…for “This Year’s Adventure I Envy Most”: Nabesna to McCarthy bikepackraft
Archive for the ‘Alaska’ Category
Early leader in the clubhouse…
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Adventures in Commuting, part 3
Friday, June 19th, 2009My wife and I both wish we could commute to work by bike everyday. But because of our daycare arrangement and that pesky “You must work 8 hours a day” rule, it simply isn’t possible.
So instead we’ve worked out a complicated compromise. I bike to work early in the morning. She drives in later after dropping the kiddo off at daycare. In the afternoon, I bike over to her office and get the car. I go pick up the kiddo, and she bikes home later. So we each get to bike one way. It works out pretty well, except for one hitch: there is no good route to get from my office to her office on a bike. Its only about a mile, but I have to take my life into my hands and cross the worst of midtown traffic.
I am constantly looking for a new route that is safer, more scenic, or at least shorter. This past winter I heard about a new path being built in a lesser-known park in midtown. Could this be a missing link I needed? Earlier this week I decided to give it a try. I found the park easy enough, but I couldn’t find any trails. So I started busting through the tall grass, carying my bike.
Midtown Anchorage - Anyone know where this is?
The bad news was that in a matter of minutes, I was up to calves in muck and it was getting deeper. The good news was at least this covered up my fashion faux-pas of wearing argyle dress socks with cycling shoes. Turn around? Are you kidding? I was not about to accept defeat from a tiny park in midtown. I pushed on.
I felt bad that I was probably disturbing the wetland habitat, but I have to admit that I was loving it. The best summer adventures usually involve some degree of bushwhacking or mud-slogging, but since I’ve been injured I’ve been missing out on all that fun. I desperately needed up up my slog quotient.
It only took a few minutes to cross the bog and I found the trail (still a work in progress) on the other side. I didn’t find a magical corridor through midtown, but I did find a nice little slice of the outdoors hidden in the middle of the city. I like living in a pace where my commute from work can turn into a mud-filled adventure. And besides, its not really summer in Alaska until you’ve bushwhacked through a mud bog.
Chulitna Float Trip
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Last weekend I floated the Chulitna River with a large group of guys. It was a bachelor party, which means “what happens on the river, stays on the river.” Sorry, no stories here.
The only reason I’m posting this is because I use this website as my outdoor journal. When I can’t remember how far a trip was, or how long it took me, I look it up on in my blog. I think the Chulitna offers some great opportunity for family float trips or short packrafting runs in the future, so I want to make sure I’ve got some of the vitals written down.
If you’re looking for info on floating the Chulitna, this might help. If you are looking for sordid tales of debauchery… man, o man have you come to the wrong place.
We put in on the East Fork at the Parks Highway about 4:30 PM on Friday. We floated for about two hours to our first camp at Honolulu Creek. This nine mile section (and the next several miles after the camp site) were wavy Class II. Quite a few boulders created holes and eddies to practice in. There were some sweepers which were easily avoided. This section was a lot of fun.
On Saturday we floated about 30 miles in seven hours, including stops. The river became braided and flat, but was still moving between 5-7 mph depending on the spot. We camped on a huge gravel bar in the middle of the river. Sunday we floated about 20 miles in four and a half hours (with fewer stops) to complete the 60 mile trip. We took out at the highway bridge near the Princess Lodge. The Tokositna river came in about an hour and half before the takeout.
There is no gauge on the river, but flow appeared to be average for this time of year.
Packrafting Montana Creek
Monday, June 1st, 2009One way that I have consoled myself during my healing process has been to think about packrafting. Of all my favorite activities, its the only one I figured I could do while injured. Well, maybe not the “packing” part, but definitely the “rafting” part. I’ve been scouting road-accessible floats that don’t require any hiking. And now that I am starting to bike again, that will open up a few more options. With my leg on the mend, I am ready to jump into the boat again.
Linda’s parents are currently visiting us for two weeks. We took them to a cabin on Benka Lake near Talkeetna this past weekend. One of the things we give up by living in Alaska is having grandparents (aka free babysitters) nearby. So when they come to visit, we generally exploit them so that Linda and I can have some play time, sans toddler. This time, Linda and I were able to sneak away during the little one’s nap for a short packraft/bike ride loop near the cabin.
