Iditarod update: Seavey leads the way into McGrath, but Sass is the first to leave

UPDATE, 8 p.m. Tuesday:

Eureka musher Brent Sass roared through McGrath on Tuesday night to snatch the trail lead. He spent eight minutes at the checkpoint and began the 41-mile run to Ophir at 6:40 p.m. behind a team of 14 dogs.

Five mushers reached McGrath ahead of Sass, a group led by Dallas Seavey at 4 p.m. He had the place to himself until 5:29 p.m., when four more teams arrived in a 30-minute span — Pete Kaiser (5:29 p.m.), Richie Diehl (5:35 p.m.), Joar Leifseth Ulsom (5:42 p.m.) and Travis Beals (5:59 p.m.).

Then came Sass at 6:32 p.m.

At 6:57 p.m., Ryan Redington joined the crowd, with an asterisk next to his name: Among the first seven mushers to reach McGrath, he’s the only one who has taken a mandatory layover — he took an eight-hour break in Rohn.

Mushers must take a total of 40 hours of mandatory layover time in the 852-mile, round-trip race: an eight-hour break somewhere between the two checkpoint stops in Rohn (northbound and southbound), a 24-hour layover anywhere before and including the Iditarod checkpoint, and eight hours in Skwentna on their southbound journey. Skwentna is 67 miles from the finish line in Deshka Landing.

A big group of teams was on the trail between Nikolai and McGrath on Tuesday night. Among them are two contenders who have also served an eight-hour layoever — Matt Hall, who rested in Rohn, and Aaron Burmeister, who rested in Nikolai.

Update, 4:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Four-time champion Dallas Seavey of Talkeetna reached McGrath at 4 p.m. Tuesday, about 10 miles ahead of the chase pack.

His arrival time is one of the earliest in the last 20 years of the race. In 2019, Nic Petit of Girdwood got to McGrath at 3:17 p.m. — the earliest arrival in at least 20 years. In 2014, Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers arrived at 4:53 p.m.

The group chasing Seavey includes Richie Diehl of Aniak, Pete Kaiser of Bethel and Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway.

The first musher to reach McGrath receives the Spirit of Alaska Award, but gets no guarantee of a victory.

In 2019, Petit wound up scratching in Shaktoolik in 2019. Kaiser, that year’s winner, was the fourth musher to reach McGrath.

In 2014, Zirkle finished second to Seavey by less than three minutes. Seavey was the eighth musher to reach McGrath that year.

As the winner of the Spirit of Alaska Award, Seavey received a pair of musher mittens made of beaver fur and moose hide crafted by Loretta Maillelle of McGrath and a musher hat of beaver fur and beaded velvet made by Lucy Egrass of McGrath. The award is sponsored by Alaska Air Transit.

Original story:

ON THE TRAIL: The Iditarod’s lead pack of mushers was headed toward McGrath on Tuesday, and although Brent Sass of Eureka was the first to leave Nikolai in the morning, the race tracker shows four-time champion Dallas Seavey with a significant lead about halfway through the run.

Sass left Nikolai at 7:59 a.m. with a full team of 14 dogs. Seavey was the next to leave, at 9:04 a.m.

The official standings show no other mushers out of Nikolai, but the GPS tracker shows plenty of activity on the 48-mile run to McGrath.

Shortly after noon, it put Seavey at mile 275, about 13 miles ahead of Richie Diehl of Aniak, who was followed closely by 2018 champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway and 2019 champion Pete Kaiser of Bethel.

The tracker showed Sass resting at mile 256. Nikolai is 247 miles into the 852-mile race that started Sunday at Deshka Landing. McGrath is 295 miles into the race.

Seavey is running a team that includes the top dogs from two championships kennels — his own in Talkeetna and his dad’s in Seward. Mitch Seavey, a three-time Iditarod winner, is taking this year off.

TRIVIA TIME: There’s been a Seavey in the Iditarod every year since 1995, and sometimes more than one.

The family’s imprint on the race begins with Dan Seavey, father to Mitch and grandfather to Dallas. Dan ran the first two Iditarods, placing third in the inaugural run in 1973 and fifth the next year.

Mitch was in every race from 1995 to 2020. Three of his kids have a combined 16 starts — Dallas (11), Danny (3) and Tyrell (2).