When there's no snow for the Iditarod

The Anchorage Daily News reports about the woes of traveling by dog sled without sufficient snow cover:

The problem with the poor trail, the mushers say, is they could not set brakes on the ice and frozen mud well enough to control their sleds as eager dogs pulled them over, through and into the hazards. When their sleds got caught on stumps and rocks, several of them broke their brake...

Many mushers carried wounds from the battle, having slammed their bodies on sleds and, in some cases, on trees and rocks. Some limped from one task to the next in Nikolai, feeding dogs and checking gear...

Veterinarians reported 11 dropped dogs in Nikolai late Tuesday after 40 teams had checked in. The only injuries were minor -- sore shoulders and wrists, the vets said. "It seems like the dogs fared better than the mushers," veterinarian Bruce Nwadike said...

Photo credit: Bob Hallinen