Veteran mushers blindsided by storm during Kobuk 440
April 15th 10:54 am |
Mark Lester, ADN
After he lost the race trail, Jeff King stopped his dog team and draped his sleeping bag over his head to block the battering wind and blowing snow. He was somewhere between the villages of Ambler and Shungnak in Alaska's Arctic northwest competing in the Kobuk 440 Sled Dog Race. Conditions ranged from howling to furious.
The last few hours took exhaustive effort to move straight into fierce headwind. So when King stopped seeing trail markers, he thought better than to guess about how to correct his course.