Iditarod Update

Many thanks to seanexmachina on flickr for use of this picture of Robert Bundtzen's team at the Ceremonial Start of the race.

I've been checking in on the race updates frequently and was getting very frustrated try to find out what was going on with Robert Bundtzen's team. This morning the official standings show him stopped at McGrath in 46th place, having dropped two dogs in Nikolai.

I then went to Cabella's site and found this:

Clint Warnke was in there about the same time and said the trail markers were there but the head wind was so strong that he couldn't lift his head to look. "It's total head-on and it's cold," he said. He wound up relying on a nine-year-old leader named Merlin who dragged him from marker to marker and down safely to Rohn.

At one point, he came upon Robert Bundtzen, whose team of young dogs had had enough, and pulled over to quit. Warnke said he wasn't about to leave Bundtzen there, so he helped grab hold of the stranded musher's leaders and pulled them back onto the trail behind his team. The trick often works, and Bundtzen's dogs were willing to follow close on Warnke's heels.

So now I know that he's driving the puppy team and having a tough go of it and yet is still in a good position. Several racers have already scratched.

One of his sponsors is Zach Steer who is out with the leaders in Ophir. So I will be watching closely for more stories on how he is doing.