Although Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad still hold first position in this year’s Iron Dog snowmachine race, their lead has become slimmer and slimmer.

Earlier Feb. 22, total course time showed a four-minute separation between team 7 and 2nd position Casey Boylan and Bryan Leslie of team 14. The current leaderboard, as of 5 p.m., is showing Aklestad and Olstad taking a seven-hour layover in Kaltag with a course time that is more than two hours slower than Boylan and Leslie. Time adjustments still must be made, but according to the GPS tracker, Boylan and Leslie are also on a long layover in Kaltag in second position.

According to the Iron Dog standings, Aklestad and Olstad lost valuable time when one of the racers had to receive aid in White Mountain this morning, so his partner came back for him and then the pair officially checked out 23 minutes later. One of them left at 7:11 a.m. and then the pair left together at 7:34 a.m. Up until this point in the race, team 7 had a roughly 30-minute lead consistently on Boylan and Leslie.

Further down in the standings, Nome’s Jarvis and Jordan Miller have moved into fourth position after restarting from Nome in 5th the morning of Feb. 22. Cody Moen and his teammate are in 11th position based on the latest update from Iron Dog.

Trail reports indicate racers had to contend with poor visibility in ice fog, potholes of sorts and standing water along stretches of the Norton Sound between Nome and Unalakleet. Iron Dog staff are expecting the trail and weather conditions to improve for the approximately 700 miles left from Kaltag to the finish line in Big Lake.

Tune in to KNOM Update News Feb. 23 at 7 a.m. for the next Iron Dog 2023 race update.

Image at top: Team 7 arrives into Nome first on Front Street. Photo by Davis Hovey, KNOM (2023).