Covering 'the last great race' takes stamina

Life is nerve-racking when you have a daughter on the Iditarod trail in the wilds of Alaska.

Heather, now a seasoned reporter with KTVA, the CBS affiliate in Anchorage, told me a few weeks ago she’d been assigned to do feature stories along the entire 1,000-mile length of the famous sled-dog race. The past couple of years she has put together some wonderful features about the mushers and their dogs in advance of the race, but being part of the news corps along the trail is a first.

Three days before she left, Heather wound up in urgent care with ear and sinus infections. Her doctor’s advice: “The worst thing you can do right now is fly.” He warned her that her eardrum could rupture in-flight.

Staying home wasn’t an option, she told him, so she flew to Fairbanks for the race kickoff a week ago, loaded with antibiotics and other medications. I’ve been following her Iditarod adventure on Facebook and on her station’s website, but phone communications have been brief and sporadic.

What I’ve learned is that her ears are OK, she’s working 16-hour days and by Day 3 already was exhausted. The news crew is following the race in a transport plane, which means unloading a half-ton of satellite equipment, video cameras etc. at each checkpoint. And the race added four new checkpoints this year, she noted.

And did I mention it was 30 below the last time I talked to her? Mother Nature decided to withdraw the unseasonably warm weather in much of Alaska this winter and instead treat the mushers to some bitter cold.

With all the logistics of simply getting from one point to another, Heather said she doesn’t have as much time as she’d like to devote to each story. She finished one piece by 6:01 p.m. and it aired seven minutes later. That is down-to-the-wire deadline pressure, working in the some of the most severe weather conditions and sparse accommodations on the planet.

After covering various aspects of the Iditarod excitement for the past three years, Heather knows many of the mushers personally. It’s emotional when one of their dogs dies on the trail or if one of the mushers is disqualified.

This year’s Yukon Quest winner was disqualified from the Iditarod for carrying an iPod Touch to listen to music and watch movies on the trail. 

The race doesn’t allow any two-way communication devices, and he didn’t consider the wi-fi feature would disqualify him from the race. Heather said it was heart-wrenching to see how devastated the ousted racer was.

As I sit here in the windowless confines of the Inter Lake newsroom, I can only imagine my daughter’s adventurous life in the Last Frontier. It’s probably not as glamorous as I envision it, but it’s still pretty cool and I’m pretty proud of her. The Iditarod is promoted as “the last great race on earth” and she’s in on the action.

I just hope and pray she makes it home in one piece.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.