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Many
sled dog races that are qualifiers for the annual Iditarod have been
cancelled or postponed this winter due to lack of snow.
The
John Beargrease sled dog race, a trek of some 400 miles in northern
Minnesota, postponed its start to March 10 from Jan. 27. In Alaska, the
Don Bowers Memorial 200/300, the Sheep Mountain Lodge 150 and the Knik
200 have been canceled. The Copper Basin 300 in Glennallen, Alaska, had
to cut its trail for several teams by 25 miles because there was not
enough snow at the finish line; the mushers finished the race with their
hats and gloves off and jackets unzipped.
“That was crazy with
the warm weather,” said Zack Steer, one of the race’s organizers. “It
was such a drastic change from last year, but the trail at the end was
dirt. It wasn’t safe.”
Blake Freking, a musher who trains
Siberian huskies on the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, said
he planned to compete in the Beargrease race in January. “With global
warming, it’s hard to deny that there are some big changes going on
right now,” he said. “We’re in it. It isn’t looking good.”
During
last year’s snow season, defined as July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012,
Anchorage had 134.5 inches of snow, according to Jake Crouch, a climate
scientist with the National Climatic Data Center. This season’s tally in
Anchorage was 39.2 inches through Wednesday. North of Fairbanks,
another area where mushers train, snowpack is 21 percent of average.
The
cancelled qualifiers are especially hard on new mushers, who must have a
certain number of race miles before tackling the Iditarod.
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