Dr. Palmini's 2018 Iditarod Blog!

Following is the afore promised Iditarod blog. Per race rules I had to wait until the race was done before engaging social media. I broke it up into daily segments that I'll be uploading over the next couple days. Enjoy!

Day 1 : 2 March 2018

I arrived in Anchorage this morning and caught a shuttle to race headquarters. The headquarters could rival a small military operation. Since 1988 it has been housed in the Lakefront Millenium Hotel on Lake Hood, 5 minutes from the Anchorage International Airport. The Millenium is chosen for it’s willingness to provide space for the daunting race infrastructure, and the logistical advantage of fly-in and fly-out parking for small planes. Behind the Millenium Lake Hood becomes an expansive parking lot for the Iditarod Air Force, the pilots and planes who ferry volunteers and tons of equipment up and down the Iditarod Trail.

Race Headquarters at the Millennium Hotel in Anchorage


The airport shuttle in an appropriate "wrap"


Longtime resident and lead marketer for the Millenium

I checked in with the Volunteer Coordinator and signed my waiver forms declaring I won’t sue over frostbite, plane crashes, and angry moose. Somehow, two long-time volunteers are able to manage the comings and goings of hundreds of volunteers making sure everyone gets rooms, signs their paperwork, gets to and back from the trail in time for flights back to the lower 48, and puts out fires as volunteers lose bags, ID’s and who knows what else. In all, over 1500 volunteers work to put on the race when you count the many local volunteers from the villages.

Souvenir sled signed by all the 2018 mushers. DeeDee's name stands out rather brightly in pink

After getting my room key and dropping my bags I checked in with Logistics. My first checkpoint is Skwenta, the second checkpoint up the trail, and I’m scheduled to fly out on Sunday. Logistics (Logs) coordinates the movement of everybody and everything up and down the trail. Logs makes sure you are ready for your flights, get on the right flight, don’t end up at the wrong checkpoint, don’t get forgotten at a checkpoint. They make sure you have food and equipment to work the checkpoint. One learns early not cross Logs. The bushpilots make many flights between 9am and twilight, and like any busy airport being held up by a disorganized passenger can have a significant domino effect down the line. Being late isn’t an option.

Logistics hard at work scheduling flights

I had dinner with a group of vets including two rookie vets from Australia who had the good fortune to run across a moose as they were walking around Anchorage. The veterinary corps often has an international flair. Not surprisingly, Scandinavian vets are common. Interestingly, Aussie veterinarians take a significant interest in the race and are well represented. After dinner, Logistics gave notice about adverse weather rolling in. We were thus being sent to our checkpoints a day early to avoid getting trapped in Anchorage. Keeping the vets ahead of the mushers is a constant challenge. Forty vets staff 27 checkpoints and have to be leapfrogged down the trail ahead of the teams.

The Fancy Moose.

You learn early to stay packed because the best laid out plans often change in the Iditarod. After working checkpoints east of the Alaska Range vets normally return to Anchorage and fly across the mountains en masse on a larger ~30 seat commercial turboprop. With the weather looming I’ll be crossing the mountains directly from Skwenta in a Cessna. Fully loaded with people, gear and skis and flying in marginal weather, the little plane has a limited service ceiling. This means it flies low and getting through the mountains will require canyoning. The trip across will be through various canyons where the plane will fly lower than canyon edges. As the pilot described it, it sounded like Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing through the Death Star.

After dinner I took a Lyft ride to WalMart for last minute supplies. It appears ride sharing is quite popular in Anchorage. Both of my wait times were about two minutes. As in Conifer, chain stores cater to the locals. King Soopers in Conifer carries pellet stove supplies. Walmart in Alaska carries guns, lots of guns. It made FleetFarm in my home state of Wisconsin look pacifistic.

Day 2 : 3 March 2018, Saturday
I spent most of the day engaging in “hurry up and wait”. I was on the third plane of a group of Cessnas flying out in the morning to Skwentna. We didn’t make it. The first plane carrying supplies made it through. The second plane hit freezing fog and had to turn back halfway during the 70 miles to the checkpoint. I got as far as loading my bags in my plane but we were grounded before taxiing. For the rest of the day I hung out in an impromptu staging area in the hotel so we could quickly load up get in the air quickly if a break in the weather came.

