When the Fairbanks team of Kyle Malamute and Tim Jauhola leave the starting line of the Iron Dog snowmachine race today, they will have all the survival gear that Iron Doggers are required to carry in the world's longest, toughest snowmachine – cold-weather sleeping bag, bivy sack, first-aid kit, fire starter, flashlight, stove, extra food, and map and compass.
They also will be carrying something else that could be crucial to surviving what could be one of the roughest Iron Dog trails in race history – a bottle of Dawn dishwashing soap.
The two racers plan to use the dishwashing soap as lubricant for the slide rails in the suspension systems of their 600cc Ski-Doos. The slide rails are held in place by springs and the track slides on the rails, which are made from a low friction material called Hifax, a form of Teflon.
The slide rails usually are lubricated by snow that is thrown up into the suspension, but snow could be in short supply on this year's Iron Dog trail, which is where the Dawn will come in handy, Malamute said.
«We're going to carry little bottles in sections where we need it to lubricate the slide rails,» he said.
It was either Dawn dish soap or antifreeze, Malamute said.
«Dish soap is better in the cold weather,» he said. «It stays sticky and gummy.»
With nightmarish reports about the trail for this year's Iron Dog snowmachine race, Malamute and other racers are bracing themselves for a rough ride in the 2,000-mile race from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks. Lack of snow in Southcentral and on the Bering Sea coast, as well as open water on the coast, has Iron Doggers preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
«The conditions are going to be what makes this race,» said Malamute, one of eight Interior racers entered in this year's Iron Dog. «Mother Nature is going to decide that. If we get a little bit of snow, it's going to be better for everybody.
«The hard conditions are going to be rough on suspensions,» he said. «The crashes are going to be harder than usual.»
Or as two-time champion Tyler Huntington, of Fairbanks, said in sizing up the race, «No snow usually results in a lot of broken bones.»
The race hadn't even started, and the rough trail already had taken its toll on one local team. Rookie Jason Gundersen, of Fairbanks, broke two ribs and suffered a slightly ruptured spleen in an accident during a training run last weekend near Skwentna. The injuries forced Gundersen to pull out of the race, and friend Bryce Benson will fill as a last-minute replacement to race with Josh Norum.
«It's a bummer,» Gundersen said of the accident.
It's accidents like those that could make this year's race interesting. The lack of snow in the Alaska Range and the Farewell Burn, a notoriously rough 80-mile section of trail even in a good snow year, as well as on the Bering Sea coast, means the trail will be as hard as concrete much of the way, which will be tough on man and machine.
Given the sketchy trail conditions, racers and race officials alike are expecting a higher attrition rate than normal among the field of 37 two-man teams entered in this year's pro class.
Based on the feedback he's received from veteran Iron Doggers who have traveled the first 250 miles of trail, «It isn't pretty, but it's doable,» executive director Kevin Kastner said.
«In my opinion, 50 percent of the (teams) aren't going to finish the race because of the current conditions,» said Malamute, who has started the race three times but finished only once, an eighth place showing as a rookie in 2007 racing with his older brother, Todd. «Whoever makes it in the cleanest fashion to Fairbanks is going to win it.»
Just who that will be remains to be seen, but this year's race lineup features the usual array of contenders. At the top of the list is the two-time defending champion Ski-Doo team of Marc McKenna, of Anchorage, and Dusty VanMeter, of Kasilof, who will be trying for a third-straight victory.
Huntington, who won two straight Iron Dog titles in 2010 and 2011 racing with Chris Olds, also should be in the hunt. He is back after sitting out last year's race with a broken pelvis suffered on a training run two weeks before the race and is teamed up with four-time Iron Dog champion Todd Palin. They also will be riding Ski-Doos.
Conditions in the Alaska Range this year could resemble those in 2010, another year when there was more dirt than snow in the Farewell Burn, Huntington said. That year, racers had to seek out patches of snow to cool their machines because they were overheating.
This year, with reports of little snow and lots of glare ice, racers are taking precautions to try to help keep their machines cool. Most racers have rigged pieces of metal attached to the machine's suspension to scrape up ice to help keep engines cool. Some racers are adding a second radiator to their machine, a ploy that Palin and Huntington still were considering as late as Thursday.
«It goes completely against the rules of the Iron Dog, if it's not tested don't do it, but it could be a game changer if you have a couple teams out there with extra radiators and they blow through The Burn without having to stop (to cool their engines) and they've got an hour and a half lead in McGrath,» Palin, who will be starting his 21st race, said of adding a second radiator.
Lack of snow isn't the only challenge racers will face. Open water also is a concern. Brothers Arnold Marks and Archie Agnes, of Tanana, were planning a training ride to Puntilla Lake last weekend but only made it as far as the Happy River, about 20 miles short of their destination, because the river was open and it would have required skipping their machines over a broad expanse of open water to get to a steep bank on the other side. Had they been racing, they would have done so, Marks said.
Marks described the first 150 miles of trail as «almost like driving on a glacier» it was so hard and icy.
«It was pretty rough out there,» he said. «A simple little wipeout can total a machine and hurt you, too, because the conditions are so hard.»
Marks and Agnes are hoping to be among the race contenders this year. They finished eighth in 2012, and Marks finished seventh and eighth, running with another brother, Aaron, in 2011 and 2013, respectively. The fact that he's finished all three races he started says something about Marks' tenacity and trail savvy, which might play a critical role if the trail is as rough as rumored.
«It might be one of those years where only one-fifth of teams are finishing,» Marks said.
