After nearly ten days of brutal weather and challenging trail conditions, Dallas Seavey crossed the Yukon Quest finish line on February 15 at 11:05 p.m., making the 23-year-old musher the youngest Yukon Quest winner ever. Seavey is also only the third rookie to win the race (not counting the first race). The 2011 race started in Whitehorse, Yukon, and ended in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Dallas Seavey Planned to Take it Easy During the Race
The win surprised nearly everyone, including Seavey himself. His goal was not to run a competitive race, but to have fun and prepare for the Iditarod. “It’s kind of a secondary race,” he said in an interview after the finish. “I was going to have a good time, and then I think things turned out pretty well.”
Weather and trail conditions provided a challenge, Seavey said. Once he found himself mushing waist deep in river overflow for an hour and a half with air temperature of 50 below. “That’s mushing for you,” he said. “You never know what obstacle you’re going to get next. “
Though a rookie to the Yukon Quest, Seavey is no rookie to mushing. He was raised in a mushing family. His grandfather, Dan Seavey, ran the first Iditarod in 1973, and his father, Mitch Seavey, won the Iditarod in 2004. Dallas Seavey’s wife and two of his brothers have also raced the Iditarod. Seavey began racing when he was five years old and became the youngest musher to race the Iditarod in 2005, when he turned 18 the day before the race started. He has raced the Iditarod four times, placing in the top ten the past two years.
Hugh Neff Led Yukon Quest Early On
Veteran musher Hugh Neff, who came in second place in the Yukon Quest two years ago, led for most of the race, arriving first in every checkpoint. He left Dawson City, the race’s halfway point, in good spirits, while his friend “Dawson Dolly” sang him a song for good luck. With a ten-hour lead, victory seemed almost certain for the Tok, Alaska, musher.
Neff encountered severe overflow between Central and Circle City, arriving at Circle City covered in ice. He dropped his lead dog, Walter, at the checkpoint. The next step was to conquer Eagle Summit, a steep climb even in the best conditions. Neff faced high winds as he attempted the summit twice. Both times his dogs turned back, and Neff hunkered down to wait it out. The next musher to come along, Dan Kaduce, tried to help Neff and his team climb the summit, but both teams turned back. Next Ken Anderson tried to help Neff, but Neff’s team turned back again. Kaduce and Neff hunkered down for several hours. Finally, Kaduce mushed to the road to flag down help, and both mushers quit the race at that point. One of Neff’s dogs, Geronimo, died during the ordeal (necropsy reports showed that he died when he aspirated vomit), and Hugh suffered frostbite in the 50 below zero temperatures.
Aliy Zirkle, who won the race in 2000, commented in her blog: "In order for two very tough men and two teams of very tough Alaskan huskies to ask for help, it had to be a life or death matter."
Contest Between Ken Anderson, Sebastian Schnuelle, and Dallas Seavey
The contest became a race between three mushers: veteran Ken Anderson, hoping to win his first Yukon Quest; 2009 Quest winner Sebastian Schnuelle; and rookie Dallas Seavey. The three mushers left Mile 101 Dog Drop with just a little over two hours difference between them. They traveled to Two Rivers, where they had a mandatory eight-hour layover. Because Anderson received a 30-minute penalty for not checking out of the Mile 101 checkpoint, Seavey left Two Rivers just 13 minutes ahead of Anderson. Schnuelle left just 33 minutes after Anderson.
Seavey maintained his lead until the end, pushing with his feet to aid in the process. He finished on February 15, at 11:05 p.m., to a cheering crowd awaiting him at Fairbanks. Schnuelle finished in second place at 11:38, and Anderson finished at 1:36. Brent Sass and Kelly Griffin rounded out the top five finishers.
2011 Yukon Quest Heroes
The Yukon Quest, known for brutal weather and tough racing conditions, proves a challenge each year for the hardiest sled dog mushers. Although it is a competition, mushers stop to help each other when they see someone in danger. Brent Sass, who gained hero status after helping William Kleedehn’s team up Eagle Summit in 2009, discovered Hans Gatt on American Summit, suffering from hypothermia in a blinding storm. Sass gives credit to Silver, his lead dog for getting both teams over the summit .
“It’s all about Silver,” Sass said. “He drove right over the snowdrifts into into the storm. Silver did everything. I had to direct him a couple of times, but luckily there were trail markers that had stuck every now and then, and he knows what a trail marker is and he just went from trail marker to trail marker.”
Later Sebastian Schnuelle also helped Gatt when he ran into overflow about 20 miles outside Central. Gatt, who won the Yukon Quest four times quit the race because of severe frostbite.
This year’s Yukon Quest proved to be especially difficult. Of the 25 mushers who started the race, 12 did not finish. Hank De Bruin, the Red Lantern winner (the last musher to finish), crossed the finish line on February 18.
Sources:
Yukon Quest Official Facebook Page
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