Iditarod 2010

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

IDITAROD 2010 is on!

 

Yesterday we started off the Iditarod 2010, I was this year handling every express delivery for Martin Buser and of course hauling dogs and what else needed for this race.

 

My first mission was to haul my own aircraft over to Willow for a mechanic job. Wanted to put on some skis and do an ordinary maintainance as well.

 

So late afternoon after everything had calmed down in Anchorage i went out to Cambell airport ready to take my Beaver up to Willow to follow the restart and also make my plane ready.

 

Beautiful afternoon. Let's hope the weather stays this way.

 

 

 

Great view over Wasilla

 

On final for Willow

 

Parked and shutting down and will start preparing the plane for the big race.

 

Her er noen linker for mer informasjon om

 

Iditarod 2010: http://www.iditarod.com/

 

Iditarod 2010 Air Force: http://www.iditarodairforce.com/

 

 

[Ernst K.Furuhatt]

Du er søren meg helt vill :grin: , dette er tøfft, og jeg er imponert av alt du rekker over .

[Tommy Bernes]

Se på alle Ildfluene! Tøft!

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

I stayed over in Willow until Monday morning, knowing that Martin Buser had a great time on the trail and no problems what so ever.

 

As soon as I was awake I was wondering where Martin was, and during breakfast they told me Martin had reached Finger Lake. I decided to fly up to Finger Lake to see for my self that everything was ok and follow him and the team from there.

 

The weather was ok, low clouds but nothing to be afraid of.

I headed out to the airport and started up my Beaver which had new skis on and looked great. During preparations i reporter came along and asked if he could buy a seat up to Finger Lake, and if I could to a short stop in Skwentna for some photo job he needed to do.

 

I told him this was ok by me, I had the morning and latest news was that Martin Buser just had entered Finger Lake so I recon I had the time.

 

Take off from Willow.

 

Passing over Yentna river

 

Waiting at Swentna airport to get up to Martin at Finger Lake

 

A photo taken from the cabin at Finger Lake of my landing on Finger Lake

 

The cabin and Iditarod camp at Finger Lake

 

 

After a brief talk with Martin I knew that Martin and his dogs was ok and I really look forward to follow him this year.

 

Current standings at Finger Lake:

http://www.iditarod.com/race/race/currentstandings.html

[Ernst K.Furuhatt]

Woaw, vannvittig fine lysforhold i bildene dine!

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Takker for det Ernie.... Det er morgenstart, FEX og ASE som gir dette lyset og disse forholdene (mest FEX vil jeg tro)

 

 

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

This morning I got good news. The teams had quite a speed and even Martin Buser was up among the 20 first runners. That sounds good.

 

After a great breakfast in the cabin we was ready to leave Finger Lake and head up to Rainy Pass Cabin, before going thru Rainy Pass and then to Rohn for a quick stop to catch up any news. We planned to fly all the way up to Nikolai to be able to welcome all mushers this morning.

 

Latest news told us that Schnuellle was up in front and the rest was haunting him down.

 

Low clouds this morning, but we hope that this will clear when we enter Rainy Pass and further on.

 

Snowing at Rainy Pass Cabin and clouds still low, but we managed without problem.

 

Thru Rainy Pass, the highest point on the trail, from here is all downhill.... you whish!

 

After a quick stop at Rohn, and no dogs to pick up. Sounds good that Martin have all 16 dogs in good health. More clouds on our way out of Rohn towards Nikolai

 

Parked at Nikolai, and we headed over to the camp to get the latest news about the race

 

 

Status when arriving Nikolai was that Schnuelle was right outside Nikolai up in front and Martin Buser at 17th place. Looking good. I know for a fact that from here on Martin will speed up the team and they will run for first place

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Martin had to leave one dog in Nikolai unfortunately, and the instructions was to bring it right back home to the vet at Buserdog Kennel.

 

I decided to start early in the morning, as a couple of Martin's sponsors was going up to McGrath and from there finding Martin somewhere on the trail.

 

It was still dark when I left Nikolai for Big Lake in Wasilla area.

 

Had a great flight togeter with a handler and a dog and some equipment.

 

 

After unloading and picking up a couple of people from Martin's sponsors we headed out again and a direct course for McGrath.

 

After an hour of flight we arrived McGrath and started to get latest news from the race officials.

 

They could tell us that Martin was at 5th place and hunting the leaders. He had headed out of McGrath and was reported passing Takotna.

 

We decided to head out to Takotna, pick up a dog Martin had to leave there and then follow the track up to Ophir and wait for Martin and the team. Then head back to McGrath with the dog and then set up transport back to Big Lake.

