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"The Last Great Race"

March 07, 2008 5:33 PM

With this year's Iditarod under way in Alaska, producer Ely Brown reports on her trip to the dog sled race last year:

A year ago this weekend I was standing along the frozen Unalakleet River waiting for the lead dog teams in the Iditarod dog race to come out of the Alaskan interior.  (Watch last year's piece here.)  After covering 1000 miles and crossing two mountain ranges, the tiny town of Unalakleet is where the teams hit the Bering Sea coast and turn north for the final "Home to Nome" run and the finish line more than 100 miles away.   "Nightline" had traveled to Alaska for a series of stories ranging from missile defense, to climate change, and now we would see part of "The Last Great Race."

I had never been to Alaska before.  I had never experienced shockingly below-zero temperatures before.  I'm used to packing for war zones--bullet proof vests, helmets, eye protection.  The thought of needing to be prepared for standing outdoors all day long in seriously cold weather terrified me.  But thanks to the guidance of my cameraman who'd worked in Alaska before and a friend from Minnesota, I stood toasty and warm in a down parka, ski pants, and boots with 2 inches of insulation in their soles.   It was just -10 or so that day.  Balmy by comparison to the -46 we'd already experienced in Delta Junction earlier in our Alaskan trip.

The cold was also a massive technical challenge for Scott Shulman and Dwanold Davis, the camera crew we had with us.  The extreme cold first would freeze the camera and sound equipment while we were outside.  We could only shoot one tape at a time--opening the tape compartment door was impossible.  Batteries that normally would last for hours lasted ten minutes.  And then once we got inside, the lenses would fog up.  Scott carried a small hairdryer with him and would patiently hold it in an opening of the camerabag slowly warming the gear inside.  It could take up to 30 minutes to get everything working right again, and then we'd head back out into the cold.

Most of the time when we travel, we stay in hotels, rent cars, all the usual business travel routine.  This trip was anything but routine.  Flying around Alaska is actually pretty easy. Lots of small companies act almost like taxi services.  One will even deliver pizzas made in Unalakleet to a few neighboring villages (Watch our "Taste of the World" on the pizza joint here.)  On our way to Unalakleet we shared a small 8-seater plane with a group of hunters who'd had success on a recent outing.  They proudly showed me the skinned head of a musk ox that was in one of the plastic bins they stowed behind the plane's seats.  Rental car?  Forget about it.  In small villages like Unalakleet  it's almost 100 percent atv or snow mobiles in winter.  To get "Nightline" anchor Terry Moran out on the Iditarod trail to meet up with the dog teams, I bought a couple of local teenagers some pizzas in return for them taking Terry and the crew out on their snow mobiles.

But accomodation was the biggest concern.  The Alaskan coast is dotted with small towns, populated by just a few hundred souls.  But in true frontier fashion, the residents open their doors, their rec rooms, their pullout sofa beds, to strangers.  On a tip from a fellow reporter, I had heard about a family--the Cunninghams--who always rent out some rooms. I was fairly dubious but asked one of "Nightline's" super interns Kinga Janik to try to track them down (Kinga's so super she actually works for "Nightline" as a researcher now).  We totally lucked out.  The Cunninghams could not have been nicer or more welcoming.  And they were also hosting some former Iditarod employees who were full of colorful stories to round out our reporting.

A year ago, Jeff King, Lance Mackey and Martin Buser were the first three racers to come in to Unalakleet.  Several hundred people had turned out to greet them.  Alaskan Natives with their colorful coats--the fur facing inward for maximum warmth.  Kids running around on all terrain vehicles and snow mobiles.  The private planes of Iditarod fans from as far away as California dotted the banks of the frozen river.  Lance Mackey went on to win the race in Nome a few days later.

This year, looking at the current standings as I write this, Lance Mackey and Jeff King are both toward the front of the pack.  Martin Buser is a bit further back.  They'll reach the coast sometime this weekend and then turn north and head "Home to Nome" once again.

March 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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