Linda on Montana Creek
We put in on Montana Creek at the Yoder Road bridge and floated eight miles down to the Parks Highway. It was a decent float at the 6.13 foot water level, but lots of strainers and sweepers in the river kept it from being truly fun rafting. Without the wood, it would be a leisurely class I-II float. As is, the obstacles make it a solid class II that requires attention to each bend in the stream. There were about 5 places we had to get out and bushwhack around trees that had fallen across the entire creek. It was similar to the lower part of Willow Creek just before the Parks Highway. The photo is from one of the rare sections without any strainers when I had enough time to get out the camera.
The most excitement came when we spooked a mother moose with calf. She darted across the creek in front of us and up onto the opposite bank. Baby followed, but couldn’t lift himself out of the water. As baby struggled with front legs on the bank, hind legs in the 3-foot deep water, momma moose charged towards me as I tried to float by. When I became convinced she was about to jump into the water and stomp on me, I bailed onto a gravel bar on the opposite bank and ran back upstream. Momma continued to parallel me, but thankfully she stayed on her side of the creek. Baby eventually got up onto the bank after a couple minutes of trying, and they both quickly disappeared into the woods.
When we reached the Park Highway, we grabbed our previously-stashed bikes and rode 8 miles back up to the cabin off Yoder Road. It was a fun little nap-time outing. A perfect warm-up run, since we hadn’t been in our boats since last summer. Two hours of rafting, half an hour of biking.
I was glad to finally be doing an activity where I didn’t need to worry about my leg. I wore my leg brace so I’d be prepared for those times when I needed to jump out of the boat, and it was fine the whole time.
Even better, I was glad to be able to have an outing with Linda. Its a rare treat when we get to packraft together these days. Biking and hiking are easy to do with a two-year old. Packrafting, not so much - he really hates it when I bungee-cord him to the bow.
When I Come Around
Thursday, May 7th, 2009An update on my torn Achilles tendon.
The last time I wrote, I was very frustrated with my progress, or lack thereof. The first thing the doctor told me when he diagnosed the injury was that no healing could take place until the swelling went away. Additionally, every single person I talked with who has experienced an Achilles injury (and there are lots of them) said the same thing: “Don’t rush it. I tried to come back too soon, and I paid for it for years afterwards.” This scared me enough that I decided I was going to be a model patient. No pushing the envelope. I did everything I was supposed to do: ice, heat, medication, no stress on the leg. Yet my swelling persisted. This was very disappointing. I wasn’t healing.
When I started physical therapy a few weeks ago, I had a breakthrough. The swelling went down dramatically after doing therapy exercises and stressing it a little bit. It turned out that the swelling wasn’t from a persistent injury, it was from being so sedentary. My legs are used to moving, not sitting immobilized in a cast. Without any activity, fluid was just collecting in my ankle. The therapy was just what I needed. The light activity was getting my blood pumping and flushing out the ankle. And more importantly, I had no pain, even as we gradually increased the strain on the tendon. Finally, progress.
I’ve never been a believer in structured physical therapy for active people like myself. For previous injuries (mostly broken bones) I simply eased back into my normal activities gradually. I thought physical therapy was for old people, fragile people. But this experience has taught me the value of having a professional therapist who knows how much stress to apply and when to apply it. It has made a huge difference for me in just a few short weeks.
I’d also like to thank my friends for not posting any pictures of epic crust skiing adventures on the web while I’ve been sidelined. Or at least not sending me the link to any such pictures. Being ignorant of what I am missing has also made me feel a lot better.
Right now, I am almost back to my normal range of motion in the ankle. I am riding a bike regularly without the boot. I still wear the boot most of the time around the house and at work, and will for another 2-4 weeks. This is mainly to prevent any odd twists or tweaks that could set me back. The doc says that I should be back to normal in six weeks, which will be early June. That sounds great to me, but the doc also issued a stern warning that he meant “normal for normal people, not normal for someone stupid enough to ski 350 miles.”
Point taken.
A Quick Hit At Portage Lake
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009I should have known that one ski trip to Skookum Glacier wasn’t going to satiate my lust for crust this spring. Like any true addict, “just one” fix quickly leads to an overwhelming urge for another. My body may be injured, but my mind still craves copious amounts of sun and snow. No amount of bike riding was going to make the urge go away.
