Team 7 holds lead, while teams 14 and 39 duke it out for second place

Racers take off from Big Lake on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. After less than two days of racing, the top three teams, Team 7, 14 and 39, are nearly 765 miles into the race, in Unalakleet. Tom Stokes photo

Team 7 checked in and out of Ruby quickly and were the first into Unalakleet on Saturday. They hold the current lead in Iron Dog 2023. Melissa Captain photo

Reigning 2022 champions Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad were burning up the Iron Dog trail on Saturday, adding more time to their lead at every checkpoint they passed.

As of Saturday, at 5 p.m., Team 7 held the first-place spot, demonstrating that they possess the perfect ingredients of experience, fitness and restraint. Now, they and their machines just need to stay healthy – and that Mother Nature doesn’t deliver a storm.

“There’s a lot of different things going on today,” said Iron Dog Executive Director Mike Vasser. “Definitely teams 39, 14 and 7 have had a great solid day and are putting up a heck of a pace. Team 20 (Geoff Crouse and Dieter Strobel) has had a great day, and Palin (Team 49 with Klinton VanWingerden) is also having a pretty good day.

“The Ambassador Class has had a long two days to get to Kotzebue and the Expedition Class is moving well too,” he added. “There could be an Expedition Team that makes it all the way to Nome tonight.”

To fully appreciate how quickly Team 7 claimed the lead, look at the numbers: They started in 16th position, 30 minutes behind the first racers to depart from the start on Friday. They were the eighth team to leave Puntilla and the fourth team into McGrath. At McGrath, Olstad and Aklestad were seven minutes up in the lead and added to it throughout the day on Saturday.

“The secret to success forever in the Iron Dog has always been running a good, solid consistent speed for the entirely of the race instead of just portions,” Vasser said. “These guys are all having good clean runs.”

“Team 7 has set a blistering pace between every checkpoint so far,” said Jake Goodell, Iron Dog secretary and GPS tracking guru. “They had the fastest split time to seven out of the first eight checkpoints. Their course time of 7:41:42 to McGrath is almost 5 minutes faster than last year, and one of the fastest we’ve ever seen.”

Ambassador Team 77 works to get a sled unstuck just outside the Ruby checkpoint in what is turning out to be one of the snowiest Iron Dogs yet. Melissa Captain photo

“Honestly, I feel we didn’t really press hard,” said Tyler Aklestad, as he and Olstad rested in Unalakleet. “We are running a typical cruising pace, and it’s allowing us to put us a little distance with these guys. We’ve had to make a few adjustments along the trail because the terrain is changing so much. It’s been difficult the whole race with a variety of rough snow, loose snow, hard snow, and super-powdery snow. You are having to constantly accommodate.”

Team 39, Cody Barber and Brett Lapham, at the northbound Ruby checkpoint, currently are holding onto third place. Melissa Captain photo

Behind Team 7, a race within a race is underway between Teams 14 and 39. Team 14 Casey Boylan and Bryan Leslie held a mere 2-minute lead over Team 39’s Cody Barber and Brett Lapham. The two duked it out all the way to Unalakleet, traveling within 5 miles of each other at any given time. Team 14’s average speed was inching up higher than Team 39’s, but as the five teams who have already scratched this year can attest, the deep snow is making fast riding difficult and stressing the sleds.

All three Kotzebue teams are now scratched – Team 33’s Radar Lambert and Michael Hensley were the first out after Hensley injured his back. Team 12 Chris Collins and Doug Wicken, and Team 44’s Frank and Malaki Ferreira had sled damage that kept them from continuing. Team 21’s Cole Crandall and Duncan Brewer of Kenai had a mechanical as did Team 37 from Canada – Mark Fosty and Ben Hildebrand.

“It’s a bummer that the Canadian team is out because they are fan favorites,” Vasser said.

Fosty said he and Hildebrand were not even sure they were going to be able to race this year, because Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions were making it difficult for them to know if they’d be able to travel. By the time restrictions were lifted, the early-bird registration deadline had passed, and Polaris was all out of new race sleds.

Still, the pair decided to give it a shot.

“So, we’ve got one new sled and we did a total teardown on this sled,” Fosty said, pointing to their machines on Friday, just 40 minutes before the race started. Fosty and Hildebrand have been Canadian favorites and won the heart of Alaskans ever since the 2020 race when they got lost during the race and had to backtrack to Kotzebue, nearly scratching in the process. But the community rallied behind them, fed them a hot meal and they persevered to a Red Lantern, late-night finish on Big Lake. In 2021, they came back even stronger to finish in 10th place.

 “We just want to run clean,” said Fosty.

“You prep as much as you can, but there’s only so much you can know,” Hildebrand added. Every year, conditions change – and this year, the heavy snow took its toll. After a couple of crashes and a damaged sled, Team 37 had to call it quits.

Team 37 Ben Hildebrand and Mark Fosty were forced to scratch after mechanical problems, followed by injury, waylaid their Iron Dog dreams. Melissa DeVaughn photo

“Not the way this was supposed to go,” wrote Mark Fosty on their team Facebook page. “But going through Ptarmigan Pass just before the south fork, Ben snapped his rear track shock and blew out his front track shock. He rode it to Rohn hoping there would be parts on a plane. No luck though. Hoping we could get parts in McGrath, we carried on. In the process, Ben wrecked himself riding it like that. We took turns, but the damage was done. So, with no parts and an injury we were forced to scratch. To say were upset is an understatement.”

By 6 p.m. Saturday, the top three teams looked to be settling into Unalakleet for the evening, nearly 765 miles into the race. It’s a good stopping point, Vasser said, because the run along the coast and get much colder and windier.

“You have to work hard and stay warmer in the overland travel,” he said, “so you dress lighter. If they stop at Unalakleet, they can dress warmer the next day to be ready for the coast.”

Aklestad said “one huge aspect of the race is trying to figure out that weather window” and making the move when the conditions are most favorable – especially on the coast.

“We’ve been fortunate because the weather has been pretty good,” Aklestad said. “Galena to Kaltag was pretty nice, and the last 30 miles into Unalakleet it started snowing pretty hard. We’re just going to stay hydrated, take a pretty good layover here and make a push to be to Kotzebue by 1 o’clock tomorrow.”

The trailing teams were spread between Poorman, Ruby, Galena and Kaltag.

“I think the teams in the back of the pack are battling through the worst conditions ever with the amount of snow and the number of teams who have crossed it,” Vasser said. “They have a lot of work in front of them.”