Iditarod 2009 – Paul Gebhardt Update # 9 as of 6am Tuesday, March 17 ©Evy Gebhardt
Bib #15  Paul and team are currently running in 12th  position

Into the checkpoint of SHAKTOOLIK as of 6:30pm YESTERDAY afternoon

Over the 37 years that the Iditarod has been run, there have been many stories of horrendous storms and bad trail conditions along the coastal portion of the trail, specifically near the wind whipped village of SHAKTOOLIK. In 1985, officials literally shut the race down due to a raging blizzard, and right now, we have a dynamic almost unheard of in the recent annuals of Iditarod history. With winds forecasting to over 40 mile an hour gusts, and windchill factors under -50 degrees below zero, we are seeing yet another dynamic creep into the race this year.

Paul is among a group of top competitors that have remained at the SHAKTOOLIK checkpoint since yesterday afternoon, resting their teams and trying to ride out the brutal storm that is pummeling the trail.  The trail reports suggest that the front teams had wind, but bypassed the heart of the storm, which is unforgiving and deadly given the environment they are in. The trail leaving SHAKTOOLIK is one of the most forlorn of the entire race, with no margins for error. The trail literally crosses over the frozen ice of Norton Sound, which is part of the Bering Sea, as it takes the teams north to the KOYUK checkpoint.  Because of this vast, open terrain, with no protection from the brutal winds and blinding snow, there is no place to hunker down and safely ride the storm out.  Couple this with the fact that the sun was setting as Paul was reaching the checkpoint, and you have a recipe for disaster had he and the other teams around him elected to try and push into the winds that would be directly in their face.

Given the right team and the right set of circumstances, you may have a few teams that could make their way through this right now. Johnny Baker and Ed Iten for example, who live and train north of NOME in the arctic village of KOTZEBUE would have dogs familiar with these types of conditions and the open country. But even if the team could mentally forge ahead, it is still dangerous. Ahead of Paul on the trail, Hugh Neff reportedly froze the skin on his face on this very leg of the race.  There is real concern that the frostbite is severe enough that he is in a real quandary given the continued forecast for frigid cold and more winds.

I guarantee you that every musher sitting together with Paul at the SHAKTOOLIK checkpoint now, is not so worried about their own skin, as much as towards the welfare and protection of their dogs. Paul, a two-time winner of Iditarod’s coveted Humanitarian Award, is in the company of a number of fellow recipients as they ride out the storm together. This collective knowledge of excellent dog care assures me that they are all looking at this with the dogs’ best interests in mind. What will come out of this however, is a dynamic that will have consequences for the mushers at the finish line.

While Paul has been holding his 11^th place status fairly consistently leading up to this point, the teams have just been stacking up behind him, and every one of them would love to move up a few notches. There is the good possibility that a stronger team will prevail out on the trail once they all get moving again. Paul had dropped yet another dog, so he driving the smallest team in this cadre of mushers with 8 dogs.  Some of these teams have been traveling at a very conservative pace up until this point, and now find themselves in position to move up not by design, but by circumstance. It reinforces what I have always said: that we can never predict with complete accuracy the outcome of the race, nor be complacent with what we believe to be true until the team actually crosses the finish line. Perhaps it is the walk with the extremes that makes this race so appealing to the mushers, and intriguing to those of us on the sidelines.

I would also venture that the miles of wilderness and unparalleled natural beauty that the teams travel through is another factor. Paul and I once went to Hawaii on a vacation, and we made a point to go to the beach to watch the sunset  (hmmmm warm sandy beach of Hawaii….. frozen rocky beach of Nome… oh, excuse me I was daydreaming there for a moment sitting here in my parka and snowboots…!) as I was saying – we went to watch the famed sunset with great expectations of something really spectacular. But we were both disappointed and appreciative. Disappointed, because that sunset across the waters of the Pacific Ocean with palm trees waving in the trade winds was nothing compared to the breathtaking sunsets that linger on the Alaskan horizon. We were so appreciative to recognize that we live in a land where we can see the sky painted tangerine and fuchsia as the sun rises and sets. What is even more remarkable, is that due to our arctic positioning on the globe, we see these awe inspiring sunrises and sunsets for long, long hours compared to the brief moments it takes a tropical sun to slip over the horizon.

There are also the different wild animals that Paul has seen while running the race over the years. We already know about his experience with wolves on the trail. In years past, he has also had the rare privilege to spend a couple hours watching a wolverine hunting on the side of a mountain while the team rested up near RAINY PASS in the heart of the Alaska Range. He has run through a herd of caribou with the dog team before, and flushed flocks of winter white ptarmigan from their roosts in the willow brush along the trail. Fox are common out in this coastal area, and in Paul’s rookie Iditarod, he was one of several mushers to encounter a polar bear not far from the very checkpoint where he now waits to resume his journey to NOME.

I am having some trouble with email up here, so I apologize if I am not able to respond right now. I am just pleased that there is more access to technology than in years past overall.

Until later, Life is a journey, enjoy the ride.  Evy