Iditarod Insider Analyst Bruce Lee got to Koyuk right before Lance Mackey arrived earlier today.
Mackey reported as he pulled into the village of Koyuk that he had just gone through the hardest run of this race and one of the hardest runs of his career.

The wind is blowing here at 30 to 35 mph making the wind chill on bare skin 50 below. To make conditions harder the wind is blowing right into their face.

Mackey’s dogs came in looking strong with leaders wagging their tails and pulling hard. One amazing aspect of this team is that Mackey was lead across the sea ice into this strong wind by a new leader that hasn’t even turned two years old yet.

There is a huge battle going on for 2nd , 3rd and 4th places and they’ve got even stronger winds to deal with so whoever has the best “wind leaders” may come out on top for those places. Might be a great run for John Baker who trains in these conditions.

On the run over to Shaktoolik Hugh Neff got some serious frostbite on his face and is working with local medical folks and Iditarod staff so that he doesn’t continue to do damage to his skin. This is a bad break for Hugh because the winds are forecast to continue.

If you’ve never been in these conditions before here’s an idea of what its like;  I stopped in Shaktoolik briefly and as I walked out of the checkpoint one of the Iditarod staff handed me a sandwich to eat. I took it with me as I walked out the door for the 200 yard walk down to the ice where an airplane was waiting to fly me on up the trail to Koyuk.  By the time I got to the plane the sandwich was starting to freeze with ice crystals.

That’s the way we do it in the Iditarod!

Bruce