Since I made my last report on the Iditarod there have been an additional seven scratches: Jeff Holt, DeeDee Jonrowe, Butch Austin, Frank Sihler, Jacques Philip, Lachlan Clarke, and Melanie Gould have all dropped out of the race. Reasons reported include injuries, damaged sled, and lack of leaders.
That’s an extraordinary number of scratches for this early in the race, some of them very experienced mushers. For example, this was DeeDee Jonrowe’s 25th Iditarod. I can only speculate that the conditions between Finger Lake and Rainy Pass must be very rough. The trail in that section is difficult under the best of circumstances.
