Hello All!

The following is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's account of the
near-disaster on Eagle Summit:

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 All mushers safe and accounted for after harrowing day on Quest trail
Last updated Feb 13 2006 06:12 PM CST
CBC News

The "world's toughest sled-dog race" took a dramatic turn Monday
when five Yukon Quest mushers stranded on a mountain pass had to be rescued
off the course by helicopter.

Details are sketchy, but at least five mushers were taken off the Eagle
Summit, where high winds and blowing snow left them stranded Sunday night
and most of Monday in white-out conditions and sub-zero temperatures.

Race officials, who earlier said six mushers were being medevaced to
Fairbanks, now say Yukon rookie Saul Turner and Jennifer Cochran were taken
off the mountain pass Monday afternoon and brought to the Mile 101 dog
drop, along with their teams. There were three other teams picked up, but
there's no official word on who they are, their condition, or where they're
being taken.

Yuka Honda, Kiara Adams and Phil Joy and their teams were also on the pass
and long overdue to the checkpoint at Central, but it's not clear if they
were the ones airlifted back to Mile 101.

While the mushers are reported to be in good condition, there's no word on
what prompted the evacuation.

All teams from both the Yukon Quest and the Quest 300, a shorter race for
less experienced mushers, are now accounted for, and either on their way to
Central, Alaska or Mile 101.

'Insane' conditions

The storm, which reduced visibility to just a few metres, made an
already-treacherous portion of the course impassable. The weather even
prevented race officials from even finding the mushers on the trail, and
much of Monday was spent just trying to locate racers.

The mushers had left Mile 100, a dog-drop on the trail, on Sunday, when bad
weather hit the mountain pass. Visibility was reduced to near-zero, on a
trail that even veteran mushers said tested them to the limits.

Communications are difficult in the remote region of Alaska and it was
difficult to determine just where the mushers are on the trail.

Poor weather hampered efforts by race officials to reach any of the mushers
by snow machine on Monday.

On Monday afternoon race officials announced four aircraft, including a
C130 infared-equipped helicopter and a Blackhawk from the U.S. military,
will fly over the trail. Spotters from Circle are on board.

"It's a good real hard search right now just to make sure, we don't
know what's going on, we don't know the condition of anyone up there, we
don't don't know where they're at, if we can nail them down we can get
better information," said race marshal Mike McCowan Monday.
"Still blowing quite severely on top of the summit.

" It's out of the ordinary, definitely, it's definitely out of the
ordinary."

On Monday officials reported that at least one team of dogs, but not their
musher, was actually lost on the trail after the summit. Musher Randy
Chappel, who's participating in the Quest 300 race, arrived at the Central
checkpoint after hitching a ride with another Quest 300 musher.

Chappel's team was later recovered and is safe.

The Eagle Summit is seen as one of the toughest parts of the
1,600-kilometre course, a wind-swept pass with little more than bare rock
and alpine tundra for shelter. Quest veterans call the pass 'Heartbreak
Hill' for its challenging terrain and unpredictable weather conditions.

Ice, boulders, glaciated overflow on the rivers, a lack of snow, and
difficulty finding trail markers made it hard on many of the teams.

"I can' t remember last time I was that scared or out of control, it
was absolutely insane," said Lance Mackey, who won the Quest last
year.

"I would not be surprised if someone wasn't killed out there
today," said veteran champion Hans Gatt.

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Not a great day for the mushers.

Take care,

Steven Horn (steven.horn{at}gmail.com)
Moderator, ALASKA_CHAT 
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