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The two Whitehorse newspapers, The Yukon News and the Whitehorse Daily Star, are arguably two of the very best community newspapers in Canada, despite their having given the Yukon Quest a relatively easy ride for many years. Their hard-working reporters (Kelly-Anne Riess of the Star, and Jillian Rogers of the News) who covered the 2005 Quest race, were not shy about serving up the occasional 'dirt' about the Quest in excerpts from newpaper articles. [Ed. Note: According to the 2007 Iditarod/Yukon Quest 'special issue' of Mushing Magazine, Jillian Rogers is currently training in Alaska to compete in 'a future Yukon Quest.'] 'Banquet served up laughter with meal' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 14, 2005) [Musher Hugh Neff has a new commitment to dog care] A lot of people remember Neff for his second year in 2001, when he was disqualified for not giving his dogs enough time to recover, according to officials. Neff is now more experienced, having run five Quests. His Quest team has more male dogs, but will have females for leaders. "Because it's the girls who are always in charge," he said. Neff used to call Skagway his hometown, but has met a "good Canadian girl" and now calls the Annie Lake road [Ed. Note - near Whitehorse] his home… When it was William Kleedehn's turn to pull a number, he took the opportunity to criticize the Quest, suggesting the race needs to up the prize money. The 10th-place finisher should get at least $10,000, he said. "Or pretty soon there will be only 10 mushers," said Kleedehn. "Mushers won't be coming back if they don't get any gas money." Kleedehn urged all the racers to put on a good show for any potential Quest sponsors out there who can help the race add to the purse. [Quest musher] Frank Turner gave one of his famous long-winded speeches when drawing his number. Turner, who has run in every single Quest, told several stories, including one about the first Quest. The young Turner had gone out and bought a large supply of bad-tasting energy bars that year. He later conned fellow musher Wilson Sam into taking them in exchange for great-tasting meats, like caribou. Sam had never had an energy bar, said Turner. Turner and Sam travelled together and stopped just short of the finish line to run a sprint to the finish. Turner finished just ahead when his lead dogs cut off Sam's. After one story too many, Turner was eventually cut off. "Frank just told me I'm the best mayor because I keep my speeches short, so let's hope Frank never runs for mayor," [City of Whitehorse] Mayor Ernie Bourassa said earlier in the evening. This Quest will be a very special year for Turner because his son, who hopes to run the race next year, will be his handler… [Government of Yukon] Tourism and Culture Minister Elaine Taylor, who is due any day now to have a baby, showed up to make another kind of announcement. "I'm pleased to announce that I'm still here. I didn't really think I'd be here due to my personal circumstances," said Taylor, looking down at her belly. Her real announcement was that the territory has funded an economic impact study on the Quest. People armed with clipboards were at the front doors of the convention centre asking banquet ticket holders where they had come from and why they were at the event. Once the Yukon Quest gets a good sense of who its audience is, the thinking goes, it might be able to lure in more sponsors. For a few years, the Quest had been struggling to avoid bankruptcy, but this year, the race is in the black, and organizers are looking to build a strong financial base. 'After months of trials, mushers hit the trail' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 14, 2005) [Ill-prepared musher] Like [Alaska musher] Dan Kaduce, Quebec dog driver Marcelle Fressineau also had a score to settle this year. In 2002, Fressineau had to be rescued on the trail between Central and Circle after her dogs collapsed in exhaustion. She had underestimated the run time between the two Alaskan checkpoints and therefore packed for the 120-kilometre route. When her dogs quit running, she realized she didn't have enough food for them or herself and, with the temperature plummeting below minus 40, she thought she would likely die that night on the Yukon Quest trail. A search crew found her the next day and, because she got that assistance, she was forced to scratch [drop out of race]. "I made many mistakes," she said Sunday at the start line. "I am nervous, but I will do my best to finish the race. I will try not to make the same mistake," she said in a thick French accent. "My dogs lost weight and it was better for the dogs to scratch." [John Schandelmeier racing shelter dogs] "One thousand huskies go to the Fairbanks Animal Shelter each year and we chose 18. And we can finish the race and finish the race competitively. How competitively is up in the air."