Yukon Quest, Heroism, and Sportsmanship

The race is now into its eighth day and there are still 19 mushers participating of the 25 that started the race.

Hugh Neff is the current leader and, with a six hour (and 30 mile) lead over his nearest competitor, seems well on his way to the winners circle in Fairbanks. Neff and team of 13 dogs (he's had to drop one of his starting 14 dogs) have completed 820 miles of the 1000 mile race.

The second musher in the race, Hans Gatt, won the Quest last year, is currently at 790 miles, but he nearly lost more than the race atop American Summit. He got soaked and turned around in confusion. When he felt hypothermia starting to set in, he set up camp and called for help--or, at least he thought he did. He pushed what he thought was the emergency button on his GPS but hit the reset button by mistake. He lay in his sleeping bag awaiting help that wasn't on the way when another musher, Brent Sass, found him.

Sass saw to it that Gatt got warm, hitched both sleds and teams together and got Gatt to the next check point at Eagle. After an hours rest, both mushers continued the race.

Sass and his 10 dogs is presently listed as in 8th place. They arrived at the Circle City check point (159 miles from Eagle) about 6 hours after Gatt and 2 hours after Gatt had already left with 9 of his dogs hauling his sled.

Did I mention that temperatures in the area fell to -40 or thereabouts? No need for either an F or a C after that temperature number. They are the same. Effing COLD! It has warmed up some during the day, however. It's presently -24 F at Circle City. That's -31 C if you care to feel colder. It will get down to around -49 F tonight. It will be warmer on the summits, only -25 F to -30 F. Those who are climbing the 75 mile switchback trail from Circle City to the Central checkpoint will appreciate that. (Or maybe not. Despite the switchbacks on the map, both check points have elevations between 950 and 980 feet. A closer look at the trail map shows the route follows a pair of wide river valleys. All those switches may be to follow the rivers, not to go up a slope.)