I haven’t posted much this year about the 2014 Iditarod, now under way. This year’s Iditarod has had an unusually large number of scratches by veteran mushers. Many of the scratches have been caused by injuries which in turn are a consequence of the lack of snow.
Courtesy of Anchorage Daily News, there’s a really hair-raising video of top musher Jeff King, equipt with a head cam, negotiating the trail between Rainy Pass and Rohn:
Now that’s a rough trail. Check out the expression on his wheel dogs’ faces while Jeff frantically tries to right his sled after a spill late in the video, as if to say “What?” That’s severely edited down from a much longer (and higher quality) video which I wish I could show you. Sadly, it’s restricted to subscribers to Iditarod Insider which, as serious dog sled racing fans, we are. How serious? During opera intermissions the other night my wife was glued to the screen of her smartphone, watching the changing standings in the race.
