Mackey keeps lead as Iditarod mushers face cold, Schnuelle second

Lance Mackey remained in the driver's seat Monday in the 1,770-kilometre Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race,

KOYUK, Alaska - Lance Mackey remained in the driver’s seat Monday in the 1,770-kilometre Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, arriving first in the village of Koyuk while teams behind him headed their dog teams across the frozen sea ice and into brutally cold winds.

Mackey arrived in this Inupiat Eskimo village of about 350 residents one minute before noon on Monday with about a five-hour lead over Whitehorse musher Sebastian Schnuelle, who is coming off a win at the 1,609-km Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

Schnuelle had a nearly 2 1/2-hour lead over a pack of hopefuls, including 2004 winner Mitch Seavey and four-time champion Jeff King.

Aaron Burmeister, who in 11 Iditarods has never finished in the top 10, was in third place, leaving the checkpoint in Shaktoolik six minutes ahead of Seavey and about a half-hour in front of King and John Baker.

Hans Gatt of Whitehorse was seventh while Warren Palfrey of Yellowknife is 22nd. Gerry Willomitzer of Whitehorse is 23rd, seven spots ahead of Aaron Peck of Grande Prairie, Alta.

With Nome and the finish line 275 kilometres away, Mackey - the 2007 and 2008 winner - looked to be headed toward a third Iditarod victory, something that even his fiercest competitors were beginning to acknowledge Monday.

When King, who came in second to Mackey last year, was asked if he can catch him before Nome, he said, “We’re having a hell of a time keeping up with him never mind catching him.”

But, King said, “I am not congratulating him, yet.”

King said he was having a really good run from Unalakleet to Shaktoolik, a distance of 67.5 kilometres, when things turned ugly the last 24 kilometres. The winds picked up, blowing 65 kilometres per hour right in the faces of the dogs.

“If that is anything I’m about to head into, it will be a long day,” King said as he steered his team back onto the frozen expanse of sea ice.

Sixty-seven teams began the race nine days ago in Willow north of Anchorage. Six mushers have either scratched or been withdrawn.

It was the wind, not the cold, that was raising the most concern among the mushers. That’s because dog teams do not like heading straight into a strong wind, never mind winds of 65 km/h that with wind chill were driving temperatures to 40 C below or more and creating a ground blizzard on the sea ice.

Gatt, a three-time winner of the Yukon Quest - considered by many to be a tougher race than the Iditarod because the weather is often colder and the checkpoints are farther apart - said mushers can’t prepare their teams for these conditions.

They don’t even train in these conditions, Gatt said, as he put new booties on his dogs and prepared to leave Shaktoolik.

“They don’t want to go in this stuff,” Gatt said. “You just hope for the best.”

By MARY PEMBERTON

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS