Day 8: Update #1

March 13 - 10:21 a.m.

Sass speeds up the Norton Sound coast

Brent Sass has led the Iditarod for over 330 consecutive miles, and won another award late Saturday night as the first musher to lead his team into Unalakleet on the Norton Sound Coast. For arriving at the checkpoint first, Sass won the Ryan Air Gold Coast Award of an ounce of gold and supplies from Ryan Air. Sass then sped to and through the Shaktoolik checkpoint, and is currently mushing toward Koyuk. Sass still only leads five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey by 14 miles, according to the Iditarod GPS tracker.

Sass checked in to Unalakleet at 11:32 p.m. Saturday night and spent just eight minutes at the checkpoint before he was back on the trail, according to the Iditarod standings. Sass then arrived at Shaktoolik at 9:10 a.m. and spent another eight minutes there before he was gone again. In his pursuit of the 2022 Iditarod title, Sass has spent less than 10 minutes in 13 of the 16 checkpoints along the trail thus far, opting to give his dogs more breaks along the trail that in checkpoints. The 12 dogs still on Sass’ line are more than any other musher in the top five.

Of the mushers chasing Sass and Seavey, only Aaron Burmeister and his team have reached Unalakleet, as the 14 mushers trailing Burmeister are all on the 85-mile stretch of Iditarod Trail between Kaltag and Unalakleet, but have yet to reach the Norton Sound coast. According to the Iditarod GPS tracker, Burmeister’s team reached the Unalakleet checkpoint at approximately 10:15 a.m. Burmeister is followed by Jessie Holmes 19 miles behind — who is racing — and Richie Diehl two miles behind Holmes who is resting.

Musher Dogs                      Checkpoint         Arrived                        Departed         Miles to Nome           Status

1. Brent Sass      12              Shaktoolik           3/13 9:10 a.m.                   3/13 9:18 a.m.     213                       Racing

2. Dallas Seavey 10             Unalakleet          3/13 1:22 a.m.                   3/13 5:38 a.m.      227                       Racing

3. Aaron Burmeister 9         Unalakleet          3/13 10:15 a.m.                 N/A                       261                       Racing

4. Jessie Holmes 11             Kaltag                 3/12 4:12 p.m.                  3/12 9:28 p.m.       281                       Racing

5. Richie Diehl    11             Kaltag                    3/12 5:50 p.m.               3/12 10:59 p.m.     283                      Resting