I wanted to hold off on this afternoon’s report because I wanted to wait until more mushers reached White Mountain.
Jeff King reached this small village first, at 6:34am AKST next came in Doug Swingley at 9:41am. Paul Gebhardt remained ahead of DeeDee Jonrowe on the trail from Elim to come in at 11:59, and Jonrowe herself arrived just a few minutes later at 12:24pm. John Baker was the latest to arrive, coming in at 1:14pm.
Each musher to arrive in White Mountain will take a mandatory 8-hour layover before making what is usually a final sprint into Nome. Its not to late for Doug Swingley to catch some time on Jeff King, but leaving the checkpoint 3 hours later with only 77 miles until Nome…its going to be hard to do.
King will leave at 2:34pm this afternoon and with weather calming down a bit, he should be able to maintain a pretty steady pace. The challenge will come at 5:41pm for Doug Swingley who will be leaving the checkpoint and will have only 77 miles to catch up with Jeff King.
Those who have already given King the victory are now looking at the race between Jonrowe & Gebhardt, as well as the rest of the top ten lineup.
I called and spoke with Iditarod Headquarters in Nome and they are predicting a winner to arrive somewhere around midnight Alaska time. I’ll try to record audio from KICY and hopefully you’ll be able to listen to a recorded version of the finish in the morning! I’ll also keep you updated as the mushers pass through Safety, the last checkpoint before reaching the finish line.