... "I'm not out here to make anyone look like a fool. My message is that we need to be more careful about the dogs we cull and the dogs we throw away. It's pretty unrealistic to expect for me to be in the top end with dogs that somebody else threw away. But if I am, I'm not sure what that says. What does that say to you? Maybe these dogs have a few problems but they came to me not even being able to run. If these dogs weren't here, they'd be dead." 'Quest a 'really special race': frontrunner' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 16, 2005) [Quest rookie Jon Little discusses race strategy] "If you start putting the pedal to the metal, you know you're going to be in big trouble," he said. "I downed one dog already." Little has 13 dogs left. In the Iditarod, mushers start with 16, whereas the most the Quest permits is 14. "You've got a couple of dogs to play with, you can say: 'I have to drop that one;' it's no big deal," said Little. "Here, it's really important to keep them all going, especially with those heavy loads." One dog suffered a wrist injury and another a shoulder problem. Little said pacing himself with Kleedehn and Willomitzer just happened. "I noticed earlier in the day that we were doing the same thing and this just seemed to fit into that," he said, adding they seem to operate with a similar strategy to his. Kleedehn said there are two strategies rookies like Little can adopt. They can set a goal of just finishing, in which case, they can stop wherever it's convenient. "They can come up with a strategy and stick with it," said Kleedehn. Or, they can do what Little did for a while and latch onto an experienced team. To do that for the entire race is a dangerous choice, mainly because that person has the potential to overrun his dogs after not training them in the same manner as the veteran musher. '"They won't run," says sidelined musher' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 16, 2005) [Quebec musher Martin Massicotte drops out] PELLY CROSSING - Quebec musher Martin Massicotte became the second person to quit the Yukon Quest today. The 36-year-old from St. Tite tried to leave Pelly Crossing at around 1:00 this morning. However, when it came time to go down the first hill on his way to Dawson City, he decided it was better to turn around and go back. "They just won't run. They are tired," Massicotte said when he returned to the checkpoint. His dogs refused to eat after he arrived in Pelly at 5:29 p.m. Tuesday. He tried feeding them frozen meat, kibble and thawed-out meat. But his dogs wouldn't eat, even though there was another jealous dog team parked beside him that was eyeing up the tasty treats. Earlier Tuesday evening, Massicotte said he would let his dogs sleep before trying to feed them again. Massicotte had been having problems with his dogs since leaving Braeburn on Monday. He had to drop four dogs in Carmacks and a fifth at McCabe Creek. Several of his dogs were suffering from shoulder injuries. Another one had a back spasm, but the veterinarian wasn't able to tell Massicotte why. Those troubles had Massicotte thinking about throwing in the towel at every checkpoint and in Pelly, he finally did. However, before leaving Pelly, Massicotte said that besides fatigue, his dogs were in good shape. They were way more motivated than he was, he added, and he was just following his team. Massicotte, while eating supper last night, admitted he was a bit scared about the rest of the race. 'Two Quest drivers call it quits' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 16, 2005) [Dog virus fears] He [Quebec musher Martin Massicotte] wanted to scratch in Carmacks, but was coaxed into staying by his handlers. And, though he denied that his dogs had picked up some sort of virus Tuesday before he scratched, he did admit that his future in this Yukon Quest was up in the air. "They're going to eat, he's letting them sleep first," said Massicotte's handler and translator Benoit Lachance. "In general, they're pretty much in good shape." But it soon became apparent that they were, in fact, in rough condition... [Leading mushers try to outrun the virus] The fear of illness among the dogs is pushing some frontrunners to go faster. "If there's a virus around, I'm outta here," said [Yukon musher] William Kleedehn... Kelley Griffin is also losing dogs. She was down to a team of eight when she rolled out of Pelly at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday. "Unfortunately, I've had to drop half my team," she said at the checkpoint, located at the new recreation centre in Pelly. One of her dogs had started to contract a condition that breaks down muscle tissue and can ultimately lead to sled dog myopathy or "drop dead syndrome," Griffin said, "That makes me a little nervous." 'The Mackey name returns to the Quest' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 16, 2005) Lance Mackey was born to race sled dogs. His father Dick has been called a father of the Iditarod and the Quest. If that wasn't enough, his first word was "dog" and, by the time he was 19, he had 100 sled dogs of his own. Later, he sold his entire kennel. Today, at 34, Mackey has rebuilt it. It's called Mackey's Comeback Kennel. "One hundred dogs at 19 and no career was a little devastating, so we sold most of the good ones," Mackey said. "But, oh man, after I sold my dogs I just could not forget about them." 'Final Quebecer scratches from race' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 17, 2005) DAWSON CITY - Quebecer Marcelle Fressineau became the third musher to quit the Yukon Quest today, which means there are no more teams representing that province. The other two Quebec mushers, Daniel Bourassa and Martin Massicotte, scratched from the race earlier this week. Fressineau decided to call it quits in Stepping Stone, roughly halfway between Pelly Crossing and Dawson City, at 10:00 this morning, after her dogs just shut down. "There was a revolt," said race marshal Mike McCowan, from Delta Junction, Alaska. "My dogs were just tired," Fressineau said in a radio-phone interview out of Stepping Stone. "It was very difficult to keep going down the trail." Stepping Stone is a place with a few cabins that are open, offering mushers a hot bite to eat and a place to rest on the way to Dawson. Things were not going well for the 49-year-old when she left Pelly Crossing at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday. Last summer, she trained six dogs to lead her sled and she had to drop four of them, near Pelly. "The best one had a problem with his shoulder. The others were tired and wouldn't pull anymore," she said in an interview in Pelly. Another dog had a sore leg, and she didn't want to hurt it anymore. "It will be very difficult to get to Dawson City," Fressineau predicted. Being a rookie, Fressineau wasn't as familiar with the trail when compared to those who have been running the Quest for years. She guessed it would take her three days to get to Dawson. "The weather forecast is good. It's lonely to be by myself," she said yesterday about being at the back of the pack. When [Quebec musher Daniel] Bourassa dropped out in Carmacks, he was a good day behind everyone else. His dogs just didn't want to run. One was limping and the rest just weren't up for the race. Bourassa said if he forced his team to go, they would have kept going for him. But Bourassa wanted to be known as the musher from Quebec who loves his dogs, rather than the musher from Quebec who kills his dogs, said one veterinarian… 'Musher can train outcasts into shining trail stars' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 17, 2005) [Alaska musher John Schandelmeier's 'discarded dogs'] PELLY CROSSING - Mushers spend years breeding the fastest, strongest dogs for the Yukon Quest, but only one has the courage to work with the rarest type of sled dog: the discarded. John Schandelmeier, a two-time Quest champion from Paxson, Alaska, has 10 adopted shelter dogs on his team of 14, called the Alaska Shelter Race Team. Schandelmeier didn't adopt these dogs for the publicity; he did it to win… Altogether, 18 of Schandelmeier's 38 dogs in his kennel were rescued from neglect, poor nutrition, physically abusive owners or mushers who didn't want them anymore. 'Musher struggles on with half her team' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 17, 2005) ['Punchy' trail takes its toll on dogs] PELLY CROSSING - It was "devastating" to have to drop almost half her dog team, says Yukon Quest musher Kelley Griffin. The Wasilla, Alaska resident had eight dogs left on Wednesday. She started the race with 14. A musher must have at least six dogs to be permitted to cross the Fairbanks finish line. Muscle tissue was breaking down on one dog, Boeing. That can lead to athlete's heart syndrome, where a dog just drops dead after its heart stops. "That makes me a little nervous, so he went back to the truck," said Griffin. That dog's brother, MacDonald, was just exhausted, she said. "He wasn't having any fun," Griffin said about her decision to drop him. A third dog, Cougar, developed tendonitis in his pectoral muscles. His sister, Rainbow, was afflicted with a sore shoulder, as was another dog, Spice. Rainbow quitting was a big shock for the 45-year-old musher, as the female dog has finished the Quest as many times as Griffin has - three. "It's emotionally devastating. Rainbow!" Griffin cried about the loss. "Some of this trail is kind of punchy," she added. Punchy trails often lead to shoulder injuries. As teams went over the trail before Griffin, they chewed it all up with their tromping. "You're not stopping as effectively, so you're running over your own dogs," Griffin said about the punctured trail. The only nice stretch of trail she's encountered was going into the first checkpoint back in Braeburn. The Quest began in Whitehorse last Sunday afternoon. Another dropped dog, Bogart, was just sore all over. "There's so many (dogs dropped) I just can't remember," said a tired Griffin, who was just about to take a nap in the Pelly checkpoint. 'Neff gives his dogs 'tough love' and gets the gold' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 18, 2005) [Controversial musher Hugh Neff 'trashes his dogs'] Alaskan Hugh Neff skidded into Dawson City 21 minutes after noon Thursday in first place. He'll collect four ounces of gold for coming in first - but first he has to finish the remaining 800 kilometres, which includes three major summits. To be first to reach Dawson, Neff ran his dogs for more than 14 hours with no significant rest over the 160 kilometres from the Scroggie Creek dog drop to the Klondike's capital. Arriving in Dawson, Neff couldn't help but wonder what happened to his opponents. "Seems like a lot of my competition was sleeping last night," he said just a minute or so after pulling into Dawson. "Every time I passed a musher it seems like they were sleeping. I couldn't figure it out." When he arrived on Front Street here, his team looked plain worn out. All the dogs' tails were down and a couple even flopped onto the ground the moment the sled stopped. A couple were limping and a few had raw spots from harness rub. "But that's all part of racing," said race judge Curtis Erhart. "This year it's a real race, so of course the dogs are going to be tired," said Erhart. In 2001, Neff's second Quest, he was asked to withdraw by vets and officials after his dogs arrived in Eagle in really rough shape. A rogue Neff didn't listen to the vets' advice, and continued on to Fairbanks. He has finished two Quests since then, placing 11th in 2002 and 8th in 2003. In 2004, he finished 22nd in his first Iditarod and won rookie-of-the-year honours. But Neff said he knows his team and how to run and rest them. And "four ounces of gold is four ounces of gold," he said. "I call it 'tough love.' You love them as much as you can but you don't coddle them." Neff trains his dogs on bad trail for long stretches on purpose and that's an advantage in this race, he said. "They've done much more intense stuff than this," Neff said. "To the lay observer, they're like, 'oh yeah, those dogs look tired,' but to me I know it's just the process. It's a cycle that they're going through." They may have hit that "300-mile wall, but they'll persevere and be 'good to go' by tomorrow," he added... "I'm thinking that Hugh had his eyes on the four ounces of gold more than anything," said Wendel Carey, this year's race manager. And though the dogs were "pretty much trashed" by the time they reached Dawson, Carey added that 36 hours is lots of time for them to recover... [Alaskan journalist/musher Jon Little gets lost] ...But Little's disadvantage is not knowing the subtle details of the trail, unlike some of the veterans on his tail. On the run from Pelly, Little had planned to stop at Scroggie Creek to drop a dog and take a long rest. But he missed the trail into the cabin and didn't really clue in until nine hours had gone by. He doesn't usually run his dogs that long, he said. Pinard's leaders did her in, says partner' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 18, 2005) [Borrowed dogs 'not good enough' for team] DAWSON CITY - Carcross musher Catherine Pinard was the fourth musher to withdraw from the Yukon Quest sled dog race Thursday. She scratched in Scroggie Creek, an abandoned mining camp 160 kilometres from Dawson. As of 1 p.m. Thursday, race officials were trying to organize a way to get Pinard's dogs out because Scroggie is not accessible by road. In the end, the dogs were airlifted back to Dawson. It's not known why Pinard scratched, although there are some reports that she had problems with her leaders. Pinard's whole race involved doing what's best for her dogs. Her partner, William Kleedehn, who was the fourth musher into Dawson, was not surprised that she scratched. "I knew that the leaders she had were not good enough for the team that was behind them," he said in Dawson last night. Kleedehn said her team was like a Ferrari engine in a Volkswagen. He said he wouldn't compete with a team like hers. "It's too much work," he said. "Your team dogs are the engine and your leaders keep the whole team together and in the right direction." 'Reaching for gold was a gamble: mushers' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 18, 2005) DAWSON CITY - Hugh Neff took a gamble for the gold, says Dave Dalton, the sixth musher to reach Dawson on Thursday in the Yukon Quest sled dog race. Neff made a 14-hour run into Dawson, taking very short breaks. The longest break he took during that time was 40 minutes. Some mushers say it was a gamble that could have cost him the rest of the race as it might have drained the energy out of his dogs. "I wouldn't have done it if it was the first day of the race," said Neff. He knew his dogs would rest up in Dawson because of the mandatory 36-hour layover there. If Neff can successfully make it to Fairbanks with six dogs attached to his sled, he will be taking home four ounces of gold for being the first musher into Dawson, the mid-way point of the race. Never in the history of the Quest has anyone not been able to take the poke of gold, said Joe Fellers, a Klondike placer miner who has donated gold for the award since the start of the race back in 1984. Finishing in the race to get the gold, is all part of the tradition, said Stephen Reynolds, the Yukon Quest manager based in Whitehorse. "Back then, you had to get there, get the gold, and make it home alive to enjoy your prize," he said. "And there were a lot of people who didn't make it."… All of Neff's dogs were "healthy and eating" when he came into Dawson, "and as long as they are doing that, I'm happy," said Neff. He uses tough love to train his dogs. "I don't coddle them like you would a fat dog on the couch," he said. Neff trains his dogs in the bush, off the groomed trails. "Most of the teams here are good, but they aren't used to punchy trail," he said, adding that training his dogs in rough conditions gives him an advantage. "My dogs have been around the block," he said. Neff might drop one dog in Dawson. The shiny rock he will be receiving is worth approximately $2,100 (Cdn.), said Uta Reilly at Klondike Nugget and Ivory in Dawson. 'Third time's not a charm for Pinard' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 18, 2005) [More on Catherine Pinard's leader problems] ..."I'm going through it again, is what it is," [Yukon musher Kyla] Boivin said, comparing Pinard's scratch to her own in 2004. According to Boivin, Pinard was having leader problems and just couldn't continue without any guidance up front. Pinard's troubles began after she was forced to drop Shoofie, a four-year-old leader that she had borrowed from Boivin. She officially scratched Thursday morning at the Scroggie Creek dog drop, 160 kilometres from Dawson... "The leaders that she had were not good enough for the team that was behind them," said Pinard's partner William Kleedehn, after coming into Dawson in fourth place. After a funny start to her race (she was dragged behind her sled after it overturned on the Yukon River on the first day), Pinard began to get into her own race rhythm past Braeburn. "It's exciting to run with all kinds of other mushers, I'm not used to seeing them at all," she said in McCabe earlier in the week. "I'm not racing," she added. "I'm just really looking at my dogs and trying to figure out what's best for them," she said... Kleedehn said her leaders couldn't keep up with the team's speed. "She knew that she had a problem there all along," he said. Pinard gave her dogs a long rest in McCabe. Two female dogs were in heat. "So the boys were kind of losing it," she said. "I have a young male I would have liked to have up front, but he cannot focus. He just wants to visit the girls. And even the girls play together. I had trouble with them. I have to separate them so they can sleep." 'Little playing "the rabbit" in the race to Fairbanks' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 18, 2005) [Musher's tracks lead to liquor store] ...At least one musher even stopped at the liquor store that is perched on top of American Summit. [Gerry] Willomitzer said he saw tracks leading over to the small shop, but he didn't know who it was. And while it was tempting for him to stop and pick up a six-pack last year, his first race, this year he didn't want to lose any precious time... 'The fight to finish' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 18, 2005) [Rookie Quest musher Sam Perrino drops out] Yellowknife's Sam Perrino decided to take a break from stage racing to try the Yukon Quest for the first time, but scratched in Dawson on the weekend. Simply put, it just wasn't for him, he said. He made the decision on the way from Pelly to Scroggie Creek. "Our goal was to figure out if we want to get into long distance racing," he said. And the dogs are so much happier when they're stage racing. We're just not cut out to do this kind of thing." 'Willomitzer is first Quester out of Eagle' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 21, 2005) [William Kleedehn's dog problems] Willomitzer climbed over the 1,026-metre (3,420-foot) American Summit in the morning before sunrise, when the traditionally windy summit is known to be calm. He had been travelling with Kleedehn throughout the race, but after Kleedehn ran into problems with his dogs, Willomitzer decided to leave him in his dust. One of Kleedehn's dogs fell into a hole and injured itself, while several others had problems with diarrhea. He also lost his favourite leader, Dogmatic, in Scroggie Creek, after he hurt himself on the punchy trail. Dogmatic had never been injured before and has usually finished every race Kleedehn has entered him in. "It took the wind out of my sails," said Kleedehn about his problems. He told reporters he thinks his chances of winning the race are over. "No more wieners" Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 21, 2005) [Yukon musher Sebastian Schnuelle eats his dogs' treats] When