The All-Alaska Sweepstakes rolls on to its conclusion, now to be somewhat delayed by a storm front; it looks like nine mushers have made it to Nome, with six still out on the trail.
It has now emerged that the AAS has hosted another snowmobile tragedy! Lance Mackey, winner of the 2008 Yukon Quest AND Iditarod Trail thousand-mile races, was making his way toward Cape Nome, having just left Safety. It was night. Mackey heard a snowmobile approaching at high speed from behind his team; he turned, flashed his lights and yelled, but to no avail. He jumped off the sled at the last minute, as the snowmobile hit and overran the sled, the wheel dogs, and the first swing pair. In the sled bag, sleeping, was Mackey's famous dog "Zorro." The snowmobile driver had been drinking. He was accompanied by a second machine and driver, who helped Mackey get the snow machine off the sled and get the dog out of the bag.
Zorro appeared to be all right at first. Mackey apparently continued to run the race, as he arrived in Nome under his own team's power with all his dogs accounted for. Zorro spent the night in Mackey's hotel room and was checked out again in the morning; vets found broken ribs and other signs of trouble, so Zorro was medivaced to Anchorage to undergo treatment there. Three broken ribs and possible spinal cord injury were found; Zorro is under IV hydration and heavy medication and the prognosis is guarded at this time.
Coming as it does after the Iditarod snowmobile collision in which Jen Freking lost a dog, this underlines the seriousness of the situation in which snowmobiles travel at high speeds at night, their drivers using alcohol freely, on trails that are also used by mushers, cross-country skiers, and pedestrians. We shall assuredly hear more of this issue in the future.
AAS finishers now stand as follows:
Mitch Seavey - 61 hours 29 minutes 45 seconds (10 dogs)
Jeff King - 61 hours 39 minutes 5 seconds (13 dogs)
Lance Mackey - 63 hours 59 minutes (13 dogs)
Sonny Lindner - 67 hours 19 minutes 8 seconds (13 dogs)
Ed Iten - 72 hours 37 minutes (12 dogs)
Jim Lanier - 72 hours 52 minutes (13 dogs)
Cim Smyth - 75 hours 12 minutes (11 dogs)
Ramy Brooks - 77 hours 9 minutes (12 dogs)
Aaron Burmeister - 81 hours 19 minutes (11 dogs)
Still somewhere out on the trail are mushers Thomas, Nopoka, Miller, Bey and Darling.
Posted by ditkoofseppala at March 30, 2008 11:53 AMThis morning I read that Zorro can't move his hind legs and is being flown to Seattle. The snowmachine driver came forward and offered to pay the medical expenses which at last report are over $3,700.00. I sure hope Zorro is going to be O.K.
Chris