Midday we were given a long enough furlough to get lunch. I headed to the eponymous Gwennies up Spenard Avenue. In the earlier part of the last century, workers in the bush and oil fields went to businesses along Spenard to spend their hard earned paychecks went during their forays into Anchorage. Before undergoing development in the 1970’s Spenard had a colorful, if not shady, reputation in Anchorage. The two story, hundred-year-old building that houses Gwennies survived the gentrification. Locals consider Gwennies to be fine eatery. The food is pretty decent, when one is in an Alaskan mindset. A rookie vet asked the server how the corned beef. The server gave an honest appraisal, “It comes out of a can”.

Because the vets working Yentna and Swentna were waiting to fly, they weren’t able to attend the ceremonial start. The vets assigned to the Finger Lake and Rainy Pass were flying Monday and worked the start. The ceremonial start is a celebratory event where all the teams hook up and take off from downtown Anchorage for an eleven mile run to Campbell Airstrip. The true start takes place north in Willow the following day. A new addition this year were four PETA protestors. From what I was told they were present and visible but largely ignored, when they weren’t being killed with kindness. They were kept supplied with bottled water and attempts were made to provide them a lunch of vegan hotdogs.

Iditarod Air Force flights are limited to daylight hours, and at 4pm Logs had to cease further flight attempts for the day. We trooped down to our planes, unloaded our gear and rechecked into our rooms. With good snowpack a fast river run up the Yentna and Swentna was expected. If we didn’t couldn’t get flights out tomorrow we would be chasing the mushers trying to get to the checkpoints before they did. If we couldn’t fly tomorrow, we would be taking snowmachines up the trail to the checkpoints. For my Wisconsin peeps, snowmachines are snowmobiles in Alaskan vernacular…i.e. water fountain vs bubbler.

My grounded flight


2017 Ceremonial Start (couldn't go to the start this year so no photos)


Video: www.facebook.com/dpalmini/videos/pcb.203...1405/?type=3&theater

Exiting the tunnel under the highway


I don't know who this guy is, but the epic hat made him camera worthy


On the way to Gwennies ... next career?

Day 3: 4 March 2018, Sunday.
Success. All the planes got off the ground and made it to the checkpoints of Yentna and Skwentna. Logistics pulled out the larger planes and I flew in on a six seat Cessna 206. The two rear seats were removed for to accommodate more supplies. The 206 is a considerably smoother ride and a friendlier aircraft for long femurs. Because Skwentna has a maintained airstrip we were able to fly in a plane with wheeled tricycle gear (as opposed to a taildragger with two wheels up front and one in the rear). The vast majority of planes in the Iditarod fly on skis. For checkpoints with river and lake landings skiis are not optional.

After landing and we were shuttled for a mile via snowmachine to the checkpoint and dropped off our gear in the local post office where the vets are quartered.


Skwenta was the first checkpoint I ever worked in 2008. The checkpoint is on the Yentna river and is a fast run 70 mile from Willow on a smooth packed river trail. Most teams make it through the checkpoint in twelve hours. The first teams came around 9pm and arrived at a marked entrance where (human) runners guided them to parking spots along the river. As the mushers are bedding down and feeding the teams the vets examine the dogs. There are total of 67 teams and 1,072 dogs in this years’ race. Once teams are parked the vets assess hydration, heart Rate/rhythm, lungs, appetite, attitude, weight are assessed on every dog followed by checking feet, carpi, shoulders and anything else the musher is concerned about.

Being so close to heavily-populated Anchorage and Mat-Su valley it is full of spectators and revelers. A local roadhouse set up a mobile tent bar and stage with live music. Anchorage news crews showed up before dark and sent the vets scattering to avoid being interviewed. Because of the hoopla some mushers opt not to stay in the checkpoint to rest. Some camp before the checkpoint and some stop in the checkpoint long enough to pick up supplies from their drop bags and camp a couple miles down trail where they and the dogs can get better rest.

Cessna 206, my ride to Skwentna



Lodge that held Comms, cooking facilities, and sleeping quarters for the mushers on the second level


Vets' quarters