Iron Dog racers began their return trek to Big Lake today, the first team leaving at 6 a.m. to try and beat the worst of a winter storm that is battering western Alaska.

“Our goal is to get everyone to Unalakleet before the second wave of the storm hits,” said Iron Dog Executive Director Mike Vasser. Fifteen teams are left in this year’s race, winnowed from 25 that started the race on Feb. 17. The 15th team left Nome at 9:01 a.m., three hours behind current leaders Team 7 Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad. Rough conditions, including bomb holes and washboard trails, have wreaked havoc on (wo)man and machine throughout the race. But visibility is a challenge, too, and with a blizzard underway, that’s what racers likely will contend with as they try to get to Unalakleet later today.

“It was very bad coming into Nome,” said Team 14’s Bryan Leslie. “We came over Buckland to Koyuk and it was pretty much ice fog all the way in to here.”    

Current front-running rookie Team 19 Chad Moore and Travis Temple agreed.

“I think the toughest was from Buckland to Nome because the visibility was trash, and the ice fog we had to deal with meant we had to really slow down,” Moore said.

More of that is in store. The National Weather Service’s Winter Blizzard Warning is in effect through 9 a.m. Thursday. The Blizzard Warning was defined as “severe winter weather conditions expected or occurring. Falling and blowing snow with strong winds and poor visibilities are likely. This will lead to whiteout conditions, making travel extremely difficult.”

Thursday morning.  Weather – and safety – have become the paramount concerns for racers and race marshals alike. On Tuesday, marshals considered holding the racers for an additional day before allowing them to depart but late Tuesday evening saw a small window of opportunity on the weather radar to get racers ahead of the worst of the storm.

It appeared to be the right call. Early in the morning, the winds were still relatively calm, and the snow had not arrived.

“The wind is starting to pick up a little more and it’s supposed to get worst later today,” said Tyson Johnson, head race marshal. “We are ahead of the major winds.”

Temperatures also remained in the mid-20s keeping any new snow from really blowing around and creating whiteout conditions, he added.

“The snow is kind of wet and sticky,” Johnson added.

With safety on everyone’s minds and before teams returned to “race mode,” they had a chance to meet with local children during Iron Dog’s helmet giveaway program Monday evening. The event has become the highlight of the race for many children. Iron Dog gave away 47 helmets and goggles to kids in Nome, as they have done in communities all along the race trail.

“The helmet giveaway was cool, and the kids were super stoked,” said Team 10’s Mike Morgan who was on hand to help fit the helmets and sign autographs. As one of three Nome racers in the race, he was a fan favorite with Nome children. Being around the kids was just what Morgan needed, he said. Still disappointed in his team’s Day 3 scratch, he said he had considered going home and being by himself.

“All the time and effort and work we put in, it’s a heartbreaker,” he said. “It’s a tough one to swallow. But I decided to come to Nome and come visit the family. It’s been easier to deal with in that sense because we are staying busy and we are around a lot of positivity.”

As the morning progressed, the weather continued to worsen, and Vasser breathed easier. The uncertainty of sending 15 teams out into a developing blizzard was a hard call to make. 

“The visibility is reducing slowly,” Vasser said. “It’s also starting to snow lightly as well, so it

looks like we might have got the window this morning!”

Racers are expected to arrive in Unalakleet sometime this afternoon, and by Thursday morning start driving out of the bad weather. At that point, the race will really heat up.

“The race really doesn’t really start until you get off the coast, at least for us,” Leslie added.

Moore said he and Temple are also going to take it easy on the coast. The Kenai Peninsula racers are used to rough terrain, and he said they thought the much-criticized section from Ophir to Poorman was not that bad – “Travis and I had fun through there.” 

For them, though, it’s all about finishing, not placement.

“We just want to run our race and not get tied up in any of this prize stuff, or stats and status,” he said. “That’s not what we’re here for. Our end goal is to complete this, to just get back to Big Lake and hug our families.”