Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 2020 Iditarod

If I believed in god I would be praying for those dogs every night. #dogslivesmatter

Agreed. I don’t fault him for the cut, like you said there’s a lot of factors including stress and sleep deprivation that can cause mistakes to happen. I also don’t take anything away from him for his dedication to the sport. The commitment to that sport is unlike any other sport out there. It’s a full time job year around.

My problem is that he didn’t take personal responsibility for his mistake and instead blamed others for it. I would think that for an Alaskan like him that ethos, being self-reliant and responsible for your own safety, would be a hallmark trait. People are people...

yup!

I remember this. I believe mitch is left handed. On certain folding knives, the lock mechanism is right near your pointer finger as you grip the knife. He was cutting string on a bail of straw. Closed on his fingers and cut him bad.

I've had them close on me too as I'm left handed, and nowadays will only use benchmade knives with ambidextrous axis-lock.

I use an orange handle griptillian or a blue handle bugout.

$20,000-$30,000 in dog food and race sign up costs. Sponsors involved too. A lot on the line to trust in made in China kershaw trash.

Spyderco makes a safe folding knife too popular with mushers.

I was issued a Benchmade on my first tour to Iraq. That knife did two more one-year tours in Iraq.

I'm real partial to them and gift them to friends and family.

Forgot to add: that picture is the benchmade bugout model. Awesome knife for everything. Cut up 5 caribou and a bull moose with It. Also on me all winter.

It was gifted to me by a left handed veteran Iditarod musher who's pushing to Nome on the trail right now.

Looks like Pete is down to 11 dogs already... tough trail. Way too early but but five of my picks are in the top 6...

These little doodads are quite a nice addition to the Bugout, just FYI.


ETA; E T S Y is being edited out. Google Bugout Backspacer

Sass just ran 120 miles with 4 hours of rest. Pulled into Galena and jetted right out. All other mushers stayed for rest.

My guess is he knows it's going to be warm weather tomorrow so he'll probably take a 6-8 hr rest further up the trail in Kaltag, mid day while the conditions are sht. He'll run further from the pack tonight while it's cold.

Back in 2015, Sass had a real hot team and was such a threat to Dallas seavey, that Dallas ratted him out for having an ipod. Dallas argued that it could be used for two-way communication. Sass was only using it for music and was oblivious. Poor guy was in tears at Tanana check point when Nordman was forced to disqualify him. Even Nordman was upset to break the news to him. Sass was right on Seaveys tail. Typical seavey-dick-move. Sass was super graceful and apologetic about it all and had no bitter words for anybody.

Sass making his comeback tonight.....

I was looking ahead at the weather yesterday and noticed that. I expected most of them to employ that strategy. But I guess after running 500 miles the gas tanks are understandably a little low.
I didnt know that about the ipod!!!! I dont care what anybody has to say in defense of either Seavey. [bleep] em both!!!!

OAM,
I ain't got no dog in the fight, uh....dog in the race.
I've defended Dallas at times as well.

2017 Craig Medred and those dirt bags schandelmeier and zoya denure were grilling him at the stake saying he doped his dogs and culled dogs even writing opinion pieces in the paper.

I picked up for him and wrote to the mouth piece of the trio, Medred.
I told him my experiences giving a race dog tramadol after sewing up a 6 inch gash in the dog from a bad fight. The dog was a non-performing sloth with no depth perception on a minimum dose. I told him it's not a "performance enhancing" drug.

Dallas hired a lawyer and figured out that it was administered after the race. PETA operatives were hanging around the dog lot in Nome in 2017. Nobody recognized them. I was there. Im pretty sure those fk-heads threw tramadol chewables near the dogs. Medred had no clue they came in chewable form. Medred, zoya nor schandelmeir ever apologized for the slander and drama they caused. PETA sewed division and chaos. Those three chose that side IMO.

Heck, even Mackey picked up for Dallas, as did all mushers and Mackey ain't no fan of Dallas.