So yesterday I succumbed and headed to Portage Lake. With weekend temepratures hitting 70 degrees in Anchorage, I wasn’t sure the lake would still be skiable, so I had Turnagain Pass in mind as a back-up plan. When I arrived at the lake, it looked perfect. The crust was firm and smooth. There was a bustle of construction activity (lots of people and trucks) at the rock slide site, which led me to believe that there wouldn’t be any blasting anytime soon. So I geared up and headed across the lake.
Its about three miles to get back to the glacier. The first mile was great skiing. Fast and flat - perfect for my leg, which is still in the walking cast. After the first mile, though, the snow started getting punchy. At this point in the spring, the “snow” on the lake is really just a foot-thick layer of slush on top of ice. So each time I punched through, my foot dove into a soggy mess. For the next mile, I did my best to stay on top of the snow. But soon the crust was completely gone and I was trudging through slush. Bummer. At this point, making it to Portage Pass was out of the question, so I decided to trudge ahead until I could see the glacier, then turn around.
Proof that I made it. All 2.5 miles of it.
When returning to the car, I played around on the firmer crust on the north end of the lake a bit, watching the rock slide work. I finished skiing about 9:00 AM. When I got back to Anchorage, I found out that the blasting began a few hours after I left. I wish I’d been able to stay and watch! I found it amusing and slightly aggravating that the last time I was there, there were a bunch of warning signs even though the blasting wouldn’t take place for almost two weeks. Then yesterday, with the blasting only a few hours away, no signs at all!
Apres Ski
Even though the skiing wasn’t very good, it was great to be on skis again. And the trip was worth it for the drive alone - I saw a coyote, a fox, a moose and a bison along the way! (Okay, okay, the bison was at Big Game Alaska. But the others were legit.)
The Last Temptation of Crust
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Attention: Everyone who selected April 22 in their office pool for “the day that Cory finally ignores Doctor’s (and wife’s) orders and goes skiing,” please pick up your winnings at the front desk.
Monday of this week was the first day of excellent crust ski weather we’ve had so far this spring. Blinding sunshine, frozen snowpack. But I was a good patient and stayed home (well, at work actually).
Tuesday was also an epic crust day and I probably would have given in, except that my son was sick. I figured that if my wife had to stay home with vomiting toddler, I should probably go to work and contribute to the collective family good, rather than go play in the sun. I’m very sympathetic like that.
But when Wednesday morning dawned with clear skies and cold temperatures, well, I think we can all agree that no mortal man can be expected to resist that temptation three days in a row.
One reason I hadn’t been skiing (or doing anything mildly active) prior to today was that my ankle has continued to be swollen. Not good for healing. No matter how I try to baby it, the swelling doesn’t go down. But then yesterday, I had my first real physical therapy session. The therapist really stressed the ankle a lot more than I ever had in the past six weeks. At first, the tendon felt extremely tight and weak, but the more I worked it, the better it felt. And then, when I woke up this morning and saw that the ankle was less swollen than ever since the injury, a lightbulb went off in my head. Maybe a little bit of activity is exactly what I need to reduce the swelling, to get the blood flowing and flush out the ankle. That was all the excuse I needed to grab my skis.
So this morning I drove down to Portage Lake. I picked Portage because its a short, flat, easy ski with spectacular scenery. I could get my crust ski fix without pushing my Achilles too much. But when I got there, there were signs saying “DANGER! Blasting in area - Stay off ice.” The lake looked fine and it didn’t look like they were blasting today, so I thought about going anyway. But I was by myself with no one else around, and on a gimp leg, so I decided to play it safe. I drove down the road to the Placer River valley and headed towards Skookum Glacier instead.
The crust was near-perfect: rock hard with no volcanic ash. My technique was a little sloppy, and I fatigued quickly (did I really lose that much fitness in six weeks? Ouch.), but the ski was spectacular.
I knew I needed to be extra careful of my tendon while skiing. So it was fortunate that I had a pair of Salomon’s latest top-secret prototype boots to protect me. Currently I think there are only three pairs in existence. Mathias Fredriksson has a pair, Andy Gerlach had a pair, I have a pair. Check out my photos.
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The whole trip made me so happy. Early morning drive down Turnagain Arm, cruising on top of the firm snow while the crystals sparkled in the sun, feeling my blood pumping again, soaking up the sunshine, and even stopping for a snack at the Tesoro on the way home. It was great to be back in the spring routine again, if only for a day.
Cue up the Tom Petty
Monday, April 20th, 2009I thought I was handling my Achilles injury pretty well.
