iron Dog takes both guts and know-how. Riders blaze over bumpy trails as fast as possible, which means that, over the course of a race, plenty can go wrong. Pelkola said he and his teammate, Clinton Huntington, are both expert mechanics who have been riding sleds their entire lives.

“You've gotta know what you're doing,” he said.

Pelkola knows what he's doing. A lifelong rider, he once rode a snowmachine from Galena to Koyukuk, a trip of 30 miles, up the Yukon River — in the summertime.

“It was a lot warmer then, but I had to wear a life preserver,” he said.

Even expert riders can run into trouble. That's why Pelkola said his team's plan heading into the race was to take things easy until reaching the Yukon River, which allows for faster travel, often approaching 100 mph.

“We're going to go slow and steady, try and make it to the Yukon and let all these other teams wreck up,” Pelkola said. “We're not carrying too many parts, so we don't want to break anything.”

Anything or anyone.

Winning teams typically finish with bumps, bruises and even broken bones that result from mishaps along the course. Although emergency survival gear is required for all teams, heading into the Alaska wilderness is no joke.

As riders neared the starting chute Sunday, families and friends held hugs extra long as they wished their loved ones well along the trail.

Pelkola's aunt, Naddie Solomon Bahr, said she knows her nephew is a capable rider, but she's still going to be worried until Pelkola arrives safely in Fairbanks.

“He was raised in the Bush and knows how to take care of himself, but I'm still worried,” she said.

Despite the frigid cold, Pelkola said there's nothing he'd rather be doing.

“I've been waiting for this my whole life,” he said.

Pelkola's careful strategy isn't set in stone. Good riders know that conditions dictate how hard to run and how hard to push both body and sled. Before the race, Todd Palin said he and partner Scott Davis don't make a set plan before the race, but instead try to gauge how fast to go as the race unfolds.

“There's a lot of good teams in the race this year,” Palin said. “The weather and the race will dictate our schedule.”

Nearly all riders in the field hail from Alaska, with many coming from the Bush and remote areas where snowmachines are the preferred method of wintertime travel. But not all are sourdoughs. Some, like four riders from Montrose, Colo., decided this was the year to test themselves against Alaska's forbidding back country.

Joey Hamilton, Charles Distel, Rod Downey and Terry Hawkins made up “Team Montrose” Sunday.

“The four of us just teamed up to come ride in it,” Hamilton said.

Distel said his friend, Robert Adkins, was the team's inspiration. In 1985, Adkins became the first Outside rider to finish the race. Since then, Distel has always dreamed of making the trip himself, and finally made it for this year's 25th anniversary race.

The men said they were looking forward to the challenge, though they admitted they weren't entirely what to expect as far as the weather along the way.

“It's cold back in Colorado, but not quite as bitter,” Hamilton said.

The men's families will be able to track the teams' progress via the Iron Dog Web site (www.irondog.org), which includes up-to-the-minute GPS tracking of each team as they move up the trail.

Still, Hamilton said the folks watching from home are still a bit unsure what their reasoning for trying the race is.

“They say we're a little bit crazy. I think they're nervous back home and a little excited to see somebody do this at the same time,” he said.

In all, a total of 10 riders are non-Alaskans, including men from Idaho, Colorado, New Hampshire, Maine and North Dakota. This year's field of 39 teams — one was forced to scratch at the starting line — is the largest in race history.

Not everyone on the ice Saturday was there to race. Vendor booths and free giveaways — including some much-needed hot chocolate — were also out in force to keep the chilly crowds happy. Coca-Cola distributors Steve Broyles and Terrill Scott spent their morning handing out free samples of Nos, a new energy drink Broyles touted as the “fastest growing” energy drink in the nation. Though served ice cold, race fans lined up eagerly to get a charge from the drink.

“We've probably given away 30 cases with 24 cans in each case,” Broyles said.

An added bonus of getting to hand out beverages, Scott said, was that he got to serve as a guest flagger for one team as they roared across the ice.

“If it wasn't so cold, I'd probably been a little happier about it,” he said.

That seemed to be the prevailing theme Sunday, as fans and riders alike did their best to grin and bear the cold.

Rider Jeff Pelkola said the cold is just a reminder that the Alaskan wilderness isn't something to be trifled with.

“You've got to respect Mother Nature,” he said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com