Your Iditarod photos of the day

[Blue_In_AK]

Veteran mushers Jeff King and Paul Gebhardt with their "snotcicles"

[intheflow]

1. Oh, man, that's cold!

You must have to really love sled-dogging to put up with that kind of frigidity!

[Blue_In_AK]

2. These guys are crazy,

but we love them.

It's good to see you around here, ITF. How have you been?

[intheflow]

3. Doing pretty good.

I have a sane roommate, and though I'm under-employed I love my job. And spring's here. And I have the coolest dog ever. So I really can't complain! :) And you, Dear Friend?

[Blue_In_AK]

5. We're doing great, all things considered.

Personally, we're fine, but politically -- well, that's another story. We're almost afraid to look at the newspaper every morning for fear of what Sarah's done next. She's really quite lost her mind since the campaign. You probably remember that when you were up here, we didn't think she was doing too bad a job as governor, but seriously -- NOW she's lost it, and it's almost scary.

But other than that and the volcano, things are wonderful. :)

[NashVegas]

4. I Just Keep Thinking of a Jack London Story ...

Great pics.

[mth44sc]

6. OK Blue

I can finally give these great shots a look. The last of teh race was shown on Versus this evening and I wanted to see all of it I could without knowing toooooo much.

Loved the race - could not believe the weather - and am about to enjoy your work!

[Blue_In_AK]

7. The weather was brutal this year.

Not that it's ever very good, but this year was one for the books. Lance was lucky to get out ahead of the blizzard because so many behind him got hung up in Shaktoolik.

Did Versus do a good job of covering the race? I don't know if you watched the Discovery Channel's six-part (I think) series on the 2008 I'rod that ran a few months ago. I thought Discovery did a pretty good job of that, but we don't get the Versus channel up here so have no comparison.

[mth44sc]

8. I actually liked versus better

but I did watch last year's Discovery coverage.

This years Versus coverage (in three episodes) was terrific as well.

That guy who got hung out there in the storm and had his face frost bitten - was he the one who also lost a couple dogs to the extreme cold? Versus kinda skipped that stuff.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Hugh Neff's face was frostbitten

but he made it into Nome and his dogs all looked fine. The man who lost the two dogs was a rookie, Dr. Lou Packer, from Lake Lucille. Here's the KTUU report on it http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?s=10066204 The video is on the right. A more detailed account is here: http://www.adn.com/sports/story/726933.html

Behind him was another musher in trouble, rookie Kim Darst from New Jersey, and rookie Blake Matray. (Actually I think I read somewhere that Matray started the race one other time, but didn't finish. They call you a rookie until you make it all the way to Nome.) Anyway, their story was in this morning's Anchorage Daily News here: http://www.adn.com/front/story/740116.html They were able to save Kim's dog who was in trouble.

An accounting of the dogs who lost their lives is here: http://www.adn.com/front/story/735246.html It's always upsetting when a dog dies along the trail, most of all to the human member of the team. There are two mandatory eight-hour rests and one 24-hour rest. In addition, the dogs are monitored very closely at each checkpoint -- as I said in an earlier post, there are 41 veterinarians along the trail -- and if a member of the team doesn't seem to be doing well for any reason or if it just seems tired, it is dropped and airlifted back to Anchorage to recuperate. In the case of a death, a necropsy is done to determine the cause. Often the cause of death is a previously undetected heart condition.

I know this race is controversial to the animal rights people, and I respect their opinion, but these dogs are natural-born runners and seem to be doing something that they enjoy. I've heard many mushers say that when they have to leave a dog behind, the forlorn look on its face is heartbreaking. They cry and bark and beg to go.

[mth44sc]

12. that Dr Parker lost his dogs

is a loss I can't imagine. That dogs are lost is hardly a shock and with this years conditions, one can only be amazed at the resiliance of all those who took part.

[bridgit]

10. I like the 1st one allot, but is it considered too pansy too wear...

a polypropylene mask of some kind covering your face?

[Blue_In_AK]

11. These guys are "veterans."

They don't need no wussy face covering. :rofl: Actually, I'm pretty sure that they do cover their faces when they're out on the trail, but maybe they want to come into the finish line looking all manly.