Even though March and April are my favorite months to ski in Alaska, I haven’t been too depressed. Maybe the fact that volcanic ash has slightly tarnished the snow conditions has helped me from being disappointed. But I’ve been focusing on doing what I need to do to get better (ice, heat, stretching, etc), so I haven’t been able to dwell on missing out. But as my recovery has dragged out longer than I hoped, its been getting harder to stay upbeat.
I was talking with my friend Erik the other day about how we endurance athletes program our minds to endure suffering, and how that translates to other aspects of our life. We inflict pain on ourselves on a daily basis. Sometime good pain, sometimes bad pain. We’ve training our bodies to handle the pain by focusing on the goal. Keep moving, the pain will end as soon as I make it to the finish line. But in life, we don’t always know if there will be a finish, never mind where it will be. This throws a monkeywrench into our coping strategies.
If the doctor had told me, “Your leg is going to hurt like hell for a month, but then it will be 100% healed,” I would have been thrilled. Instead my leg feels fine, but I have no idea when I’ll be able to use it again. This is so much harder to deal with. I’m stuck searching for a finish line that keeps moving. First, my goal was to be recovered in time for crust skiing season (April). Then, when I realized the extend of the injury, the goal was to be ready for Orienteering season (starts in May). Now I have reset my target again - this time to be ready for packrafting and peakbagging this summer (June/July). It could very well be delayed again.
The thing that has hit me the hardest is seeing other people move on. All my friends are making their summer adventure plans. All my fellow Iditarod Trail invitational racers are training for their next adventures. Meanwhile, I’m still stuck in the wake of the ITI. The analogy that keeps popping into my head is that its like our Rainy Pass trail-breaking adventure, if only everyone else made it through and I was left behind, still stuck in the waist-deep snow, moving one agonizing step at a time.
I’m stuck in “wait and see” mode, and the waiting is the hardest part.
Iditarod Trail Invitational Post-Script
Monday, March 23rd, 2009This is a collection of musing on the race that surprisingly didn’t fit into my tome of a race report.
Thank You!
First off, it’s time to finally thank the people that made this race possible for me:
My wife Linda - I know, I’ve thanked her a lot already, but I can’t say enough about all she did. Plus if I mention her again, this post will get a “Linda’ tag, helping her increase her lead in the ‘number of times tagged’ (see the tag cloud in the right hand column). This is apparently very important to her. I’d also like to thank our kiddo for holding his “Why did you leave us?” grudge for only three days after I returned.
My parents, and all of the friends and family who supported me and followed me during the race. It was great to come home and read all the messages afterwards. I’m fairly certain that none of them had any idea what I was getting into until it was too late to stop me.
Greg - for offering to fly out and get me from any checkpoint along the course. The offer was tempting many times. And thanks for coming to get me (and Alec Petro) once I got to McGrath. I was able to get home a day earlier, and we had a spectacular tour of the race course on the flight home. Although Alec’s view during the flight wasn’t quite as good as mine. Sorry Alec!
Cindy - for helping to design and then sew my sled cover, and modifying my pogies. And also for helping to keep Linda sane at work while I was away.
Jen and Ian - for their last minute modifications to the sled cover.
Tim - for sharing his sled design, and answering my questions about gear. And for all he has taught me over the years about “Performance backcountry skiing.”
Mike - for sharing his suspension sled pole design.
Ed, Pete, Jay, Tracey, Jeff, Billy, and all the other racers who knowingly, or unknowingly, helped me along the trail. All the racers were amazing, friendly people. As I said before, I really enjoyed being around the other two skiers for the entire race. I was really psyched that all three skiers finished, when there had only been four skiers finish in the last four years combined.
Bill & Kathi Merchant for pouring their hearts into this race, and all of the checkpoint workers along the way for keeping me fed, rested, and motivated, especially Dan the Mountain Man, Nick and Olene Petruska and Peter and Tracy Schneiderheinze.
Jill Homer, Kathi Merchant, Mike Curiak and everyone else who has written about their experiences on the trail. I read them all as I prepared for the race.
Here are a few questions that people have asked me recently…
How did your gear work out?
GEAR THAT WORKED BETTER THAN EXPECTED:
My boot/insole/sock system - I had a lot of anxiety about this stuff prior to the race, but it couldn’t have performed any better. My feet were never cold the entire race. Never. I only got one small blister the entire way. I choose boots that were a size too big (so that I could put an extra insole in them), and this proved critically helpful as my feet swelled throughout the race. The vapor barrier socks were a revelation for me, and I plan to use them a lot more in the future.