There's an angle I've not heard before. Thanks.

Like them or not, Seaveys can mush dogs!

Realize, none of these guys are running much faster than any other. Dog are dogs and Physics applies. The huge swings in speed between checkpoints is based on where they take their breaks. If a team is making great speed they will try to hide it by stopping short of the checkpoint for a break and go hot after. Or if the dogs are dragging they may run them a little long, go straight through the checkpoint and stop just out of town. The required rests also confuse standings a great deal... How the mushers rest their dogs is a huge part of the final result.

Them fuqers are tricky!

I don' t pretend to try to keep up.

That doping chit was pure BS- As shown by mainer... everyone with any sense knew it at the time,

It worked, Dallas ran off to Europe...

Sitka, yep. Way more going on than meets the eye. If you have access to live gps tracker, you'll see more of strategy playing out in a more updated form than the race standings. This year, standard race standings have been very late and inaccurate by hours at times.

Things get tricky, even in checkpoints. Remember 2008? Two titans Lance Mackey in 1st, Jeff King in 2nd. Jeff pulls into Elim, sees Lance feeding his dogs and is confused. They both head inside to rest. Lance can't shake Jeff's team, his dogs are faster. It was like this the entire race, within spitting distance. Jeff, getting old,falls fast asleep snoring. Lance had one eye open the entire time. Bounces up, rushes outside calls up his dogs and blasts out in the night. Jeff woke up PISSED that no one let him know. Lance cut rest yet again out on the trail, only giving Jeff a glimpse of 1st place. Even with a faster team, Jeff never caught up. Lance pulled into Nome like a rock star.

Buser stayed back helping his rookie son for the first half of the race. Then because of his highly calibrated check point efficiency with his chores, he blasted by 20 teams and almost caught up to the top 3, finishing in 5th place.

Efficiency with chores and tasks is a big part as well. Hard to do with sleep deprivation. On mandatory 8 hour or 24 hr rests he leaves on the minute, while other mushers leave 20 minutes to an hour over. After 5 days,timely efficiency will put you dozens of miles ahead of your competitors.

In last year's race Pete woke Joar up to tell him he was leaving Elim, IIRC, and did not want him to think he cheated him. Of course Sneaky Pete has a reputation to live down!

its kinda look`n like Thomas Waerner is going to be in 1st soon ? if the statistic standings sheet are logged in and up to date ,i do think it could be done easier so people can understand musher standings better.

Sass a couple hours from Kaltag. Very strategic to stop there. His dogs are moving very slow from cutting rest. Kaltag to Unalakleet is 85-87 miles (Polaris odometer/ski doo odometer). He has a good lead and has a mandatory 8 hour to take. I'm betting he'll take it there.

When they hit the coast, dog teams from windy, treeless Alaska have an advantage. Interior and Willow teams don't contend with wind and disorienting landscapes. Petits leaders led him on a wild goose chase couple years back. Cost him the race.

Richie Diehls 14 dog team could pull away, if the top 3 miss the trail just once. Treeless alaska dogs are like little arrows in the wind, sniffing out the trail.

When my dog team was up in Kotz, I went and vaccinated all of Ed and Ruth Itens dogs. Ed used to hope for wind and blizzards on the coastal section of the trail. His dogs did immensely well in those conditions, because they were born into it.

Survived every mushers worst fear: getting gaffed by a snow hook. They are awful things, are always in the way and never seem like they're safely secured:

https://www.ktva.com/story/41896574...hook-in-january-mushes-iditarod-in-march

He's lucky to be racing this year. A little lower, it wouldve caught the meat of his neck, dug in and drug em to death.

Glanced off skull, but still broke it.


Anyhow, joar and Pete down to 10 dogs. Nervous stuff with over 300 miles left. They'll have to rest more and slow down the run distances to limp in a 10 dog team. There's one seriously steep climb left. Hard on a small dog team, they could quit on the musher.