Iron Dog race leaders Team 7 Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad arrive at the Skwentna checkpoint where they will hold until the 11 a.m. restart Saturday morning. Cindi Herman photos

Team 2 racers Bradley Kishbaugh and Ryan Sottosanti warm up after arriving to the Skwentna checkpoint. Cindi Herman photo

After a full week of racing, the Pro Class inches closer to the finish line, with the leading Team 7 arriving into Skwentna at just after 7 p.m. Skwentna Lodge owner Cindi Herman wasted no time putting out a full meal to help all racers celebrate their ride!

Racers still in the field are competing for the largest purse in the race’s history. While, sure the podium pictures are nice, cash still pays the bills.

The race purse totals $200,000 to be split proportionally among the top 10 places in the race. But there also is more than $51,000 in contingency prizes, donated by sponsors and supporters of the World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race.

At the Nome halfway ceremony and banquet, an unexpected contingency prize was added to the list. Team 7’s Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad were awarded two handmade beaver fur hats for being the fastest team to arrive in Noorvik. Noorvik’s Ellen Coffin had tried to give the hats to the “’stad” boys before they left the checkpoint, but with the tock clicking, they were on their way.

Thus entered “operation beaver fur hat,” a process that thanks to Iron Dog staff and especially Bering Air assured that the current Iron Dog leaders would secure this very special contingency prize.

On Monday morning at 11:07 a.m., Dave McKibbon, Iron Dog’s logistics coordinator, texted Coffin to thank her for her time and for the efforts of the Noorvik volunteers.

Team 7’s Nick Olstad and Tyler Aklestad try on their handmade beaver fur hats, a surprise contingency prize from Noorvik. Taylor Booth photo

At 12:57 p.m., her response arrived: “Finally sitting down ... I have two beaver hats for fastest into Noorvik (Team 7). All material was donated by my mom, Helen Coffin. The hats were made by Grace Commack and Erin Zibell.”

Coffin’s brother-in-law is a hunter and had gifted the beaver pelts to Helen Coffin several years ago. But she doesn’t sew as much as she used to, so she passed them onto Ellen. Beaver fur hats are one of the warmest head coverings to wear in the far north, and it takes a skilled seamstress to complete one.

Over the next three hours, McKibbon and Coffin went back and forth on how best to get the hats to Nome, ending with Coffin packaging them up and hand-delivering the box to Bering Air as it was about to leave for Kotzebue. The hope was that the hats could be shifted to a continuing flight to Nome.

McKibbon then called Bering Air in Kotzebue to let them know that there was a package from Noorvik that needed to be on the flight to Nome. Bering Air staff said they would do what they could. Poor weather was moving in, and flights could halt at any time. It was 4:18 p.m.

At 7:17 p.m., McKibbon texts Coffin back: “Plane just landed.”

Not only did Bering Air get the hats to Nome, but their staff also personally delivered the box to Iron Dog executive director Mike Vasser.

On Tuesday, Ellen Coffin posted onto her Facebook page: “I finally had time to watch the halfway banquet in Nome and my heart is happy. The “urgent” delivery made it to Nome in time! … Team 7 - Aklestad/Olstad will have a warm rest of their winter with their new beaver hats!”

Not only did Bering Air help complete “operation beaver fur hat,” but the longtime company that has been serving rural Alaska communities since the ’70s also was responsible for Friday’s charter flight that successfully transported the remaining Iron Dog staff, including Vasser, as well as the South High media team back to Anchorage. The group arrived just in time to get to Saturday’s finish so there will be live coverage of the race finish.

Board member Jake Goodell was on that flight. As of 10 p.m. Friday, five teams were into Skwentna, with teams 7 14 and 39 in an even tighter pack than they had been Friday morning. First-place Team 7 is now 33 minutes ahead of Team 14, and Team 14 is now only 22 minutes ahead of Team 39. This morning, the gaps were 44 and 36 minutes, respectively.

Racers will be held in Skwentna until the restart at 11 a.m. Saturday. Goodell said race rules lay out the release times: The top five racers will be released on their actual course times (not to exceed 30 minutes), while the remaining teams will also be released on actual course times (not to exceed 5 minutes). This is to allow racers to come in during a relatively condensed period, so fans on Saturday can cheer them across the line.

Largest purse in race history awaits top Iron Dog finishers

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