6:47 PM
| Sunrise at | 7:33 AM | in direction | 99° | East |  |
| Sunset at | 6:32 PM | in direction | 261° | West |  |
Five days into the race and, in my experience at least, some very clear differences present themselves for following this race as opposed to following the Yukon Quest:
- Money
- Number of mushers entered
- Money
- Website
- Money
- Viewer participation
- Money
- Pay for view
- Spirit of the race
Money: The Iditarod does not boast of a surfeit of funds, but clearly there is enough in donations and sponsorships to do a great deal more for mushers and fans with respect to media coverage and race analysis. Analysis features are posted several times a day with in-depth discussion and photos. Many videos are public, but if one is an Insider many more videos are shown which are well focused and entertaining.
Number of mushers entered: This year, the Yukon Quest listed thirty people entered. By the time of the actual race it was down to 23, four of whom scratched. This year, there were 64 entrants and due to favorable weather and trail conditions only three have scratched. Keeping track of all the mushers as they march across the Interior of Alaska makes for more challenges for armchair mushing. Especially this year has given me fits as the mushers have continued to run in tight packs: elite, elite-middle, middle, middle-back of the pack, and back of the pack. I have resorted to only selecting certain benchmark mushers so I can actually find their number on the map while looking at the entire section of trail between two checkpoints. Many times, they are running so closely together one musher's number overlaps another.
Money: The Iditarod does not boast of a surfeit of funds, but clearly there is enough in donations and sponsorships for them to continue to expand the Iditarod community of Cripple. In the Yukon Quest, various individuals, such as Gerry Willomitzer, have gone out to locations where shelter has been badly needed and replaced or repaired cabins. Scroggie Creek is one such cabin and who mans the cabin and supplies it with food and wood varies from year to year. Yet the Iditarod community of Cripple has its regulars who are flown in and out every year at the expense of the ITC and they continue to make their spot in the world cozy. This year, internet communication was added to Cripple.
Website: The Yukon Quest Board of Directors made a decision to use an ISP service that developed the website and then charges YQ for any uploads or changes to the page - talk about hampering the ability to notify folks of race status and updates - Boy Howdy! The Iditarod organizers have just published its new website, which is state of the art, easy to use and absolutely beautiful. It provides links to Current Standings, Educational resources, GPS tracking, photos, videos, featured articles, all with easy to use tabs clearly visible across the top of the page's central focus segment. The YQ page is not intuitive and has dated and clumsy navigation. However, we did get most of what we needed to know from the facebook page (more on that later).
Money: The Iditarod does not boast of a surfeit of funds, but clearly there is enough in donations and sponsorships to be able to pay for the website of the caliber of the new Iditarod website. That is a resource which is perennially lacking for the organizers of the Yukon Quest.
View participation: Although there is a facebook page for the ITC (Iditarod Trail Committee), the quality of participation on that page is vastly different. The Forums blogs are probably closer to the tight knit interaction that was so present on the Yukon Quest Facebook page, but the blogs are broken up into several categories, so it's not all folks focusing on the same bit of information through the facebook page. And, if someone posts a comment, others don't seem to "Like" it or comment upon it at all. It seems to be more of a Rah, Rah page at times - and with less exchange and humor. I became familiar with those that posted regularly during the YQ and felt a part of a closely entwined group of people. There were especially memorable moments as we waited to see who made it to Dawson first and the spectacular finish. It was like having a ring-side seat at a sporting arena with all your best buddies seated right around you. I have not visited the Iditarod forums this year - which I have enjoyed in the past - because the format doesn't appeal to me quite as much any more.
Money: The Iditarod does not boast of a surfeit of funds, but clearly there is enough in donations and sponsorships for the ITC to fly volunteers to check point and house them and feed them while they work on the race. The Yukon Quest is definitely pay as you go for volunteers and draws upon local communities to man each check point or dog drop. The result for the armchair musher is quicker updates from the field, which can be gratifying - although, I confess, I like the homey feel of YQ updates and volunteer reports just as much.
Pay for view: The Yukon Quest begs for donations on its home page, while the ITC has enough of a basis of support, they can ask viewers to pay for specialized services. This results in a higher caliber of GPS service, for example. The Spot trackers used by the Yukon Quest were far less reliable about reporting and far more temperamental than those of the IonEarth tracking system. This year, the Iditarod trackers did only report in mile segments without giving sufficient discrimination between points at first, but that has since been corrected. More importantly, so far no one's tracker has stopped working. Again, for the armchair musher, this is gratifying (although I do miss watching the little dogs make their progress across the screen).
The spirit of the race: Both races have an abundance of spirit and commitment from volunteers and the communities through which they pass. Those who happily go out into February weather in the Yukon Territories and northern Alaska are an unusual breed though. They are exceptionally tough minded to travel so far without support systems or communications. They also face a harder trail, for the most part and frightening weather. However, those who travel the Iditarod byways of Interior Alaska, especially in the years when the northern route is taken (like this year) cross sections of country that are not seen by human eyes for much of any year. It is very wild. And the wind along the Yukon at this section of the world can be brutal as is also the case for the coast. Both require a willingness to face uncertainty, weather, and long hours behind a sled for the musher. Both require a willingness to face uncertainty, impatience, frustration, and long hours in front of a a computer for the armchair musher.
Mush on, racers - I am happily ensconced in my armchair worrying and pondering your every move.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking time to comment.