Into White Mountain and Shaktoolik

Aliy and team made the run from Elim to White Mountain in just under seven hours and pulled in at 5.24, just 13 minutes behind Mitch Seavey. Jeff King arrived almost an hour and a half later. All three are now on their mandatory eight hour layover: Aliy will be able to leave there at 1.24pm this afternoon.

The Insider video of them pulling in to White Mountain shows her frosted but really upbeat! The dogs looked good coming in and I think you can hear her say "yeah, baby!" when she looked at times on the sign in sheet. There is a second video where she spends a little time with Mac, it is a very sweet moment! "Oh my goodness, the rookie comes through! Look at you, you're so good!" She said he was barking at the people in Golovin which shows he's feeling good.



During these eight hours the mushers will be trying to let the dogs get as much undisturbed sleep and as many calories as possible. This is Aliy's first chance at getting some quality rest since her 24 hour break; she can be assured of getting a good five hours rest and get a wake-up call by Race Judges, as can every other musher. Mushers write on a chalk-board what time they wish to be woken.

We can be assured that Aliy will "get light" for this section by dropping as much weight out of her sled as she can while keeping all her mandatory gear!

This is no cake walk! This is the last 75 miles of the Iditarod! Here the team will traverse many rolling hills that seem endless to the musher and dog-team alike. The team starts climbing approximately two hours out of the checkpoint all the way until they come over "Topkok" where she will return to the Bering Sea Coast. They then drops back to sea level running along the beach where they will meet "the blow hole" face-to-face. The blow-hole is known for ground storms with 50-60 MPH winds in the short 3-5 mile section but conditions can change from one minute to the next due to the terrain around the area.

Allen and mates have arrived into Shaktoolik at 4.37am and are resting before heading out on the Bering Sea Coast to Koyuk. This part of the coast is described as bleak, flat, and deadly monotonous. You can see in an Insider video how Allen "got light" back in Unalakleet by taking the back-end of his sled, he wants to make it as easy on this team as he can and dropping weight to go through the hills will help.