Team 20 George/Schachle first to Nome

Cars lined up near the Swanberg Dredge around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, as people braved the blustery weather to see the first of the Iron Dog racers come into Nome.

Team 20 Bradley George and Robby Schachle was the first team to reach the halfway point in Nome after 1,467 miles on the trail, zipping up the snowramp from the sea ice to Front Street at 2:09 p.m. The team experienced a crash between White Mountain and Nome, but came out of it uninjured. They proceeded to the inflatable Iron Dog arch on Front Street at City Hall and swiftly proceeded to the Public Works garage.

 Next came Team 14, Bryan Leslie pulling Casey Boylan behind him for the last leg of the trip at 2:29 p.m.

The Nome home teams made it soon after. Mike Morgan and his partner Bradley Kishbaugh, team 6, made it to the arch in town around 3:14 p.m., and were welcomed by Morgan’s family and friends. Nome’s rookie team, Bubba McDaniel and Wilson Hoogendorn arrived in Nome to a large gathering of family and friends at 3:33 p.m.

After having battled a long stretch of no snow and only gravel and dirt in the Farewell Burn area, many teams had trouble keeping their machines cold.

Once out of that area, snow was on the ground. But the challenges didn’t stop. On Tuesday, while the weather was clear, sunny and cold, winds in the notorious Topkok blowhole kicked up to make travelling unpleasant. According to the Topkok weather station, wind speeds were up to 43 miles per hour, with gusts recorded up to 53.4 mph.  

“White Mountain is actually absolutely beautiful. There’s no wind, gorgeous,” said Bradley George. The wind picked up around Skookum, and in the blowhole between Topkok and Safety winds made racing challenging. “We were leaned out as far as you can just to keep the sleds going straight,” said George.

Mike Morgan described the winds as “brutal.”

“We gotta go through that again. That was just nasty,” said Morgan. “Hopefully we get some good weather.”

The Iron Dog started last Saturday at Big Lake. The course took them to Kotzebue first and then to Nome. As of press time on Tuesday, out of 30 teams, nine scratched, including team 32, Louis Green and Amos Cruise, who scratched in Unalakleet.