Mother Nature - The Great Equializer

The trail up the Yukon has been pretty slow.  Rain has turned to snaow, which is great, but it has made the slog up the river slow.  Sebastian Schnuelle has reported on his way TO Kaltag from Unalakleet, that there is an insane amount of snow, spoken from experience of digging out his stuck snow machine several times on his travel.  This will breath life into Teams that have been chasing after Joar and Nic.....this is really anyones race. Front runners appear to be Nic and Joar of course, but also Jesse Royer, Mitch and Pete Kaiser.  Aliy and Pete have to stop for 8 hours in Kaltag, but the other Teams need to give their Teams rest too....probably 4 hoursm but could be more. 

Being in front has its downside.....perhaps being behind is actually a plus at this point. There is a small typhoon just off the coast, packing 30 to 40 mph winds that could be troublesome.  The saving grace is the snow is not light powder snow...it is wet granular snow so it is not likely to be blown around.  The other issue is overflow.....each stream they cross has water flowing on top of the snow, making crossings wet and treacherous.  Aliy was packing waders earlier for this exact issue, but I'm not sure she still has them.  Pete Kaiser, the first into Kaltag says the depth of snow was real inconsistent due to the snowmobile traffic.....picture the dogs pulling along, only sinking in an inch or two, then breaking through the crust and wallowing in 2' of snow.  Snowmobiles would try going around such spots, making the trail wider and wider, and the dogs don't know what trail has a good bottom, so the start following one, go a bit, sink in and jump over to another trail.  It makes for slow going.  I think everyone will sigh a breath of relief when they get into Kaltag.  But whats ahead? 

Here is the run down according to the Tracker and the Standings

Pete Kaiser into Kaltag (mile 652) to do his 8 hour break
Nic came in just minutes behind him

Still on the march to Kaltag is:

Joar at mile 645
Jessie Royer at mile 643
Mitch Seavey at mile 629
Aliy at mile 626 (mandatory 8 hour rest in Kaltag)
Jesse Holmes at mile 625
Redington at mile 620
Richie Diehl at mile 619
Failor at mile 616
Matt Hall at mile 611
Paige Drobny at mile 611
Travis Beals at mile 595