Iditarod organizers consider moving restart to Fairbanks

The official start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race may be moved from Willow to Fairbanks due to poor trail conditions, race organizers said Saturday. The ceremonial start of the 1,000-mile race to Nome will be in Anchorage on Saturday, March 1, and the restart is still set for Willow on Sunday, March 2, organizers said. However, trail conditions -- especially from the top of Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range to Nikolai -- may not be acceptable, according to a statement posted on the race's website Saturday. Iditarod organizers say they will decide by Feb. 17 if trail conditions will force a restart in Fairbanks on Monday, March 3. The Saturday ceremonial start would remain in Anchorage. In an update sent to mushers on Friday, race director Mark Nordman described the Fairbanks backup plan. "As of today, we are still planning on having an acceptable trail starting in Willow and going over the Alaska Range to Nome," he said. "We do have trail concerns from the top of Rainy Pass to Nikolai. Because of these concerns, a contingency plan will be used if the Alaska Range conditions are not acceptable." "If the alternate route is used, the Ceremonial Start will be held in Anchorage on Saturday, March 1 at 10:00 AM, and the Restart will be on Monday, March 3 (time to be announced) in Fairbanks," Nordman's update said. It wouldn't be the first time the Iditarod restart has been moved to Fairbanks. In 2003, the race was moved there, for the first time, because of a lack of snow in Southcentral. Iditarod executive director Stan Hooley said the trail beyond Rainy Pass is "a lot of areas with very little snow, in some places no snow." The trail across the Susitna Valley, he said, "isn't great ... pretty icy conditions with very little snow cover. Less than ideal." The National Weather Service on Saturday was not predicting precipitation to fall in the area of Rainy Pass to Nikolai for the next week or two. The update to mushers describes a new set of checkpoints out of Fairbanks if the restart is moved there, including Nenana, Manley and Tanana. Mushers would go from Tanana to Ruby and follow the traditional trail from there to Nome. In January, much of Southcentral Alaska saw a more than two-week stretch with above-freezing temperatures, rain, loss of much of the snowpack and only a smattering of snow in the days since. Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/02/08/3314342/iditarod-organizers-consider-moving.html#emlnl=Breaking_News#storylink=cpy