Update: Mushers stranded, dog team lost
CENTRAL—As of noon Monday, there were five mushers in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and eight from the Yukon Quest 300 that were still unaccounted for and possibly stranded on Eagle Summit.
Also lost on the summit at this time is the dog team of 300 musher Randy Chappel.
Dramatic weather and unpredictable circumstances that change by the minute resulted in one of the most difficult nights at Eagle Summit in the history of the Quest, a 1,000-mile race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon.
Trailbreakers on snowmachines were dispatched early Monday morning to look for mushers and the lost dog team.
“The trailbreakers we sent out from (Central) got as high as the treeline,” Race Marshal Mike McCowan said in a media briefing at the Steese Roadhouse around 11 a.m. Monday.
“There was so much blowing snow and such poor visibility that they had to come back. What we’re doing now is just waiting. Waiting for the weather to break, and then we’re really going to push it.”
State officials from the Alaska Department of Transportation closed the road over Eagle Summit around 10 a.m. While the Steese Highway to Circle is still open, there are reports of at least two vehicles stranded in deep snow drifts and the drive to Circle from Central is absolutely treacherous.
Regina Wycoff, the Healy rookie musher in the 1,000-mile Quest, was able to come off the mountain in the middle of the dark morning along with 300 mushers Brent Sass of Fairbanks and Chappel.
Chappel lost his team during a nasty slide down the ice covering the face of Eagle Summit.
“He held on for dear life, but his team took off,” said Sass of Fairbanks, who was behind Chappel at the time. “There was nothing any of us could do. We had to get off that mountain.
“The best-case scenario is that the team ran into one of the other mushers who is hunkered down out there. There’s a very, very large chance that that happened. Let’s pray for that dog team.”
The Quest mushers who left the dog drop at 101 Mile but have not checked into Central yet are Saul Turner, Phil Joy, Yuka Honda, Jennifer Cochran and Kiara Adams.
The missing Quest 300 mushers are Jodi Rozmyn, Bob McAlpin, Roland Waldispuehl, Rocky Demers, Martin Jahr, Didier Moggia, Becca Ross and Dave King.
Scratched from the 1,000-mile Quest at the 101 Mile dog drop were Rod Boyce, Paul Geoffrion and Russ Bybee. No official reasons for the scratches have been released at this time.