Down booties - I almost didn’t bring these because they are bulky and heavy. But they were really handy at the checkpoints, when I needed to get my feet out of the ski boots for a little while.
My sled pole - I really liked the suspension. It was a huge help for classic skiing, although the elastic was getting worn out by the end.
My headlamp - I came very close to buying a new headlamp for the race, but I’m glad I didn’t. My headlamp was made by Nite-Hawk, which sadly went out of business. It was powerful enough to using skiing while on the ‘low’ setting, which gets over 100 hours of burn time. I used one set of lithium batteries for the entire race. I was kind of bummed to leave so many expensive Lithium batteries behind in my drop bags.
GEAR THAT DIDN”T WORK VERY WELL
My skis -To be fair, the skis worked as well as I could expect them to. The problem was that I chose the wrong pair. For months, I had been planning on using these skis. I did all my training on them. But at the start of the race, because of the new snow, I had a pair of classic racing skis in the car, just in case I thought the trail looked really bad. I spent the entire race wishing I had grabbed those skis instead.
My sled - Again, I feel bad putting the sled under “Didn’t Work” especially considering the hours I invested in building it. For 90% of the race it worked great. It was a great sled for a packed trail. But when it got caught on alders, or tipped over in deep snow, it was a real liability. It was a perfect sled for the Susitna 100, which has a better trail, but less perfect for the ITI.
How did your food work out?
I had a lot of different foods with me, and I enjoyed having the variety. I ate some of everything. I had way more than enough food. I think my favorites were Snickers, Buckeyes (peanut butter balls), Pop-Tarts ( a surprise to me), Oatmeal cookies, and Gu (caffinated Espresso flavor). The only thing I wish I had more of was Snickers bars. I had one Snickers and one Hershey bar for each leg of the trip, but I wish I had three Snickers bars instead. I packed way too much summer sausage. Usually I eat a lot of that during long adventures, but not this time. I planned for a one pound stick of sausage for each leg of the trip, and only ate one stick the entire race. Bummer, because that was a lot of weight. Surprisingly (and unfortunately), when I got home I wasn’t sick of junk food. In fact, I think this trip only increased my addiction to junk food. Withdrawl sucks.
How much weight did you lose?
I weighed myself about 36 hours after I finished, and I had lost 4 pounds. At that point, I had already eaten about six big post-race meals, and my feet and ankles were still very swollen. At the finish, I was probably 6-8 ponds lighter than normal. For the first week afterwards, I was consistently eating 5-6 full meals a day. I weighed myself again a week later, and I was back to my normal weight. All in all, not a lot of fluxuation.
How would you rate your level of stink after wearing the same clothes for a week?
I was definitely foul. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being ‘I just stepped out of the shower’ and 10 being ‘I just swam across town in the sewer system,’ I think I was a 6 when I finished. Okay, maybe a 7. I thought I would smell worse. Except for my feet. They were an 11. Those wool socks might get thrown out.
What does Linda get in return for letting you do this?
We’re not sure yet, but she definitely gets something. Maybe a vacation of her own, or maybe she gets to focus on training for her own event, or maybe she gets a new toy. Or maybe all of the above. At the very least, I think there is either a road bike or cyclocross bike in her future.
What’s your next adventure?
I cashed in a lot of chips at work and at home to do this race, so it will be a while before I do anything on this scale again. Actually, it might be a while before I do anything at all again, because of…
My Achilles Tendon injury
My feet and legs had been feeling steadily better for the past two weeks. I went skiing (very mellow) twice this past weekend, and my feet were sore, but my Achilles tendon didn’t hurt at all. So I was optimistic as I went to the doctor’s office this morning.
The doctor killed that positive vibe pretty quickly. I have a partially ruptured (torn) Achilles tendon.
Its never a good sign when you take off your sock, and at first glance the doctor says, “Yep, there it is. It’s torn.” He estimated that the tendon is about 50% torn, but I need to have an MRI to be sure. So I am now in a walking cast and looking at about three months of recovery time if things go well. Or surgery and six months of recovery time if it goes not-so-well.
I’m pretty bummed. So much for enjoying Alaska’s Better Half. And just to be safe, its probably best if you not make any mention of crust skiing to me for the foreseeable future.
