Posts - Page 70 of 287 - Christof Teuscher

After a few hours of precious sleep, we crawled out of the cabin’s bunk beds and quickly readied ourselves for a 30mi section that can be beautiful and/or challenging: the climb over Rainy Pass and the descent to the Rohn checkpoint through the infamous Dalzell Gorge. I had nightmarish conditions on that stretch in 2020, so I felt ready for anything this time. Our wet gear had dried nicely and off we went into gorgeous valleys lined with the most amazing peaks. The trail only climbs a meager 1,500ft from Puntilla Lake to Rainy Pass, but pulling a 60lbs+ pulk turns this into a solid challenge. We needed our snowshoes for the ascent because the trail was soft.

The descent through the Dalzell Gorge can be challenging and dangerous. There’s usually open water, lots of ice, terrible winds, and brutal temperatures (-40F in 2020). We had a bit of all, but nothing overly harsh. There was only one open water crossing where we had to put our waders on. As darkness fell a few miles from Rohn, we both fell into a zombie stage that made walking straight hard. We quickly built a raging fire (an essential skill one must have for this race) to stay warm, melted some snow, and enjoyed a coffee. That kicked our tired (and not yet chafed) butts and got us to Rohn.

The saying goes that if you make it across the Alaska Range to Rohn, you’ll probably make it to McGrath. I’m not sure how true that is. McGrath is still 120ish miles away and a lot can happen, as we shall see.

The wind was blowing hard when we reached the legendary Rohn checkpoint (a small tent). We had the first of the two famous bratwursts everybody gets at that checkpoint, slept a few hours on the straw beds, had the second bratwurst, and left when it was still pitch dark. That turned out to be a mistake. But more on that tomorrow…

Fires are good for your mind and body.

Good morning!

No words needed.

Yes, we went into that mystic valley.

Getting closer to the pass, but still not there yet…

Finally!

Waders or overshoes are needed for crossing open water. Getting wet is to be avoided at any cost.

Slowly making our way toward the Rohn checkpoint.

#iti2022 #iditarodtrailinvitational #ultrarunning #nome #alaska

The race so far may have given the impression of a leisurely cakewalk through pretty Alaskan winter landscapes with culinary highlights at regular intervals. That’s not exactly what it was. But it is true that there is good number of lodges at the beginning of the race that serve food, the trail was in exceptionally good condition, and the weather had cooperated so far. Nothing was easy, yet it could have been a lot worse. It certainly was in 2020. But things were about to change as we moved into and over the Alaska Range.

After a rather long night, we arrived at Finger Lake by 6am or so. Our checkpoint was in a tent on the lake. The Winter Lake Lodge by Finger Lake is a luxury resort where people pay thousands of $$$ per night in all-inclusive packages. We were not allowed in the lodge. The checkpoint tent was warm and a bunch of athletes was still sleeping. We ate and I picked up my first drop bag. MP’s drop bags had not arrived, so she had to carry all her supplies for the 350mi to McGrath.

We didn’t dally and left quickly to tackle the 30mi-ish section to the Puntilla Lake checkpoint (mile 150). The section tends to be much harder than one would expect. We passed a sign that said “NOME 852 MILES.” It was not the most encouraging sign I had ever seen. It’s hard to wrap your mind around this number when you are going 3mi per hour at best and are schlepping a heavy pulk. Instead of thinking about the total mileage, the trick is to break things down into chunks that your mind can handle, e.g., make it 30mi to the next checkpoint.

It started to snow heavily. After a few hours of moving, my sleep deprivation forced me to sleep trailside for an hour. MP moved on. It took me the entire day and a lot of hard work to catch up with her. The wind picked up and it got dark. At some point I stepped into a deep and hidden moose hole and my shoe came off. It took me a while to find it and dig it out of the snow.

We arrived at the Puntilla Lake checkpoint, a musher cabin, late at night and passed out after wolfing down some noodles.