As of 6:00 pm Monday, Dallas Seavey was the first musher in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race to leave the White Mountain checkpoint. A winner is expected to cross the finish line in Nome sometime Tuesday morning.
The mushers in the top four positions of the race have spent a majority of the day in White Mountain which is approximately 102 miles from the finish line.
Dallas’ father Mitch Seavey reached White Mountain about 45 minutes after his son Monday morning and remains there as of 6 pm. Brent Sass reached that checkpoint in third place and Aliy Zirkle followed him in fourth.
So far 12 of the original 85 mushers have scratched, but all Kenai Peninsula mushers are still competing.
Seward’s Travis Beals and Kasilof’s Paul Gebhardt have been consistently in the top twenty mushers during 2016’s race, often trading leads. Currently Beals is in 15th and Gebhardt is in 17th, both on the trail between Koyuk and Elim.
Monica Zappa of Kailof left Kaltag in 49th place and rookie Sarah Stokey of Seward is also between Kaltag and Unalakleet in 56th.