Schnuelle left Pelly Crossing, he knew there was good food in Stepping Stone, so he decided to skip dinner. He ate there, and when he was asked if he wanted any extra food for the trail, Schnuelle said no, without looking in his sled bag. "By the time I was ready for my snack, I opened my bag and there is not a piece of food in it. I totally forgot to pack any food in Pelly. So I was like, 'Oh man, what did that guy ask me?'" he said. Schnuelle's main leader, Tang, is a picky eater, so he carries a lot of hot dogs for her. "She loves wieners," Schnuelle said, but since he had no other food, he ate her hot dogs for breakfast, lunch and supper. "That's all I had to eat from Stepping Stone to Dawson," Schnuelle said with a laugh about the 269-kilometre stretch. "Tang probably thought: 'You bastard, you're eating my wieners.'" Now the first thing he puts in his sled is food for himself. "It's not happening again. There will be no more wieners for the rest of this trip." [Ed. Note - Mr. Schnuelle had ample regular dog food for his team] 'Musher has second thoughts, quits race' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 21, 2005) [Musher Bruce Langmaid drops out] "When you travel this area by dogsled, you get a true sense of the vastness of the Yukon, which is, at times, overwhelming." Langmaid said the race had been nerve-wracking and grueling at times. He asked himself: "What the hell am I doing out here?" At every check point, he was tempted to jump into the truck with his handler and warm up. "If I ever get through this, it will be a real accomplishment," Langmaid said before coming into Dawson. Unfortunately, say officials, he just gave up. 'Kleedehn believes he's still in race' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 21, 2005) [Musher William Kleedehn on fellow musher Hugh Neff's run to Dawson] Kleedehn often takes his dogs on 10-hour runs in training. "We rested just about as long as we ran," he said. "We decided to see how the trail was, how the weather was and how the dogs were." They were going to run at least up to the domes, if not all the way to King Solomon's Dome. "But the dog team looked good so we ran right to the finish, so that was a long run," said Kleedehn. "Our dog teams were not under any kind of stress or anything. If we would have stopped for a longer break, other teams would have walked by us." Neff ran his dogs for 14 hours to get into Dawson first, taking few breaks. "It has been done before by people who have won this race so it is nothing new," said Kleedehn about Neff's performance. "He put in quite the effort and I hope it works out for him. I think he took a chance." Neff has competed in five Quests and was rookie of the year in last year's Iditarod. After this year's Quest, he plans to take another crack at the Iditarod in March. Some mushers say Neff might have drained his dogs of all their energy, meaning his dogs might not have anything left to make a push for a first-place finish in Fairbanks… [Catherine Pinard's team's 'vomit and bloody diarrhea' among reasons for her dropping out] Kleedehn's partner, Catherine Pinard, scratched in Scroggie Creek, 160 kilometres from Dawson. The 30-year-old musher dropped out after she had problems with her leaders. Throughout the race, she was continually switching leaders. One she had to drop in McCabe because of a wrist injury, and by Scroggie, several of her dogs were sick, vomiting in addition to having bloody diarrhea. There was only one leader healthy enough to carry on in the race, she said. Pinard was disappointed about having to withdraw from the race, but in the end, she had to do what was best for her dogs. The francophone musher, originally from Montreal, plans to run the Quest again. For now, Pinard will wait until her young team matures. 'Mild weather making Quest a tough slog' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 23, 2005) [Poor trail conditions cause problems for mushers, vets, and race officials] CENTRAL, Alaska - Warm weather took its toll on the Yukon Quest's lead mushers Tuesday evening. "The trail is bad. It was very soft. It was like a rut in the snow that you are supposed to follow," said Jon Little, who was the first musher into Central. The mild weather meant teams were travelling more slowly than normal. "It was pretty nasty," said Hugh Neff, who was third into town, arriving a little after 10 p.m. Tuesday. He spent his time coming into Central kicking and pushing the sled. "It's like sand out there," Neff said, adding that mushers have just set the record for the slowest run between Circle and Central… A snowstorm blew into Central Tuesday, creating major drifts along the roads. Race marshal Mike McCowan tried to send vets to the Mile 101 checkpoint before the highway was closed. The vets have to be at all the stops to help mushers with any problem dogs. A veterinarian assistant, June Ryan, from North Pole, Alaska, got stuck in a snowdrift with another vet on their way to the dog