Late yesterday, the Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) released their decision to keep this year's race on the traditional route with the restart in Willow. It sounds like there will still be some slight modifications and ITC has their work ahead of them. Read for yourself:
The Iditarod Trail Committee Board of Directors met for two hours earlier today and made the decision after hearing detailed plans from its race staff to work on various areas of the historic trail.
Absent of significant new snow, specialized grooming equipment owned and operated by Dave Cruz of Cruz Construction is expected to be utilized to groom an overland trail from Willow to the Yentna River. From Yentna Station, mushers will take an overland trail on to Skwentna. Doing so will avoid nearly all of the icy river conditions. Days of work, as in all other years, are also planned in areas such as “The Steps” the Dalzell Gorge and around Rohn.
“While we will be the first to point out that various sections of the trail as they exist today are in some cases in poor condition, we are confident that we have access to the right resources, and have a plan in place, to provide for a trail which will be as safe as practical given the nature of this race,” said Mark Nordman, Race Director.
Seventy mushers and their teams are in their final days of training and preparation for Iditarod XLII which gets underway on Saturday, March 1 at 10:00 a.m. in downtown Anchorage.
The Iditarod Trail Committee Board of Directors met for two hours earlier today and made the decision after hearing detailed plans from its race staff to work on various areas of the historic trail.
Absent of significant new snow, specialized grooming equipment owned and operated by Dave Cruz of Cruz Construction is expected to be utilized to groom an overland trail from Willow to the Yentna River. From Yentna Station, mushers will take an overland trail on to Skwentna. Doing so will avoid nearly all of the icy river conditions. Days of work, as in all other years, are also planned in areas such as “The Steps” the Dalzell Gorge and around Rohn.
“While we will be the first to point out that various sections of the trail as they exist today are in some cases in poor condition, we are confident that we have access to the right resources, and have a plan in place, to provide for a trail which will be as safe as practical given the nature of this race,” said Mark Nordman, Race Director.
Seventy mushers and their teams are in their final days of training and preparation for Iditarod XLII which gets underway on Saturday, March 1 at 10:00 a.m. in downtown Anchorage.
