Schnuelle takes slim lead as fast trail gives way to slow snow

Behind a team of dogs he calls "elderly," Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse pulled out of the abandoned town of Iditarod just before sunset Thursday to face an uncertain trail and an uncertain future.

Gone was the firm highway of snow that had characterized early sections of the 39th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Gone, too, were the speed demons moving at full throttle to the head of the pack.

Ahead was 68 miles of rugged trail -- past an old burn, traversing ridge after ridge, crossing frozen swamps and piercing scattered spruce before rolling into the lower Innoko Valley and the village of Shageluk, population 130.

"It's a heavily-wooded area that's not used all winter long," said Iditarod veteran Aaron Burmeister, a racer turned spectator for this year's race. "It's raw snow until trailbreakers hit it just ahead of the mushers. Teams that have been traveling 7-10 mph slow down to 4-6 mph."

And don't expect company.

It has been nearly 200 miles since mushers encountered Alaska residents.

"Trail breakers are having a little difficulty ... in deep snow," noted Bruce Lee, a seven-time Iditarod finisher and analyst for the online Iditarod Insider. "This could be a real turning point for teams that aren't suited for traveling on the softer type of trail. We might see teams that have a lower gear and more power start to benefit. (It) might be a real turning point."

Grinders and Yukon Quest veterans like Schnuelle ought to have an advantage.

"I don't have any speed," Schnuelle said Wednesday. "I have 7 mph and that's it."

Other mushers have demonstrated top-end speed of 14 mph or better early in the race, but Schnuelle, the 2009 Quest champion and this year's runner-up, has ample grit.

He soon had company, too.

Hugh Neff of Tok led a chase pack onto the trail at 6:12 p.m. and within 47 minutes he'd been joined by five other frontrunners -- four-time champion Martin Buser, John Baker of Kotzebue, last year's runner-up Hans Gatt, four-time defending champion Lance Mackey and Ray Redington, Jr.

Missing from the lead group is a musher who's consistently been there for the last decade, 2004 champion Mitch Seavey, who was pulled out of the race with an injured hand earlier in the day.

Before dawn, race marshal Mark Nordman withdrew the Sterling musher at the Ophir checkpoint.

"A folding knife folded up on my hand when I was opening a bale of straw and cut my fingers severely," Seavey told the Iditarod Insider. "I'm going to Anchorage to get it taken care of. I was gonna go win the Iditarod, but (pulling out) was the right thing to do and I agree with Mr. Nordman that I needed to get out, so that's the decision."

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Race officials spoke to Seavey's wife, Janine, who said her husband will be examined by an orthopedic doctor in Anchorage. "Then they will decide how to proceed," race spokesman Chas St. George said.

Withdrawing an experienced racer -- particularly a former champion -- is exceedingly rare.

The last Iditarod musher withdrawn was rookie Rob Loveman of Montana, who two years ago was pulled from the back of the pack for not traveling fast enough.

"He was just having a hard time staying awake and just trying to keep up with his dogs," race marshal Mark Nordman said at the time.

Loveman protested, citing pressure on back-of-the-pack mushers to keep moving as potentially harmful to the dogs.

Other mushers withdrawn over the past decade are not household names:

• Kim Franklin of England in 2008;

• Ben Valks of Holland in 2006.

• Jason Halseth of Point Hope and Robert Morgan of Wasilla in 2001.

Seavey is the seventh team to scratch or be withdrawn this year, and it's a surprisingly experienced group. Four of them -- Paul Gebhardt, Gerry Willomitzer, Jessica Hendricks and Seavey -- were top-25 racers in the last Iditarod they finished.

And the rugged conditions enroute to the Yukon River may force more to the sidelines.

"These trail conditions favor the tougher teams," Burmeister said. "Mushers who held their dogs back to slower speeds early in the race have more power in them now. They have to get down and grunt in some sections."

But the Iditarod trail shouldn't be a grind much longer. Burmeister flew over the trail enroute to Unalakleet on Thursday and reported what appeared to be hard fast trail without many snowdrifts returns once mushers reach the Yukon in Anvik. Flat river running for 148 miles follows.

"Speed teams are going to be right back to having their advantage," he said.

Burmeister predicts a Yukon River Shakedown over the next 24 hours that will slim the lead pack of roughly a dozen teams to six or seven.

"If you've had too little rest, you're going to pay for it on the Yukon,'' he said.