Our updated story from White Mountain: ‘Kind of a dream’: Brent Sass eyes his first Iditarod victory
Update, Monday:
Brent Sass and his 12-dog team raced first into White Mountain on Monday afternoon, eyeing their first Iditarod victory.
White Mountain is just 77 miles from the Nome finish line. All teams must rest there for eight hours before their final push to Nome.
Sass pulled in at 11:05 a.m. Monday. He can race on at 7:05 p.m.
Sass has a commanding lead in this year’s Iditarod. Five-time champion Dallas Seavey trails him by more than two hours, and was still on his way to White Mountain by noon.
Sass has led the Iditarod since just before the halfway point. He passed Seavey on the trail on the way from Ophir to Cripple, taking over the lead and never giving it up.
Original story:
KOYUK — Brent Sass has tightened his grip on the lead in the Iditarod, blazing the trail ahead of five-time champion Dallas Seavey.
Sass charged across the ice of Norton Sound to arrive in the Koyuk checkpoint, at race mile 804, in first place shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday.
On the way into the checkpoint, Sass was seen kicking and ski poling to help propel his team forward.
The team also stopped outside Koyuk for a few hours on the unprotected ice, bypassing a cabin on a rocky promontory that is the only spot protected from the wind on the 50-mile run between checkpoints.
“I bundled the dogs all up so they were just in one big pile,” said Sass. “I put ‘em behind the sled, put straw down and they had a great rest.”
He said the move was a preplanned decision.
“I wanted to break this next run to get into White Mountain a little bit more equally and the cabin was too close and Dallas was gonna go there, and I didn’t want Dallas to see me,” he said.
Sass stopped in Koyuk for a few minutes to pile some supplies in his sled.
He said his 12 dogs have been doing well, even across glare ice and into head winds exceeding 30 miles per hour. He said they’ve been eating “really, really, really, well” over the last few runs, after he worried about their appetites earlier on the trail.
He didn’t seem too worried about Seavey, who’s chased him for much of the race.
“He will always be there, you can never count Dallas out,” said Sass. “But he’s back there quite a ways.”
Sass is racing for his first Iditarod win. He’s won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest three times, and trains at a remote homestead outside of Fairbanks.
As for Seavey, he was feeling a little less hopeful about catching Sass when he pulled into Koyuk Sunday night, about two and a half hours behind.
“We’re gonna keep on doing everything we can, but I find it unlikely that’s gonna be enough,” he said.
Unless, Seavey said, Sass makes a mistake.
Seavey stopped in Koyuk to give his dogs some frozen meat snacks and filled his thermos with coffee inside the checkpoint. He looked at Sass’ checkpoint times.
He and his 10 dogs dashed out at 9:26 p.m.
From Koyuk, teams have four more checkpoints until Nome. They must all take an eight-hour rest in White Mountain, about 80 miles from the finish.
By 8 a.m. Monday, Sass had about 25 miles to go to White Mountain and Seavey was 20 miles behind, according to the race tracker.
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Lex Treinen is covering the state Legislature for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at ltreinen@gmail.com.