 

Not a lot of people at Takotna

 

After loading the dog onboard, we headed out to Ophir and hoped that we was able to say hello to Martin soon.

[Ernst K.Furuhatt]

Æ e mållaus ! Førsteklasses presentasjon av et interessant tema, og like imponerende lysforhold i bildene!!

 

 

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

While I spent the night in Ophir Martin passed by and did not stop but went direct to Cripple, so the next morning we decided to catch up with Martin at Cripple and see if everything was ok and check if he was going to drop a dog there. I myself had a feeling that maybe Martin would take his 24 hour layover in Cripple as well as mandatory in the Iditarod race.

 

We wake up to good news this early morning, reports told us that Martins was number three into Cripple and that the team looked full of energy. Martin had a strategy than running 50% and then resting the same amount of time before heading out to the trail again. Calculations told us that he had used a bit over 11 hours since his last rest, so he would probably have a long rest combined with the mandatory 24 hour layover.

 

That would give us several hours together with Martin.

 

So early today (Alaskan time) we headed out for Cripple, not that long hop, but a lovely day.

 

Take off from Ophir and heading up north to Cripple.

 

Enroute Cripple at 3000 feet

 

Turning final for Cripple. No people live permanently in Cripple, but it was a lot of people during the Alaskan Gold rush.

 

On final. I can smell the coffee already

 

Parked and heading out to find Martin to check status.

 

We are no exactly half way, and all that strategy about resting, layovers and running start for real. Let's see how this will affect the race.

[Øystein Hansen]

Herre min hatt! Du er en gal mann Jan Arild!! he-he :grin:

 

 

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Hehe.. gal?? Neida... bare voldsomt engasjert .... og til helga starter Finnmarksløpet, men har de småfly i tjenesten der?.... Neida.... treiginger heheh

[Ernst K.Furuhatt]

Men VI har jo småfly :whistle: , med Super Cub kunne vi ha fulgt løpet fra tretopphøyde :grin: .

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Kikka litt på løypa i Finnmarksløpet, det er 2-4 flyplasser som kan brukes på en rundtur og om man legger inn et par-tre bushlandinger så burde dette gi en fin tur det og med Cub'en i tretopphøyde kunne dette blitt en morro opplevlse

[Andreas R.Pettersen]

da har man jo en fin søndagstur i alle fall

 

nydelige bilder.

men et lite spm, hvilket scenery bruker du?

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

I bunn ligger Ultimate Alaska X og GEX USA/Canada/Alaska.

 

Så har jeg et Iditarod-scenery til FSX som ikke er offisielt. Dette sceneryet tegner opp ruta og lager checkpoints (telt, hytter og hus osv)

 

 

På noen av bildene er det også elementer fra sceneryet "Snow Dogs Tour Alaska"

[Andreas R.Pettersen]

synd at d ikke er offsielt,

min stefar er storfan av Iditarod og han ble ganske fasinert over at man kunne følge løypa så godt i fsx, og ikke minst fly ruta.

 

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

As Buser told us yesterday, he choose to do his 24 hour layover in Cripple. and as we knew the "Iditarod train", King, Neff, Seavey, Mackey, Gatt, Lindner, Schuelle and more passed thru Cripple and continued for Ruby while Martin did his 24 hours.

 

Reports told us later on that King was first in at Ruby, winning the 8 meal dinner and a money prize for first to Yukon.

 

Well at 06.14 Buser left Cripple heading Ruby. He did not leave any dogs and is still traveling with 14 strong dogs in front of his sled.

 

We decided to head back to McGrath to deliver the one dog a bigger cargo-aircraft would deliver back to Anchorage together with other dogs from the mushers.

 

We had lift off at 07.00 and set course for McGrath.

 

We was not alone in the air this early, several aircrafts already in the sky flying for Iditarod Air Force 2010.

 

Passing over the Iditarod trail on our way back to McGrath.

 

 

At last we reached McGrath, more daylight coming and here on final.

We was going to pick up a tv team of 3 wanting to do a story in Ruby as well.

 

The flight up to Ruby went well, passing over a lot of mushers heading for Ruby, quite crowded in the trail, and soon we reached Ruby by the shore of the mighty Yukon River

 

Parked and ready to catch up the latest news and to get the latest news about Martin Buser.

 

As soon as we landed I hooked my computer up and got these status report from the GPS-map. Seems like a crowd in the trail and Buser (nr. 37) moving in good speed.

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

ET lite videointervju med Orin Seybert, grunnleggeren av Pen Air. Han fikk tittelen 2010 Iditarod Honorary Musher for sin innsats og deltagelse i Iditarod Air Force.

