Redington is first out of Safety, with just 22 miles to Iditarod finish line

Update, 11 a.m. Tuesday:

Ryan Redington and his six-dog team left the final checkpoint of Safety in first place at 8:22 a.m. Tuesday. They had just 22 miles to the finish line.

Redington’s closest competitors are Pete Kaiser and Richie Diehl. Kaiser and his eight dogs left the prior checkpoint of White Mountain just over four hours after Redington. Kaiser cut that gap almost in half by the time he reached Safety, to about two hours and 20 minutes.

Diehl was less than 10 miles outside of Safety by 11 a.m., according to the GPS tracker.

Original story:

WHITE MOUNTAIN — Church bells and a small, enthusiastic crowd welcomed Ryan Redington and his eight dogs to White Mountain Monday afternoon.

Redington immediately bedded down his dogs on straw beds after a roughly 90-mile run from Koyuk, only pausing in Elim for 13 minutes on the way. All teams must stop for eight hours at White Mountain before their final push to Nome. 

Redington was happy for the break.

“I’m really tired and my legs are cramping a little bit,” he said “I’m really excited for the rest here, the eight hours.”

The afternoon sun broke through fog at the checkpoint on the banks of the Fish River. Redington fetched multiple loads of cold water from a hole in the ice to cook into a hot soupy meal for his team.

Redington said it had not sunk in yet that he’s in the position to win his first Iditarod. 

“Trying not to think about it too much, but we’ve got a huge lead,” he said. “But we still have 77 miles to go.” 

That lead grew Monday when Redington’s closest competitor, Pete Kaiser, stopped for more than five hours in Elim, while Redington kept on mushing toward White Mountain. 

“I didn’t know if Pete was going to go through or not, so I made the move to hopefully have good results in Nome,” said Redington.

After his extended break in Elim, Kaiser made up some time on the way to White Mountain — but not a ton. He was still more than four hours behind Redington reaching the checkpoint. 

Kaiser and his eight dogs pulled in at 8:29 p.m. He fed his team and settled in for a rest. He recalled that he had two distinct plans as he approached Elim. 

“Plan A, if the team looked strong, was to go through. Plan B, if they needed a rest, was to stay there, so it was like a 50/50,” he said. 

Kaiser chose plan B. 

“It felt like they needed a little extra rest and took that chance and said, ‘I’m going to back off chasing Ryan for now and give them the rest they need,’” he said.