Lance Mackey was the first musher into the Rainy Pass checkpoint, taking an early lead in the 2011 Iditarod, in what he hopes his record fifth-straight win in the Alaskan sled dog race. Mackey led a group of seven mushers that reached Rainy Pass -- the fourth checkpoint since the restart at Willow -- within three hours of each other. The four-time champ pulled in at 12:08 p.m. EST with 16 dogs, and was quickly joined by Ray Redington, Jr. and Hugh Neff.
Iditarod 2011: Lance Mackey First Into Rainy Pass Checkpoint
It was just above zero when Mackey arrived. Within minutes, his dogs were bedded down on straw in the shining sun ...
Among the seven teams in Rainy Pass are Sebastian Schnuelle, the 2009 runner-up, and Paul Gebhardt, second place in 2000 and 2007, while Martin Buser, a fellow four-time winner, is on his way from Finger Lake. But despite the obvious threats, Mackey plans to stay at Rainy Pass for 6-8 hours. Or so he says.
Of course, this being the Iditarod, mushers sometimes indicate they plan to do one thing, only to do another. Remember Mackey’s fake nap in Elim back in the 2009 race, when he broke away from Jeff King?
At any rate, a six-hour rest would put Mackey back on the trail shortly after 2 this afternoon [6 p.m. Eastern], giving him a few hours of daylight to negotiate the treacherous Dalzell Gorge that awaits mushers when they leave Rainy Pass.
Rainy Pass, at 3,771 feet in the Alaska Range, is the highest point in the race. And since everything that goes up must come down (mushers included), the next stage, a 48-mile run to Rohn, is a quick descent, and includes “a steep drop into the gorge,” which has claimed its fair share of sleds and bones in past Iditarods.
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Long gone are the crowds in Anchorage and Willow as part of the ceremonial start and restart, respectively, quickly replaced by cold and isolation. But thanks to the magic of the Internet -- and musher Aliy Zerkle’s sledcam -- we can see what it looks like to start the “Last Great Race on Earth” (from the comfort of our desks):
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