Iditarod

Mushers are expressing frustration over controversial rule changes the Iditarod made during a board meeting Friday.

The race’s Trail Committee is upholding rule 35, which for the first-time ever will allow the use of two-way communication devices, including cellphones and satellite phones along the trail.

The organization thinks the measure will make for a safer race, a news release said.

“This rule change involved more than the usual amount of discussion and deliberation over the last eight months, which included a tremendous amount of input from the competitors in this event,” according to the release.

Mushers have been critical of the rule, saying it represents one of the biggest changes ever made to the race.

Iditarod veteran Wade Marrs attended the board meeting.

“Every musher there was opposed to the rule,” Marrs said by phone Friday afternoon. “It will change the race drastically I believe.”

Mushers said the measure could open the door to coaching and unfair advantages, a violation of race rules, but something that competitors say will be practically unenforceable.

“You can bet that someone’s going to call home and get help and outside assistance,” Marrs said.

Marrs, like other mushers, cited the controversial rule 53 — the so-called gag-order passed last year– in reserving criticisms of the decision by the board to change the rule.

Another source of tension from today’s meeting is a decision to change where equipment can be carried on sleds.

Rumors were circulating that the measure was a ban on trailers, which have been used by many of the top-performing mushers the last few years to haul dogs, supplies, and even a stove.

The Iditarod Trail Committee said that is not the case, and will be sending out the new official language to competitors.

The Iditarod’s new communications rule will stay largely intact despite opposition.

KTVA-TV reports mushers will be able to carry two-way communication devices as well as GPS and tracking gear, but must have Iditarod Trail Committee approval to use the technology to contact the media.

Board members decided Friday to remove a part of the rule that said mushers would be disqualified if they used devices for outside assistance and coaching.

Four-time Iditarod winner Dallas Seavey said the rule as it stood could not be enforced.

He said after the board’s decision that he and others respectfully disagree with the board and that he is going to keep pushing to maintain the race’s integrity.

Board president Andy Baker said the rule was created due to safety concerns.

The historic Iditarod Trail took center stage during a Tuesday meeting held by the Army Corps of Engineers on the proposed Donlin Gold mine.

The route has been changed, but not far enough to suit some longtime mushers.

Proposed Donlin Gold mine runs afoul of the dog mushing community.

The Iditarod Trail is a National Historic Trail; there is no getting around that.

After Donlin Gold’s original proposal for a natural gas pipeline through Rainy Pass raised a storm of objections from some in the dog mushing community, the route of the proposed buried gas line from Cook Inlet now swings north over the Alaska Range through Jones Pass.

This route was used to avoid Rainy Pass, but it does not go far enough, according to Dan Seavey, one of the pioneer mushers who created the last Great Race and worked hard to get the trail its National Historic Trail designation.

He notes that the gas line would still follow the trail route from Skwentna to Finger Lake.

“I don’t see any mitigation. I see selecting an alternate to the historic trail,” Seavey said.

Many other mushers weren’t at the meeting, because there is a gag order on those who plan to run the race.

Donlin is a major sponsor of the Iditarod.

The Army Corps of Engineers is trying to find ways to mitigate the problem posed by the gas line and other parts of the huge mine project.

Sheila Newman, with the Alaska district of the Army Corps, thinks that with enough people at the table, a solution can be found. She hopes that the Seavey family will continue to be involved.

“It was good he was here to talk about what his concerns are and continue the conversation about, you know, what, if anything, can be done to help address some of them,” she said.

Donlin points to community archeological projects like the one recently conducted at Crooked Creek, the nearest village to the mine site, as a method to help mitigate problems.

But as far as moving the pipeline right-of-way off the trail route, Enric Fernadez, senior environmental coordinator for Donlin Gold, says the reason it runs along the Iditarod Trail to the Alaska Rage is because of the geography of the region.

“It offers the best geo-technical conditions to place a pipeline, which is coincidentally the reason why the Iditarod Trail is there,” Fernadez said.

There are those who say the company needs to build connections between its proposed gas line and nearby villages.

David Gililak Sr. from Akiak says he doesn’t see any reason to build it if it does not improve the infrastructure to the point that affordable natural gas will be available to local residents.

“They shouldn’t actually build a pipeline if it’s not going to benefit Calista region, because we’re the most economically, electrically, socially depressed region in the state,” he said.

Calista Corporation owns the subsurface rights for the proposed mine site.

June McAtee, vice president of Lands and Shareholder Services for Calista, said the Donlin Gold project is not a social service, but it would provide an economic boost to the region, and Donlin’s proposed pipeline would bring affordable natural gas that much closer to the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta.

“The prices of fuel and power and everything else in the region are very high, and there’s no way they’re ever going to come down unless you build something. That’s where we’re coming from, and we think this project has the potential to help us get things built in the region.”

But even if all these issues are resolved, some village residents worry that the pipeline will open remote areas to outside hunters.

