Weather helps Neff to huge Yukon Quest lead YUKON QUEST: Tok musher gets past a storm that turns back Gatt, opens up a nearly 10-hour cushion.

Weather became a major player in the Yukon Quest as mushers headed from Canada to Alaska in the 1,000-mile sled dog race Friday, forcing a couple of mushers to retreat, prompting race officials to call in the Mounties to aid an Anchorage rookie and providing race leader Hugh Neff with a blessing.

Neff, the perennial contender from Tok, drove his 13-dog team up and over American Summit and into Eagle -- the first checkpoint in Alaska -- early Friday morning, ahead of the worst of a storm that brought howling winds and heavy snowfall, limiting visibility and blowing in portions of the trail.

The result: A lead that looks insurmountable with less than 400 miles remaining in the 1,000-mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks.

Neff arrived in Eagle a little after midnight Friday, at 12:18 a.m. Arriving more than 12 hours later was Hans Gatt, the defending champion from Whitehorse and Neff's closest competition.

Gatt was less than three hours behind Neff when the two left Dawson City early Thursday morning. That was a big enough gap for Neff to wind up on the right side of the storm and Gatt to wind up on the wrong side.

Though Neff mushed through strong winds and blowing snow as his team made the 150-mile run between Dawson City and Eagle, he escaped the worst of it.

Gatt and others weren't as lucky. An update from Quest organizers said Gatt holed up for a few hours on the Canadian side of 3,420-foot American Summit, "likely holding tight until conditions improve."

The weather turned back at least two mushers who had begun the run to Eagle.

Clint Warnke of Fairbanks drove his team out of Dawson shortly before 10 a.m. Friday, but returned after encountering blown-in trail and poor visibility, the Quest reported. He was deciding whether to scratch or wait until 10 p.m. Friday and caravan with a group of mushers expected to leave then, when their 36-hour mandatory layovers end.

The mandatory layover for Fairbanks musher Tamara Rose ended at 2:14 p.m. Friday, but Quest officials said she delayed her departure by several hours so she could join the 10 p.m. caravan too, probably figuring there is safety in numbers.

As for Anchorage rookie Christine Roalofs, she was already running at the back of the pack when a snowstorm slowed her progress even more on her run from Scroggie Creek to Dawson.

A report from Quest officials said she was 38 miles outside Dawson on Thursday afternoon when she pushed the helped button on her SPOT unit. Race officials sent a crew with extra supplies and Roalofs, who was low on food, accepted the supplies. That automatically disqualified her, because race rules forbid mushers to accept outside assistance anywhere on the trail except Dawson.

Early Friday morning, Canadian Rangers and a Royal Mounted Police team brought Roalofs and her dogs to Dawson. "She was met at the intersection of the Klondike Highway by her handlers and dog truck," said the Quest report. "Everyone is safe."

Presumably Neff's lead is also safe, although the weather could throw a roadblock his way too. Neff, 43, has finished eight Quests and has been in the top-3 three times, including last year when he was third and 2009 when he was second.

Neff left Eagle at 7:45 a.m. Friday, bound for Slaven's Roadhouse, 101 miles down the Yukon River. Gatt and his 11 dogs left at 5:30 p.m., 45 minutes ahead of Ken Anderson of Fox, who is down to eight dogs from his original 14. Brent Sass of Fairbanks left four minutes after Anderson with 11 dogs.

As his team climbed American Summit late Thursday night, Neff didn't know he was in the process of opening a huge gap, he told Fairbanks radio station KUAC. He just knew conditions were awful.

"You could literally hear the roar of the wind," he said. "And the dogs were looking around and I kept turning around thinking it was Hans Gatt, and it was the dogs looking at the wind. It was pretty weird."

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