drop. Someone from the Steese Roadhouse in Central had to ride up on a snow machine to rescue them, taking the pair to their destination. McCowan said race officials were waiting for snow plows to clear the roads so they could meet the mushers at the checkpoint. Many mushers got lost on their way to Circle after trail markers were blown down. "That river's been brutal out there," said Hyslop. "I'm sure we'll hear some horror stories. It's the Yukon River. It blows. It's just the way it is." "The trail wasn't marked because it couldn't be. It was on glare ice," said Little. "You can't stick anything in glare ice." Mackey and Neff, the first ones through, became lost, leading all the other mushers astray, who later followed their tracks through the jumble ice. "Their trail was zig-zagging back and forth, over the ice and sometimes it seems like Lance's dogs were aiming to go over the nastiest parts," said Little. Although he knew Mackey and Neff were lost, he kept following their head lamps until the leaders found their way back to the real trail. "I thought it was pretty funny," Little said. Neff said the trail will likely be pretty drifty going up Eagle Summit. "What happened here is these guys (the Alaskans) didn't put the trail in until a couple of days ago, and trying to put a trail in in warm weather ain't going to happen." He said the Canadian side of the race was immaculate. Of the Alaskan side: "They want to make sure you remember what race you're in." 'Banter with Bruno is part of Turner's race' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 23, 2005) [Quest musher Frank Turner calls for more prize money, more recognition, and 'a couple of steaks'] This year, Frank went through a mini-crisis in Pelly Crossing, where he lived many years ago. "I wasn't really enjoying it anymore and I wasn't having a very good time," said Frank, who at that point was ready to throw in the towel. Former Quester Paul Geoffrion and [Frank Turner's wife] had to give Frank a pep talk. "People don't recognize how highly emotionally vulnerable we can become out there," he said. For Frank, the Quest reflects real life. "It's got its ups and downs. It isn't always fun," he said. Frank had a little accident leaving Dawson City. His sled tipped over and he was dragged a few metres before he could correct the situation… Like many mushers, Frank is critical of the Quest. He believes it should be more musher-friendly. Frank calls for an increase to the $30,000 first-place prize, which hasn't gone up in years. "The price of dog food has doubled," he said. He also wants mushers to be appreciated. "At the drivers' meeting, we had to sign 200 posters that we never see again. Why can't each musher get a poster too?" Frank asked about the posters that usually go to sponsors. All the mushers received this year was a Yukon Quest hat. Frank said they need more, like being served a couple of steaks at the Slaven's Cabin dog drop. "It's just a gesture," said Frank. He thinks if the Quest doesn't up the ante, it will fail to attract mushers. This year's race had a low number of entries, at 21. The Quest can take up to 50 mushers, but never has. Frank wants the Quest to be like Alaska's Iditarod, where competitors get their entry fee back if they finish the race, in addition to any prize money they might take home. Dawson musher Peter Ledwidge said Frank's team is the one to beat this year. "Frank can be 10 hours back and sneak up to the front. Frank could easily win it this year," said Ledwidge. 'Healthy feet equal happy dogs' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 23, 2005) [The importance of breeding dogs with good feet] ...Most mushers now gear their breeding around incorporating traits like good feet [race veterinarian Julie] Kittams added. Good feet means they're the right size with the right amount of hair between the pads and also have a tolerance to cracks and splits... 'The Perfect Race leaves some veterans near the back' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 23, 2005) [John Schandelmeier's shelter dogs 'inexperienced'] Racing mostly shelter dogs in his team, he has been able to keep a close eye on his inexperienced pups and has seen some significant changes in the past seven days... "These particular dogs will be competitive next year. The problem with that is that I probably won't have them next year, somebody else will"... Some of the huskies in his gang came from pretty nasty situations and ended up in the Fairbanks animal shelter after they were either confiscated or tossed away by their owner, he said. One of Schandelmeier's current Quest huskies, Streak, was confiscated and brought to the shelter after her previous owner let her drop to just 10 kilos... Another in his team, Trapper, was given up by his previous owner simply for being the wrong colour. Now, Trapper is poised to finish his first Yukon Quest... '"I packed too much weight," Little fumes' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 24, 