Gililak said the temporary road used to build the gas line won’t stay temporary, even if the company tries to close it, and that would have consequences for Akiak.

“They will be coming in from all over the world. It is a whole lot cheaper to drive than to fly,” Gililak said. “I mean we’ll have a lot of traffic in that area, eventually to the point where the state will have to call it a road.”

The Army Corps of Engineers plans to hold another meeting on the issue in Bethel by the end of the month or early November.

The Iditarod Trail Committee announced Monday that former champion Lance Mackey has withdrawn from the race, citing health reasons.

The committee shared the news through its Facebook page, writing Mackey is on a “journey to improving his health.”

Mackey is a cancer survivor, and has had difficult time in the last two Iditarods, scratching in 2016 midway through the race.

The musher’s four back-to-back wins in both the Iditarod and Yukon Quest make him one of the most elite long distance mushers in the sport’s history.

There are currently 54 mushers signed up for the 2017 Iditarod.

An accomplished musher was in a Palmer state court Tuesday over a domestic violence incident that happened in December of 2015. Critics have asked whether Iditarod organizers were aware of the assault charges prior to the race and let 24-year-old Travis Beals compete anyway.

Beals is accused of an Assault 4 misdemeanor, causing fear of injury, over an incident in Willow.

The case was still pending in January when Iditarod CEO Stan Hooley learned about it. According to Hooley, the organization didn’t ignore the charges at the time but was told by its legal counsel to wait for a court ruling.

“We feel, and have felt all along, that we need to let the legal process complete itself,” Hooley said by phone. “Then we’ll have decisions to make based upon that.”

However, the law firm handling legal advice for the Iditarod, Davis, Wright, Tremaine, did not report any information on an earlier, separate domestic violence assault from May of 2015, in which Beals pled guilty to a lesser charge of criminal mischief.

Hooley said the Iditarod officials learned of that conviction from Frontiersman newspaper editor Matt Tunseth as he was reporting the story. Had race organizers known, Hooley believes they would likely have decided Beals violated the Iditarod’s standards for personal conduct.

“He probably wouldn’t have run the 2016 race,” Hooley said.

The personal conduct rule was introduced last year, and Hooley thinks it will need to evolve in order to take into account rising standards of professional behavior among mushers. Unlike the National Football League, which has faced intense criticism lately over its handling of domestic violence, the Iditarod doesn’t currently have the resources to monitor and investigate claims year round.

“We’ll do the very best job we possibly can,” Hooley said, before adding that the staff and funding needed “to do this right” will be significant.

Beals’s hearing was held in a therapeutic court, as part of a program to divert “misdemeanor and low-level felony” offenders toward mental health treatment instead of the criminal justice system.

Beals did not respond to phone calls or emails directed to his kennel in Seward.

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Dallas Seavey and his dog team came running down front to claim victory in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and he sat a new race record.

The younger Seavey finished less than an hour ahead of his father.

Although his team was small at only six dogs, Dallas Seavey was able to shave time from the previous race record – one he set back in 2014.

“I was kind of surprised to see how fast the time was, but I had it in the back of my mind that this just might be a record breaker and if any dog deserves it it’s this team right here,” he said.

This is Seavey’s fourth win in five years.

“You know, that’s the funny thing is everybody has been asking ‘are you gonna go for five? Are you gonna go for six?’” Seavey said. “And I was like, ‘I just won my first Iditarod.’ Then after the second one, I said that’s a long ways off. Coming in tonight, I was thinking it might be time to start thinking about number five now.”

After an awards ceremony that included a $75,000 check and a new pickup truck, Seavey left the finish line for a few minutes – long enough to grab a cup of coffee, before his father and two-time champion Mitch Seavey drove his dog team under the burled arch that marks the finish line of the 1000 mile race.

Dallas: “I had fun out there.”

Mitch: “You did?”

Dallas: “Well, racing with you.”

Mitch: “Yeah, it was fun being together at places.”

The elder Seavey didn’t talk nearly as much about his own race as he did about his son’s.

“Dallas is a believer,” he said. “If it’s out there to be achieved, he thinks it’s already his and usually he turns out to be right.”

Mitch Seavey drove a team of young, inexperienced dogs. He struggled to find leaders throughout his race, but at the finish line his wife Janine reminded him of his accomplishment.

Mitch: “I’d like to have won – should’ve, could’ve. If, if, if; if, ifs and buts. But, leaders …”

Janine: “But look what you did without the leaders. It’s just incredible.”

Mitch: “I just did what Conway says. If you don’t have leaders, just don’t put any up there.”

Conway is another of Mitch Seavey’s sons.

Between the two of them, Mitch and Dallas Seavey have 20 top-10 finishes.

Now, they also now have a handful of new dogs to add to their mix of trail-hardened, experienced sled dogs that are likely to prove dominant in the mushing scene for many years to come.