Dogs take to the snow to Nome

Press, 5 March 1984, Page 10

Dogs take to the snow to Nome

NZPA-AP Anchorage More than 1000 barking, excited dogs pulled 67 sledge teams north out of Anchorage yesterday for the start of the 1816 km Iditarod sledge-dog race across Alaska to Nome. Achorage’s Fourth Avenue was covered with trucked-in snow for the start of the twelfth annual race. The record for the course is just over 12 days. The second of 27 check-

points in the twelfth annual running of the event was at Eagle River, 16km to the north. From there the teams were to be trucked to Settlers Bay for a restart. Some of the teams pulled two sledges in tandem as racers strained to steady and slow their fresh, exuberant dogs over the fast, hard-packed urban trails. Temperatures were close to Odeg. under mostly clear skies as the teams started out at 9 a.m. at two-minute

intervals.

A rookie, Bob Toll, of Clam Gulch, drew the honour of being the first out of the crowded chute. The start of the race drew swarms of people equipped with cameras and wearing floppy-earred fur hats and oversized bunny boots to cheer on some of the state’s premier competitors.

“I can think of 20 (teams) that could be in the top 10,” said Joe Redington, of Knik.

“It’s a very good field this year.” Mr Redington, known as the Father of the Iditarod for his efforts to found the race in the early 19705, started in tenth position. This year’s field includes Rick Swenson, the only person to win the race more than once. He has taken top honours four times and in 1981 set a course record of 12 days, eight hours, 45 minutes and two seconds. He started in fifteenth posi-

tion yesterday. Two former champions, Emmett Peters of Ruby, and Rick Mackey of Trapper Creek, also set out for the finish line on Nome’s main street.

Among the nine women competing this year is Susan Butcher, who finished second to Mr Swenson in the 1982 Iditarod.

The competitors this year include racers from Italy, Norway, Canada, and Britain.