2005) MILE 101, Alaska - It was not knowing what to pack that hurt Yukon Quest musher Jon Little out on Eagle Summit on Wednesday. The 1,105-metre (3,685-foot) hill is infamous for bringing dog teams to a halt. While mushers Lance Mackey and Hugh Neff whizzed up the summit in fewer than 20 minutes, Little couldn't get his dogs to budge. The only one that wanted to go up was his leader, Sunbeam. "The rest wanted to dig a nest and sleep," said Little. His sled was so heavy with parkas and extra food that he could barely push the sled up the first part of the summit. "I packed too much weight. It was really stupid," he said. Little had to empty his sled to get it up the first stretch of the summit. By the time he'd reached the half way point and went back to get the rest of his gear, he realized it was taking too long. "It couldn't have gotten any worse," said the competitive Little. "I was disappointed with my inability to prepare the dogs for that hill." To get up the next part of the summit, Little had to resort to plan B - physically pull his leaders up the hill. As Little slowly made his way up the summit, he had a little voice in the back of his head telling him to quit. But he managed to ignore it. Dave Dalton, who was third into Mile 101, tried to help Little out by grabbing his snow hook and pulling Little's leaders for him. But Dalton didn't get very far before he threw up. "He said something he ate didn't sit right with him," said Little, adding he would have rather had Dalton's problems. "I think I ate too much at Central and it all came out,' said Dalton. Others suspect Dalton might have suffered food poisoning back at Circle, where the hamburgers served to mushers sat unrefrigerated for hours. Dalton was given a pink burger, which had to be re-cooked after he complained. After a three-hour rest in Mile 101, the 47-year-old still looked ill. He leaned over his sled on the way out, with an alert William Kleedehn travelling right behind him. Race officials were concerned that Dalton will get dehydrated. They encouraged him to drink lots of water and to eat a few extra pieces of toast before leaving Mile 101. While Dalton dealt with his illness, Little worried about himself. He thought his poor performance on the summit cost him the win. The best the 40-year-old thinks he can do is fourth. '"I worked my butt to do this,"Mackey says' Kelly-Anne Riess, Whitehorse Star (February 25, 2005) Neff, 37, has come along way as a Quester. He's raced every year since 2000. When Neff first started, he was ill-prepared, having to ask for supplies from other mushers. In 2001, he was disqualified for not giving his dogs enough time to rest. In addition to taking home $18,000 for his third-place finish, Neff will be bringing home four ounces of gold for being the first into Dawson City. Neff was only able to do it because he ran his dogs for 14 hours, taking very short breaks in between. Most mushers criticized the move, saying it likely drained the dogs of all their energy. Mackey will use his $30,000-winnings to buy a lightweight Hans Gatt sled. "His other sled is just too heavy," said [his wife]. Lance will also put the money toward braces for one of his children. "We have another kid going to college soon," [she] said about how the couple would spend the money. Kleedehn will use his $24,000 to pay off his credit cards. At the finish line, he took the opportunity to ask the Quest organization to enrich the purse so it could help mushers pay for their expensive hobby. Neff was glad to see all the children at each checkpoint asking for his autograph. "It's great to know they are interested in mushing," he said. "We live our dream and they can too." Neff will be signing up for next year's Quest as soon as he can. "These mushers are all great guys," said Neff. "We are more than just competitors. We're comrades. We all share the same passion for dog mushing." 'Willomitzer, Kleedehn recognized at finish banquet' Jillian Rogers, Yukon News (February 28, 2005) [Musher Kelley Griffin's dogs ate instant noodles and beans when their dog food ran out, when stranded at Quest checkpoint] For Griffin, who has finished three Quests and one Iditarod in her career thus far, scratching at Scroggie Creek made sense. She actually left Scroggie for Dawson, but when her one remaining leader started limping 40 kilometres out, she couldn't risk the remaining 120 kilometres to Dawson. Little did she know that, once she returned to the small cabin at Scroggie Creek, she would be stranded there for four days because of bad weather. The pilot managed to get all but four dogs out before he got stuck in Dawson. Griffin ran out of dog food after the first day and had to resort to feeding her remaining four huskies whatever food was stocked in the cabin, including instant noodles and beans. "They just gave me a funny look," Griffin laughed at the Fairbanks finish banquet... [Articles copyright of Whitehorse Star and Yukon News] |
2005 Yukon Quest Newspaper Coverage |