Skrevet av: Stefan Sanne
Dato: 08.03.2004 08:38
Katy Meier (Slagnæs, Sweden) has now entered into one of the hardest phases of the race for her team. She has big problems with her leading dog. The report came in, that the dogs are parked as it is called in Musher terms. This basically means that the dogs will not run anymore and that Katy had to set up camp with her dogs half way netween Karasjok and Suossjavri. Many teams have passed her on the trail and say that she seems very sad about the situation right now.
Experienced Mushers estimate that the leading dogs are responsible for 70% of the power of a team. The key issue then is that you cannot go anyway when the leading dogs are parking. When Robert Sørlie won the Iditarod it was partially because he had almost all dogs trained to astand in as lead dog.
Katys dogs are very young (only 2-3 years old) and it is a typical young-dogs problem she is having right now. Robert Sørlie says that this can lead to a psychological setback. Especially difficult could prove the situation because everything was going so well beforehand. But Katy will survive.
Calm finish
Race marshall Marit Hoveid explains that situations like this occur every year. She expects Katy to rest the dogs down now before she will continue. To rest the dogs can take some time, from just a few up to 10 hours.
Katy Meier was leading the race for some time. After leaving Levajok as leader she just had to let Hans Petter Dalby and Sten Are Harder pass and came into Karasjok in third place. She left only 27 minutes after the leader Dalby.
Last year Katy Meier was the strongest Rookie in the limited class, finishing on a remarkable 7th place.