Racers Between Checkpoint 1 and Cache Mountain

What a great race, even bigger and better than last year.  Many returning racers and volunteers and it was nice to catch up briefly at the racers meeting before the start of the race Sunday.

The race was fast this year despite warmer weather.  Last year temperatures dropped to -20 in places along the course (namely my camp site).  This year I don’t think it got below freezing.

I didn’t get to see the start of the race as Mark and I made up Medic Team 2 and needed to be down the course between the first and second checkpoints by the time the racers arrived.

We took off from the starting line about 0745 with Boris who was a medic on Medic Team 1.  Boris just returned from the island of Unalaska (my home) the day before, he is a medic in real life for a life flight company and flew a patient from Unalaska to Anchorage for emergency treatment.  We talked a bit about the

Check Point 1

island and life, but we really needed to hit the trail.  The ride out was nice unfortuntely I didn’t get much time to take as many pictures as last year.

We arrived at CP1 about 10 minutes before the first racers on bikes started to arrive.  We said hello, checked in and headed on down the trail a little further.

We made our way up the trail about half way to Cache Mountain Cabin where Check Point 2 was setup.  We talked with the volunteers at the check point, had a baked potato with moose spaghetti sauce and then headed out.

Racers Crossing The "Ice Lakes"

The trail was starting to get soft for the bikers.  We saw several places on the trail where the fat tires were breaking through the surface crust.  This surely slows the bikers down, with several of them reporting having gone over the handle bars when the front tire stops in the break.  No one reported injuries from the endovers but we were certainly keeping track of the cyclists.

The runners also reported starting to break through or “post holing” often.  We did have a scratch from a racer who after post holing suffered and injury to their knee.

Mark and I stopped often to check on racers, chat with other

Night Ascent Of The Divide

volunteers and to take a few pictures.  As the race progressed, the racers started to stretch out.  We made our way up the divide and up to the summit.  We figured it was about the half way mark after seeing something of a snow sculpture.  We met up with Medic Team 1 (Boris & John) – chatted for a bit with them about the race and coverage logistics for the rest of the race.  They took off up the trail to Check Point 3 which was setup and the Windy Gap Cabin.

Mark and I hung out a little longer then made our way down from the summit to the end of the “Ice Lakes” to wait for more racers.  We had received a report that visibility at the summit had gone to &%#* so we decided to head back across the lakes, up towards the summit to check in on the racers.  This proved a good move, it felt like our presence gave supportive confidence to the racers.  Visibility was diminished because of falling snow and the sun had set, it was pitch black out except for what was illuminated via your headlamp.

Somewhere Along The Course

We back tracked until we met up with Anne who is one of the organizers of the race.  She gave up her spot along with Ed to allow for more racers to participate.  We talked with Anne a while and then turned around and went back over the divide and summit back to the Ice Lakes and to the tent setup there.

With all the racers accounted for and in good spirits Mark and I decided to make our way to Check Point 3 at Windy Gap Cabin.  Once at the cabin the volunteers fed us soup, we exchanged trail updates and then for some reason we decided to continue another 20 miles to Check Point 4 at Borealis Cabin.

90 miles down 10 to go!

I don’t remember much of this section.  It was about 0100 now and started to sleep ride.  I just remember following the trail, thumb on the throttle and waking up every few seconds to make sure I was still on the trail and I didn’t hit Mark who was leading the way.

We made it to Check Point 4 at about 0300.  We said hello, found a spot in the cabin and slept a few hours as racers checked in, rested, ate, slept and checked out.

A few hours of sleep and Mark and I were good to go, we headed out towards the finish line.  10 miles out was an optional check in station.  We stopped there, chatted with the volunteers, greeted the first foot racer to make it there, had a kick ass breakfast consisting of 1 pound of fried bacon, 12 scrambled eggs with cheese and peas, and homemade cinnamon raisin bread. – Now that is what I call Good Mood Food!

Finish Line - Check Point

With only 10 miles left on the course we headed up the trail and to the finish line.  We checked in, got caught up on the status of the racers and loaded our gear and snow machines (snow mobiles for everyone not from Alaska).  Mark stayed behind, I hitched a ride back to Fairbanks to see about changing my flights to stay longer.

Again – fantastic race, great people and a kick ass event!  Oh what a great time.  Of all 65 participants, only a handful of racers scratched with injuries or equipment malfunctions.  I’m sure to make it back next year.  The question is as a Volunteer or Participant?

For the rest of my images from the race, you can view the 2011 race gallery.