2005 Iditarod - March 15

March 15

Elim: Sørlie arrived first on March 15 at 1:17 am, and departed three hours later. John Baker was the second musher to arrive, 7 minutes after Sørlie's departure. The top 10 stretched out 10 hours, and the top 30 are now 39 hours apart. Sørlie and Buser left dogs behind, dropping their teams to just 8. Lance Mackey is in 11th place, which is the best position a winner of the Yukon Quest has held in a same-year Iditarod. The trail follows the coast then crosses inland over the Kwitalik Mountains.

White Mountain: Sørlie again was slow, taking almost 9 hours to arrive on March 15 at 12:59 pm, and may have gotten lost on Little McKinley. Normally a 5- to 7-hour trip, the slushy, soppy snow or just fatigue have slowed the top 10, though Iten rocketed in to arrive second, followed by a very fast Mitch Seavey, and a quick Brooks. Andersen, after hovering around 10th place, jumped to 6th. The remainder of the front-runners are more than four hours behind, and will start jockeying for position; slipping just one place in the final standings can cost several thousand dollars (US$) in prize money. The top 10 left within 9 hours.

Sørlie departed in exactly 8 hours, and the rest are taking their mandatory 8-hour rests. The parallels between the current race and his victory in 2003 are striking: in both races, he pulled ahead early and held onto a sizeable lead, dropped to a mere 8 dogs, and faced soft sticky snow. On March 14 to March 15, a storm along the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula grounded most airplanes, which prevented the small aircraft of the Iditarod Air Force from flying veterinarians and race officials into White Mountain before the leaders arrived, though local volunteers were present. The whiteout conditions and open water on the trail made snowmobile travel unsafe. This is the first time since at least 1988 that veterinarians were present to check teams arriving at a checkpoint, and the single veterinarian at Elim was overworked. Flights began again on March 16, but gusts of winds remained high (30 to 35 mph). The top 10 departed within 9 hours. After two scratches, Scdoris and Ellering are in last place. It normally takes about 10 hours from White Mountain to Nome.