 

http://www.iditarod.com/flashmap/free/video_505B70D8-D6B3-EBB1-DFA1617B5243BEC5.html?full=1

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Martin decided to take his 8 hour layover in Ruby, and left late in the evening yesterday. We decided to stay in Ruby and head off early morning as we now was used to do. The next morning I loaded my Beaver with 3 reporters heading for Galena, as I was going to fly there to see if everything was OK with Martin.

 

Martin did not leave any dogs behind last night, and headed out of Ruby with 14 dogs, a good sign.

 

After a great hot breakfast, bison stew, we headed out to the airport and made us self ready for a short flight.

 

Soon we was in the air, and passing over Ruby and decided to follow the mighty Yukon and look for mushers along our route to Galena. Hopefully the reporters would get some good pics for their stories as well.

 

 

There was a lot of ircrafts in the air this early, really busy sky it seems.

 

After a short hop we landed at Galena, a mighty big airport in middle of nowhere. The reason for this, is that US Air Force did have a base here earlier and also a radar station Galena Air Force Base and radar station.

 

After talking with Martin, who was in Galena but heading south to Nulato, we decided to wait until Martin had left if he had decided to leave a dog behing. The reportes used the time to interview mushers and natives and I tried to do whatever was needed to do. We even got a status report, telling us that Jeff King was the leader of the pack and had headed out of Nulato already with Lance Mackey and the rest right behind him.

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

There has been a couple of days since my last report. Due to satellite problems I was not able to forward my report yesterday, and also to much to do following the top 5 in to Kaltag and over to Unalakleet. Almost too much action going on when Lance decided to hit and run from Kaltag without a break.

 

Well, back to what I have been up to last couple of days. Martin and his teams of dogs, still having 14 dogs in his team are in good health and moving along in Martins planned schedule. He left Ruby and had a great run all the way down Yukon River to Kaltag and all dogs performing and no problems at all. I just had to check on each checkpoint and nothing much to do between.

 

I left Galena with a couple of reporters wanting to hike down to Kaltag to cover the top 5 arrivals, so we left as soon Martin left Galena with all 14 dogs.

 

Flying down Yukon River we spotted a lot of mushers on they way to Kaltag. We was able to reach Kaltag before the arrival of the first musher, and I decided to stay here until I got message that Martin was coming in to Nulato checkpoint and then head up to Nulato.

Parked and wanted to enjoy Kaltag and all the action.

 

First musher in was Jeff King, he decided to stay and rest while Lance decided to head straight out to Unalakleet. What an action!

Had a blast in Kaltag, but had to move up to Nulato to check on Martin. Headed out to the airport, and it was crowded with airplanes. When I arrived I saw this Beech. Probably a charter with VIP's following the race and was moving on.

 

Short hop up to Nulato to check on Martin who decided to rest here for a while, so I parked the aircraft and went to find him to catch up and get the latest news. Planes coming in and out all the time.

 

In the afternoon on Saturday I was asked if I could ferry a couple of officials over to Unalakleet that evening. Had nothing more to do and needed to fill up my aircraft with fuels, so this was fine by me. Martin told me that he probably would go on straight to Unalakleet and just a very short stop in Kaltag, so i decided to stay over in Unalakleet until further notice. Off we went in the early evening.

 

Passing over Kaltag again.

 

What a great evening with the sunset.

 

Parked and ready to hit Unalakleet. Lets hope the weather stays like this for the rest of the race and no winterstorm from the Bering strait.

[Jack J Jackson]

Må bare få sagt at dette var noe av det flotteste jeg sett på lenge!!! Trur jammen jeg skal ta samme turen. To fluer i en smekk. Iditarod OG FS!

 

 

Jack

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Takker for det Jack.

 

Det er utrolig morro å fly Iditarod også, spesielt når man følger løpet via hjemmesiden og også via GPS og som i det VA jeg er med i, flyr støttefunksjoner for en "favoritt-musher" og fly ut igjensatte hunder og alt

 

Jeg storkoser meg som bare det

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

After Buser arrived in Unalakleet and still showing a strong solid team and dropped no dogs i decided to accept a offer to take some tv-team up to Koyuk as they would try to get an interview with the top runners at the moment, Lance, Jeff and Hugh.

 

We headed out later afternoon for Koyuk

 

Started to get dark as we arrived Koyuk.

 

After a dinner and some time with the tv-team I decided to fly to Shaktoolik to welcome Buser who I knew was on his way.

Started to get dark but that shouldn't be any problem in this nice cold weather.