But on the bright side, I guess I can be glad that it’s not completely torn, and that it didn’t give out in the middle of the Farewell Burn. Knowing that the injury is kind of serious makes me feel better about my decision to play it safe towards the end of the race. I have to admit that, as the pain and the satisfaction of finishing subsided over time, I had begun to wonder if I should have pushed through Nikolai and tried to hold my second place standing. I was starting to wish that I had been in race mode, just a little bit. But now, knowing the full extend of the injury makes me realize that I did the right thing. Well, the right thing might have been to scratch from the race when it first started hurting. But I think I did the second-best thing.
The doctor seemed to have an understanding of the athletic stuff I am used to doing, so he knows the kind of shape I want to get back to. I guess he figured that out when he asked “How did this happen?” And I answered, “By skiing 350 miles.” He also knows how to deal with athletes who are not happy about being laid up. One of his main concerns was finding alternative ways for me to work out during the next few weeks. For the time-being though, I’m not in the mood to push it. I’ve got a lot of non-athletic things to catch up on, and I could use a little rest. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go mount this boot-thingy onto a skate ski.
2009 Iditarod Trail Invitational Scrapbook
Friday, March 20th, 2009It seemed like there was a lot more awareness of the Iditarod Trail Invitational this year. I’ve followed the race for the past few years and I don’t remember seeing nearly as many newspaper articles as there were this year. I wanted to make sure I had a copy of this stuff for future reference. So here is my scrapbook of this year’s race.
Race News and Discussion
ITI message board comments for me: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3
Photos and Video
YouTube video of Bill Merchant’s pass ordeal
Racer Reports
Jay & Tracey P: Tidbits | Full Report
Phil Hofstetter: Recap 1 | Recap 2 | Recap 3 | Tim’s Nome finish
Lou Kobin: Recap 1 | Recap 2 | Recap 3 Lou has some of the best ‘in-race’ photos I’ve seen
Yair Kellner: Rumors of my demise…
Geoff Roes: Interview with Jeff Oatley
Jill Homer: All of her February and March posts
Press
Athletes max out Trail Invitational field
Anchorage Daily News 01/03/09 23:58:40
Considering the Alaska Trail Invitational, the 350-mile race from Knik to McGrath along the Iditarod Trail that begins March 1? Forget it. Fifty hardy bikers, runners and skiers from Alaska, the Lower 48 and overseas have already filled out the 50-racer field. And what a loaded field it is.
Iditarod Trail Invitational Ready To Roll
Anchorage Daily News 01/19/09 22:53:01
While the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational slog to Nome which begins March 1, a week before the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race,remains the domain of just a few endurance studs, the shorter 350-mile race to McGrath features a stellar field littered with former champs.
The loneliness of the long-distance winter race
Anchorage Daily News 02/23/09 21:32:10
The hardest race to run is the one waged in your mind, and it is for this reason the Iditarod Trail Invitational is the hardest race in the world. Forget the distance of hundreds of miles, the brutal Alaska winds, the subzero cold, the bad trail, and the danger of avalanche and overflow. Those are the smallest of the challenges to be met.
Basinger swaps bike for skis in race to Nome
Anchorage Daily News February 27th, 2009 12:21 AM
The rare endurance animals who finish the Iditarod Trail Invitational to McGrath or Nome can count themselves among the toughest bikers, skiers or runners in the world. And at least one aims to show he’s pretty flexible too. Anchorage bicyclist extraordinaire Peter Basinger, who owns the Invitational record to McGrath — a stunning 3 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes — will slip out of the pedals and strap on the skis Sunday when Alaska’s longest human- powered race begins at 2 p.m. on Knik Lake.
Oatley plows through snow for race lead
Anchorage Daily News 03/02/09 22:34:19
Picking his way through deep snow, Fairbanks cyclist Jeff Oatley is dominating the field in the early stages of the Iditarod Trail Invitational.
Oatley rolling rapidly in Iditarod Invitational
Anchorage Daily News 03/03/09 23:01:35
Fairbanks bicyclist Jeff Oatley extended his ridiculous lead in the Iditarod Trail Invitational to more than 11 hours on Tuesday as he headed into the treacherous Dalzell Gorge reported to be blanketed with deep snow.
