CENTRAL, Alaska By late Monday afternoon, all the missing mushers and their dog teams from the Yukon Quest and the Quest 300 race had been located.

Quest officials are reporting they are all safe and uninjured.

Inclement weather on Sunday night trapped five Yukon Quest mushers on Eagle Summit.

The snow and freezing rain were occurring from Sunday afternoon through Monday. Blowing winds were creating snowdrifts on the 1,105-metre (3,685-foot) summit up two feet deep and causing low visibility.

Thirteen teams made it over the mountain and into the Central, Alaska checkpoint on Sunday night. The mushers were reporting snow like concrete and an inability to see more than six metres in front of them.

Rookie mushers Yuka Honda, Saul Turner, Regina Wycoff and Phil Joy also attempted the summit on Sunday night and never arrived in Central.

Veteran musher Jennifer Cochran tried the summit as well and also didn't reach the checkpoint in the evening.

Despite the climb over Eagle Summit, Mile 101 and Central are only 45 kilometres apart.

At 7:15 Monday morning, Wycoff arrived at the checkpoint, having travelled down the mountain with two Quest 300 mushers, Brent Sass and Randy Chappel.

Chappel, who was racing a team composed of some dogs belonging to former Quest champion Aliy Zirkle, lost hold of the sled as he plunged down the incline. The dogs were gone within seconds and invisible in the whiteout conditions.

By mid-morning, race officials attempted to send out search teams on snow machines from Central and Mile 101 to look for the missing mushers and Chappel's dogs. But the continued bad weather forced them to turn back.

Teams still arriving at Mile 101 from the Quest 300 race were advised to stay at the dog drop until the weather blew over.

However, 18-year-old Mount Lorne musher Kiara Adams had already left in the early-morning hours before the advisory was being issued. Russ Bybee, a Quest rookie but a two-time Iditarod musher, also attempted the summit but returned to Mile 101 and scratched.

But Quest 300 mushers Roland Waldispuehl, Rocky Demers, Martin Jhar, Didier Moggia and Bob McAlpin also managed to arrive in Central.

By mid-afternoon, race officials had recruited the help of the American military to look for the teams.

A Black Hawk helicopter, a Robertson R44 helicopter and a Cessna 208 airplane piloted by the National Air Guard and Alaskan State Troopers were put into the air to try to find the teams.

Mike McCowan, the Quest's race marshall, said he could not recall a time the military had been asked to become involved in a search on the Quest trail.

Continued blowing snow was still expected to create difficult search conditions for the aircraft, said McCowan, but the Quest wanted to get the search teams out before it again grew dark.

The aircraft were equipped with infrared devices to locate heat spots on the mountain that might be a team.

'We're going to find everybody,' McCowan said, adding dogs were considered participants just as much as the mushers. The Quest was dedicated to searching for Chappel's missing team too, he said.

Meanwhile, Quest 300 mushers Tammi Rego, Alyssa Quaile and Chester Witczak had not yet arrived at Mile 101 from Angel Creek.

Quest mushers had experienced difficult trail conditions of overflow and glaciation going into the dog drop the day before. The stretch of trail also includes passing over the 1,092-metre (3,640-foot) Rosebud Summit.

Fewer than two hours passed from the time the aircraft went to air when reports began coming in about located mushers.

Turner, Honda, Joy and Cochran were found together just below Eagle Summit. The four teams were transported with their dogs back to Mile 101 safely. Adams was also located and transported back to the dog drop with her team.

Quest officials are labeling the quintet's transport as a 'withdrawal from the race.' All of the mushers are not being listed as having scratched on the Quest's website.

Teams are unable to receive outside assistance during the Quest.

Miraculously, Chappel's team was also located uninjured and transported back to Mile 101.

All of the dogs returned to the drop are doing well, said Kathleen McGill, the Quest's head vet.

'These dogs did a whole lot better than the mushers did,' she said.

A few of the dogs have a couple scratches and sore wrists and muscles from the ordeal, but there are no major injuries. No IVs nor even antibiotics had to be given to any of the airlifted dogs.

Many of the dogs even had 'happy tails' when they were brought off the helicopters at the drop.

By late Monday afternoon, the Quest 300 mushers lost between Mile 101 and Angel Creek had also been spotted from the air and appeared to be heading back to the first checkpoint.

On Monday night, snow machines were being sent in their direction to help brake the trail, which had become badly covered in snow during the storm.

Three 300 teams are still located in Mile 101 with the option of continuing on. Two of them had attempted Eagle Summit, but returned to the drop's lodge by their own means.

McCowan said the day's events were 'out of the ordinary' for the Quest.

'It ended up being a great day,' he said when the search and rescue ordeal was done at around 9 p.m.

He said he wasn't necessarily surprised everyone pulled out of the situation in one piece, but was 'extremely pleased.'

Frank Turner, Saul's father and the only person to have run in every race until this year, said he cried when he heard his son was one of the first mushers found and transported back to Mile 101.

'If you're a parent, it doesn't matter how old your kids get, you still have that kind of protective instinct,' he said.

Turner had been anxiously awaiting Saul's arrival in Central since about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

He had initially criticized the race officials for not having a contingency plan in place when it became apparent weather and trail conditions were turning bad for many mushers on the summit.

But by Monday afternoon, Turner said he was pleased by how people in Central 'stepped up and started putting a plan in place.

'Once the plan got moving, it was really quite impressive,' he said.

He added the mushers who had to be transported shouldn't feel ashamed or question their race.

'I'm just so proud of all those guys,' he said. 'They deserve credit just for pulling through. They were in a really difficult situation.'

Surviving what they've gone through and working together through the rough night will be something they will remember forever, said Turner.

He jokingly added, 'How many people get to ride with their dogs in a Black Hawk helicopter?'

Continued road closures on both sides of Eagle Summit kept Turner and other handlers waiting for their teams in Central from returning to Mile 101.

'I just would like to make a break for it and go over and see those guys tonight,' he said.

The road closures also left race officials formulating a plan on how to use snow machines to get food and supplies to the dogs and mushers at the drop. Because the distance between Mile 101 and Central is 45 km and usually only about a five -hour ride, mushers did not have enough food with them to give to the teams in these extreme circumstances.

The Star has been unable to reach any of the mushers who were transported back to Mile 101.