Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2010 News and Coverage

I’ve been catching the Iditarod coverage on the versus network over the last few weeks, Its really pretty impressive the type of national feel they give to the Iditarod. I know that the whole crew at versus works really hard to capture the whole Iditarod story and put it into a 3 hour TV special. It can be very frustrating though as a hardcore Iditarod fan to know some of the great stuff that doesn’t get talked about because of time constraints or because of the amount of energy that would go into telling a backstory. I do have to say that national coverage always focuses so much on the race leaders, its to bad for those out there that run the race out of pure passion every year, but don’t get their 15 minutes of fame. I suppose you can’t confuse people to much with listing dozen of musher names and positions, but there is so much more to the Iditarod than just who is in the top 5.As Versus airs their last special this Sunday evening, we will officially say goodbye to Iditarod 35, and start looking to some of the smaller races that will happen over the next year. Keep your browsers tuned to Dogseld.com for amazing coverage all year long; they really keep the ball rolling for all the true mushing fans out there in cyberspace.All Alaska Sweepstakes One big event coming up in 2008 that will dramatically change the Dog Sled landscape next year is going to be the “All Alaska Sweepstakes”. This $100,000, winner take all race will happen right around this time in 2008, just two weeks after the Iditarod. The race is 408 miles, it is from Nome to Candle and back, and is a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the original running of the AAS. The last time this race happened was in 1983, and Rick Swenson took the prize that year.When I was in Nome I sat down with Howard Farley, who helped to start the Iditarod with Joe Reddington, and is on the committee that is in charge of the All Alaska Sweepstakes. Also included in the interview is Urtha Lenharr, Iditarod veteran and board member for the AAS 2008. Mushers are signing up for this race in droves; King, Swenson, Mackey, and Seavey are just a few of the names that have already signed up for this historic running. Listen to the hour long interview below, and then visit the All Alaska Sweepstakes website.

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At almost 3am this morning, Rookie Ellen Halverson became Iditarod 35’s Red Lantern winner. She was the last of 58 mushers to finish this year’s Iditarod sled dog race, when she passed under the burled arch the widow’s lantern, which had been burning since the beginning of the race, was extinguished.

With arguably the toughest trail in Iditarod history, and 23 scratched mushers, in 16 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes, Ellen can still be extremely proud just to have finished this grueling race. Halverson, who is 46 and a native of North Dakota started mushing nearly 15 years ago and moved to Alaska in 1998. She was the last one to finish this years race, and only 14 minutes behind Donald Smidt from Wisconsin.

Brooks Disqualified

There has been a cloud of controversy surrounding the Iditarod this year because of the disqualification and investigation of musher Ramy Brooks. Things got bad for Brooks as he was on the Bering Sea coast, on his way to the final checkpoint of Safety, it was there that one of Brook’s dogs died. Heartbroken, Ramy continued onto Safety and told the checker there that he would like to scratch from the race. The checker tried to get a hold of the Race Marshall in Nome but was unable to do so, vets checked out Brooks’ dogs and advised that he continue the last 22 miles into Nome. Once Brooks arrived in Nome he was not checked in until an investigation could be done on the death of his dog, the process that one would normally go through at the checkpoint. About 6 hours later he was checked into Nome in 15th place, instead of 12th.

It wasn’t long after that when rumors started flying about allegations made against Brooks stating that as he was passing though the village of Golovin, he “spanked” two of his dogs that refused to continue on the trail, it was reported that he used a thin piece of wood, used as a trail marker to hit his dogs. This action was seen by a teacher in the village and some students. The students went home, told their parents, and a parent notified race officials. Brooks was disqualified from Iditarod 35 on the evening of March 17th, a few hours after Nome’s “Meet the Mushers” gathering, where I noticed a obviously troubled Brooks. A panel of 3 investigators had been meeting, and unanimously agreed to disqualify Ramy Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod.

Since that time, it has been reported in the media that the extent of Brooks’ abuse to his dogs in Golovin was more than originally confirmed. The teacher is claiming that Brooks punched and kicked each of his dogs when the team stopped outside of the village. Another accusation is that Brooks’ mother – Roxy Wright, a famed musher assisted Brooks’ by standing on the back of his sled while he was trying to get his dogs to continue. This violates another Iditarod rule about the type of help you can get while out on the trail.

Race Marshall Mark Nordman has said that a investigation will continue looking into these events, and right now it is just the word of one person against another. The result of an inquest could be a permanent ban from the Iditarod for Brooks. Ramy has accepted is disqualification from this year’s race and does not dispute the original story but has not made a comment on the details that came out later. The investigation into Brook’s dog death coming into Safety suggest that the two incidents are not related.

GB Jones’ Dog Found

You may remember a while back we reported that GB Jones decided to scratch from the Iditarod after one of his dogs got loose and was lost. Jones chose to scratch so he could find his dog Aafes. After 11 days in the Alaskan Wilderness, two volunteers found the dog near the checkpoint of Rohn. According to Jones’ website Aafes was airlifted out of the Alaska range and was given a physical health exam by the Bering Sea Animal Clinic in Anchorage and is reported to be in relatively good health. Jones’ also adds that Aafes is been doing lots of sleeping and eating since, and when found she was still wearing her blue dog coat, her harness, a bandanna and green Iditarod tag.

Banquet 05 – Top 18 Musher Awards

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Banquet 03 – Presentation of Awards

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The Iditarod Awards Banquet wrapped up a few hours ago in the Nome Rec Center, it was an amazing dinner of Halibut, Prime-Rib, prawns, and fresh strawberries. Its always fun to hear stories as told by the mushers, and see the awards all given out. We were there taping the whole banquet, and have now posted it online for you to enjoy. We weren’t able to get a feed from the microphone itself, but we did have a recording device on the stage just to the right of the podium, so you are able to hear pretty much everything that is going on.

It’s split up into five sections, and unfortunately because of the manner in which this was all able to come together, we ran out of juice about half way through and missed some of the middle mushers as I went and literally ran into Nome to get some fresh batteries for the recording device. We tried to make it happen as best as possible.

You can also see pictures of the event by clicking (here)

Banquet 04 – Mushers pt 1

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Banquet 02 – Auction of Trail Mail (New and Old)

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