Iditarod Trail missing under deep snow
Anchorage Daily News 03/04/09 22:10:14
Kathi Merchant with the Iditarod Trail Invitational reported heavy snow falling in McGrath on the north side of the Alaska Range late Wednesday afternoon. Merchant was reached by telephone as she waited to greet mountain bikers, skiers and runners coming north on the historic Iditarod route from Knik. She was starting to get a little worried.
Storm traps wilderness racers on Iditarod Trail
Anchorage Daily News 03/05/09 11:03:48
Along the Iditarod Trail, a race was on today to reach mountain bikers, skiers and runners trapped by snows high in the Alaska Range as the notorious Rainy Pass winds began to blow. Kathi Merchant with the Iditarod Trail Invitational said none of the 20 or so people on the trail appeared to be in imminent danger, but they were all stuck. The invitational, in cooperation with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, was trying to get to them to provide a trail over the pass and down to a one-room log cabin on the Tatina River at Rohn. Jeff Oatley from Fairbanks, a mountain biker who led the race to Rainy Pass Lodge on Puntilla Lake near the south end of the pass, left that checkpoint at 3 a.m. Tuesday. By this morning, he’d been on the trail more than 48 hours.
Wilderness racer gets through Rainy Pass
Anchorage Daily News 03/05/09 21:39:25
An effort to reach mountain bikers, skiers and runners trapped by deep snow along the Iditarod Trail high in the Alaska Range appeared to have succeeded Thursday, but the only one known for sure to be through treacherous Rainy Pass was a hedge-fund trader from the Boston area.
Wilderness race leaders power through pass
Anchorage Daily News 03/06/09 11:24:21
The storm that stranded racers in the Iditarod Trail Invitational high in the Alaska Range on Thursday was easing today, but the race lead that Fairbanks cyclist Jeff Oatley sweated so hard to obtain in the 350-mile, human-powered wilderness epic appeared gone, swallowed up by the deep snow that stalled the race.
Iditarod Trail Invitational cyclist has been missing since Tuesday
Anchorage Daily News 03/07/09 00:02:06
Nineteen competitors in the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational race from Knik to McGrath were on the trail out of Rohn on the north side of the Alaska Range on Friday afternoon, but one competitor was notably missing. Australian cyclist Yair Kellner hasn’t been seen by anyone since he left the community of Skwentna, about 100 miles north of Anchorage, at 1 a.m. Tuesday. He is now almost 100 miles behind the tail-end Invitational walkers and concern for his welfare is growing.
Missing endurance racer rescued
Anchorage Daily News 03/08/09 22:36:32
After spending a couple days shivering in his sleeping bag and building snow caves to block the chilling wind, Australian Yair Kellner was rescued near the historic Iditarod Trail on Saturday morning.
Oatley wins ’short’ Iditarod Invitational race
Anchorage Daily News 03/10/09 21:57:50
Fairbanks cyclist fastest to Mcgrath; 600 miles more for some. Oatley, who led by as much as 11 hours in the first portion of the race, persevered to win in five days, 19 hours and 34 minutes despite being bogged down for days by winter storms that all but obliterated the Iditarod Trail between Rainy Pass and Rohn.
From a racer’s perspective
Jill Homer, Juneau Empire Friday, March 13, 2009
A rookie no more, Juneau biker felt ready for all 350 miles of the 2009 Iditarod Trail Invitational. “When I finally worked the boot open, my foot wouldn’t budge. As I worked my wet sock down and wiggled and yanked my foot, nothing happened. My socks were frozen to the inside of my boot. And my foot, I realized with sinking dread, was frozen to the inside of my socks.”
Invitational cyclist rescued
Anchorage Daily News 03/14/09 03:21:23
Cyclist Billy Koitzsch was limping along the most desolate stretch of the Iditraod Trail in one of the most desolate corners of Alaska on Thursday when rescue arrived in the guise of a film crew on a snowmachine.
No cause for alarm on Iditarod Invitational
Anchorage Daily News March 30th, 2009 08:39 PM
As nasty and perilous as portions of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race were this year, consider this: The Iditarod Trail Invitational was far worse. “For racers who feel the world needs to know where they are in real time, there are other races out there for them,” said Invitational co-director Bill Merchant, who plans to ban satellite signalling and tracking devices from the race next year because of problems they caused this year. The devices have uneven performance in Alaska, he said, and can cause all sorts of confusion when people use devices like the SPOT personal tracker to signal for help only to have the signal subsequently blink in and out.
Snow machine: Jeff Oatley’s Rig for the Iditarod Trail Invitational
