Two-time defending champion Lance Mackey and Canadian musher Sebastian Schnuelle were exchanging the lead Monday in the early going of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Mackey overtook Schnuelle early Monday, and was the first team into the Rainy Pass checkpoint, 360 kilometres away from Anchorage.
But while Mackey rested at the checkpoint, Whitehorse native Schnuelle spent only five minutes there after arriving Monday afternoon and was first to leave. He was followed by Paul Gebhardt, a two-time runner-up, and Rick Swenson, the race’s only five-time winner.
Mackey was the first musher to arrive at Rainy Pass after having negotiated one of the steepest parts of the 1,770-kilometre trail where it descends sharply into a gorge along Happy River.
In years where the trail is icy and fast, descending into the gorge can be terrifying. But mushers were told this year that there was less to worry about on this portion of the trail because there was good snow cover for the sled runners.
Schnuelle recently won the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, a race nearly as long as the Iditarod.
Iditarod Race
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