Marshal talks trail, defends rescue effort
DAWSON CITY, Yukon—The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race’s rough trail conditions have followed mushers into Canada.
Race Marshal Mike McCowan said contingency plans have been drawn up if low snow conditions cause the trail to crumble. Mushers reached this Yukon River gold rush town Thursday and have 440 miles left to complete to Whitehorse, Yukon, after taking a 36-hour mandatory layover.
“We are concerned about the trail,” McCowan said during a news conference. “We’ve had contingency plans for 21⁄2 weeks now.”
McCowan was briefed before the meeting by Canadian Rangers, who take care of trailbreaking on the Canadian side of the border.
Of particular concern is the last 175 miles from Carmacks through Braeburn to Whitehorse. Anecdotal reports of very little snow in that area are becoming more and more frequent.
“The Rangers have done an enormous amount of work on that section of trail, just an enormous amount,” McCowan said.
If a decision to reroute the trail or to end the race prematurely is made, McCowan said it is the mushers who will know first.
“I will be meeting with the drivers privately, to hear their input, before we make anything known,” he said.
Questions about the Quest’s response to mushers in distress on Monday and Tuesday continued to persist. Some of the seven 1,000-mile Quest and Quest 300 racers rescued by helicopter from two White Mountains summits Monday and Tuesday have been critical of the response by race officials.
One musher who was not airlifted claimed officials left three trailing teams to fend for themselves.
“I don’t feel like that is the case,” McCowan said. “Snowmachines were dispatched from Central to 101 (Mile Steese Highway), from 101 towards Angel Creek, and then from Angel Creek on the other side.
“We located the three teams in that area fairly quickly.”
At least three of the five 1,000-mile racers who were plucked off Eagle Summit by a helicopter said they would have continued with the race, but were not given the option.
“I have heard of that,” McCowan said. “I spoke with the commanders on the scene who picked up the mushers and no one, I repeat no one, was making an attempt to move forward. (The mushers) didn’t have a lot of time to say anything.
“That is totally erroneous. All they had to do was say no, and not one of them said a thing.”
The five mushers—Saul Turner, Phil Joy, Yuka Honda, Jennifer Cochran and Kiara Adams—were withdrawn from the race.
Stranded mushers contacted by the News-Miner were careful not to criticize the response. Some said rules changes were necessary to keep a similar thing from happening again. McCowan was asked if he would support such changes.
“Personally? No,” he said. “We all make decisions and accept full responsibility for them. The fact is, everybody who enters this race knows that it is very difficult.
“Some made the decision to go on when they knew in fact a storm was coming, and they decided to try to keep going. Decisions by the drivers are their decisions to make.”
McCowan also was asked if he would do anything differently if it happened again.
“No, nothing different,” he said. “When the snowmachines couldn’t get up either side of Eagle Summit and find the people we were looking for, there was nothing we could do.”