Musher Aaron Burmeister is at the front of a group of leaders heading out of Nikolai and into the McGrath checkpoint. All mushers have now made it to either Rohn or Nikolai.
Alaska's News Source Iditarod trail tracker team of Tracy Sabo and Beth Verge join K2/Rust's Flying Service pilot Chris Palm on the way to the Rainy Pass checkpoint.The top five mushers in the race passed through Finger Lake Monday morning en route to the next checkpoint in Rainy Pass. Leading the charge was Cantwell musher Paige Drobny, a seven-time finisher of the Iditarod with a best career finish of seventh on two occasions.
Positions six through 10 are rounded out by Richie Diehl, Mitch Seavey, Dallas Seavey, Michelle Phillips and Ryan Redington. All were stationed in Finger Lake as of 8 a.m. Monday.After the Iditarod restart from Willow Lake, four sled dog teams made it to Yentna, the first checkpoint. All four that made it to Yentna first had single-digit bib numbers, and started ahead of most of the other 49 total mushers in the field.
As the dog teams depart Yentna, the Skwentna checkpoint is 30 miles away, and the Finger Lake checkpoint is 40 miles from Skwentna.The field of 49 mushers began departing from Willow at 2 p.m. on Sunday for the Iditarod restart. This year’s field includes 12 rookies and six former Iditarod champions.Mushers now set their sights on Sunday’s official start in Willow
Race times in recent years have typically taken just over a week. Last year, Dallas Seavey crossed the finish line in 7 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes and 57 seconds.Rookie Gerhardt Thiart of Cheboygan Michigan, Karin Hendrickson of Willow, rookie Kailyn Davis of Fairbanks, Travis Beals of Fairbanks, Lisbet Norris of Fairbanks and Sebastien Dos Santos Borges of Chazey-Bons France have all left 4th Avenue in Anchorage.