THEY'RE OFF!

WILLOW — Even if a storm front that dropped a few inches of fresh snow on Willow Lake doesn’t make it beyond the Alaska Range, the 72 mushers who took off today from the restart of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race won’t really mind.

“The dogs have really good footing on bare ground,” said musher Hans Gatt. “It’s the equipment and the musher that take the toll.”

Gatt, who is running with 13 of the 14 dogs that propelled him to his 2010 Yukon Quest victory, was responding to reports about large sections of the trail completely barren of snow. The Iron Dog snowmachine race follows some of the same route as the Iditarod and is said to have left deep ruts because of a lack of snow cover.

“Going uphill from here to Rainy Pass there are supposed to be ruts about 15 inches deep,” Zack Steer said. “But who knows. I am prepared for anything Mother Nature can throw at us.”

Down in the flats after the Alaska Range, called the Farewell Burn, Steer said the trail is reportedly a thin stretch of snow or ice. This means there will be plenty of exposed tussocks — the small humps in swamplands that hammer the sleds.

“The last time we saw it like that was in 2007. It looked like a graveyard of snowmachine parts from broken down Iron Dog sleds and the Iditarod trail breakers,” Steer said. “It was kind of scary.”

The lack of snow will mean for a fast trail, Steer said. But this fast trail can injure the dogs if you run out of control, he said. This year, Steer said he has the most veteran team he has ever run and he has opted for the stand-up style sled to allow for more maneuverability.

“I finished third in the 2007 race, so no complaints here about a hard and fast trail,” Steer said.

Iditarod veteran Mitch Seavey said when the trail is hard and fast the preparation well before race day becomes the most important thing.

“What you do differently has already been done,” Seavey said. “You have to train a team that is pretty controlled so you can run appropriately. Being too fast, that would be the worst thing.”

But, the dogs do pretty well even in plain dirt, Seavey said. Conditions can change at any moment, and it’s best just to run the race expecting anything.

Lance Mackey, who has won the last three Iditarods, said he is going for what would be a record-breaking fourth consecutive race victory precisely by staying flexible. It’s race against the other mushers, he said, and his approach largely depends on what his competitors do and how his dogs are running.

“Everything has to go according to plan,” Mackey said. “And I have no plan until the race starts.”

Iditarod trail marshal Mark Nordman said the things have improved since the last trail report. He said six trail breakers towing groomers have being running back and fourth between Skwentna and Rainy Pass, and a bit of fresh snow has smoothed that section out.

However, the infamous section after Rainy Pass called the Gorge is still pretty rough, he said. Trail crews are working on it right now to open up the brush, and Norman expects they will keep working right up until the first musher comes through.

After the Gorge, Nordman said there are some ice bridges that might be problematic, and the Farewell Burn is still without much snow.

Check back on the Frontiersman.com for updates about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race standings and conditions.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.