 

Soon we had the airport in Shaktoolik in sight.

 

During the night there had apparently been a lot of action. and Lance was already on his way over to Elim so a couple of reporters asked if I could fly them over the bay

 

This was a very short flight and we was soon on final, very short final

 

Parked and they was ready to welcome Lance to Elim.

 

I got news that Martin had left Shaktoolik and was on his way over to Koyuk, so I decided to leave Elim and head over.

 

On final for Koyuk and parked.

 

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

This race is almost to much action. It has been the best Iditarod I have followed so closely. Now it seems that Lance will take his fourth Iditarod and some is wondering if he will be able to beat Martin Busers fastest record as well. Let's see whats happening.

 

Wakening up today with the message that Martin Buser just had a short stop in Elim, but had to leave one dog behind, so we know what to do this day.

 

Not bad at all, first go to Elim pick up that dropped dog from Buser, and a couple of officials want to hike to White Mountain and then we continue up to Nome and deliver the dog. By doing this we will be able to catch Lance as he come into Nome, and probably as a winner as it look right now.

 

Well, we started out really early from Koyuk, and headed for Elim to pick up that dog and a couple of officials. After a U-turn passing over Koyuk.

 

Alot of activity at Elim as there was alot of musher in and they waited for more. I Just loaded on the dog and the passengers and headed straight out to White Mountain.

 

Parked at White Mountain and unloading passengers. I did take a short break here as well, getting me som coffe and something to eat and just watch whats going on. White Mountain is the place where all mushers have to rest for 8 hours before they leave for Nome.

 

 

After an hour I and a couple of handlers headed out for Nome. It was a great morning and a lovely sunrise. A lot of activity in the air as well, and I had8-10 aircrafts around me all the time from White Mountain and up to Nome.

 

Long final for Nome, the city getting ready to welcome the winner of Iditarod 2010.

 

Parked and shut down. Now we enter the city and hopefully I can stay and watch the winner.

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Ja, da var vinneren i mål.

 

Gratulerer til Lance Mackey som nesten satte rekord i hurtigste gjennomførte Iditarod. Han klarte ikke å slå rekorden til Martin Buser på 8 dager og litt over 22 timer, men Lance endte på 8 dager og litt over 23 timer. Det betyr at han kjørte 908 miles (1461 kilometre) på den tiden (6,8 km/t - døgnet rundt). Han vant også Iditarod for fjerde året på rad, det har ingen gjort før han.

 

 

Nummer 2 ble Hans Gatt og på 3-plass kom Jeff King. Resten fighter ute i løypa enda og vil nå komme inn etter hvert i løpet av den nærmeste uka.

 

 

Nå trengs det store styrker med fly for å frakte allt utstyr ut fra Nome til Anchorage (Hunder, sleder, mennesker, turister, Iditarod-funksjonærer, hundekjørere og deres handlere, materiell brukt osv osv)

 

Det er bare å ta med cargoflyet og fylle opp!

[Ernst K.Furuhatt]

Gratulerer med både utført jobb og glimrende reportasje. Innholdsrike, spennende og stemningsfulle bilder, og ikke minst en lærerik innføring i kappkjøring med hundesleder. Imponerende at du klarte all pendlingen mellom Iditarod og søndagsturene :grin: !!

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

Takker, takker Ernst.

 

Det har vært en utrolig spennende reise, full av opplevelser, og kombinasjonen av å knytte FSX/flyvning sammen med et "real event" som Iditarod er utrolig spennende og ikke minst interessant, ettersom du ikke vet fra dag til dag hva som skjer.

 

Det er andre året jeg gjennomfører dette og i år ble det esktra bra ettesom Ultimate Alaska er sluppet, pluss alle tileggsscenery som har kommet til Iditarod.

 

Morro å ha underholdt dere også med mine små historier.

[Jan Arild Gjemble]

After a couple of days in Nome and dogs and Martin had got some rest and experienced the race from Nome we decided to haul dogs and equipment back to Anchorage and from Anchorage drive everything back to Big Lake.

 

We started off early morning, and we had been so lucky to get Buffalo's Electra Cargo up to do the hauling job.

 

Bye for Now Nome and Iditarod. Had a great time, had a lot of fun and a lot of cold weather. It has been a pleasure to serve in the Iditarod Air Force 2010, and I will be back for sure next year!

 

Passing the mighty Yukon River, see you soon againg

 

On short final for Anchorage

 

Parked, shutdown and unloading dogs and equipment. Thank you Martin, for letting me haug and be your pilot this year. Hope to see you back in the Iditarod 2011.