The 3,652-foot peak’s steep drop and penchant for terrible weather did not cause problems for any of the 18 Quest mushers who had arrived at the Central checkpoint by
9 p.m. Sunday.
Instead, snow-deprived ascents and valleys slowed mushers on the second day of the 1,000-mile race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon.
“It’s been three years since I’ve been over Rosebud, and I forgot how steep and long that hill was,” said Lance Mackey, who was the fourth musher to reach Central, at 12:11 p.m. “Eagle Summit turned out to be an absolute treat.”
He said the gentler slope of the ascent was well within the strength limits of his dogs, and he found an easy way to foil the downhill drop by getting off the beaten path.
“I actually got off the marked trail a little bit and in the powder,” he said. “It was heaven.”
In his second Quest, Quebecois musher Normand Casavant took the rough patches stride.
“The trail was rock-and-rollin’,” he said. “But look at my dogs. ... They are happy and there are 14 of them, so the trail was good.”
To descend Eagle Summit, he flopped his sled to the right and used the entire craft as a giant brake to keep control of the dogs. He rode down on his right side, too.
“We didn’t hit a rock or anything. Went down. Got up. Pas probleme,” he said.
Zack Steer was the first to arrive at Central, at 1:49 a.m. Sunday. He rested for about five hours before leaving in seventh place.
Hans Gatt (currently first), Gerry Willomitzer (second) and Brent Sass (third) did not stop and likely will have to camp before they reach the next checkpoint, Circle.
Chasing them after rests at Central are Steer, Mackey, Hugh Neff and David Dalton.
Mackey’s decision to wait more than three hours and dine at Central Roadhouse is indicative of his attempts to tone down his typically aggressive style.
“It’s always better to hunt than be the hunted, and that’s how I feel,” he said. “I’m going to mix it up and keep people thinking about me, and if they’re thinking about me, then it’s throwing them off their game plan.”
Neff wouldn’t be one to notice, as he said other strategies are not his concern.
“We’re just traveling,” Neff said of his dog team. “The race doesn’t begin until Dawson.
“And realistically, I’ve already been to Dawson first, so I don’t care about that award anymore,” he added, referring to the Dawson Award — 4 ounces of Klondike placer gold given to the first musher there. “I’ve got other things on my mind.”
Meanwhile, some rookies found the pair of summit climbs to be a rude awakening.
Dries Jacobs called the trail from Two Rivers to Mile 101 “a crazy experience.”
“I’ve never been on trails like that,” he said. “It wasn’t boring; let me put it that way. Every corner asks for some skill to get through it.”
He said the challenge was fun, but traveling while soaked for a few dozen miles wasn’t.
Dries’ sled dropped into slush at least four times, and a warm gust of wind atop Rosebud Summit made him sweat through his base layer of clothing.
The first thing he did in Mile 101’s cozy cabin was hang his jacket and boot linings above the wood stove.
“Everything I own is wet right now,” he said.
Rookie Katie Davis’ team has little experience with open river hazards — overflow isn’t a problem in the mountains of Montana — and her dogs were hard to control at times.
“I’ve had more (gang line) tangles in the past 24 hours than in the past nine years,” she said.
Davis also took a thigh-deep dip in the slush, filling her boots, which were icy on the inside when she arrived at Mile 101.
Contact staff writer Joshua Armstrong at 459-7523.
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