MEDIA RELEASE

Day 8: Dawson to Pelly Crossing

February 10, 2018 (Dawson City, YT) – Our day began with a well-in-front Allen Moore having just reached Scroggie Creek by midnight, and second and third place Paige Drobny and Matt Hall stopped to camp 60 miles behind him.

Moore was moving again by 6am PST, while Drobny was into Scroggie at 9:30am PST, and Hall shortly after her. By 2pm PST, just as fourth place Ed Hopkins reached Scroggie, Drobny was back on trail, with Hall going out in pursuit a half-hour later.

Stepping Stone greeted Moore and team at approximately 3:30pm PST, where he rested for five hours before heading back out, and at time of writing he is 7.5 miles out of the Pelly checkpoint. Drobny and Hall opted to rest their teams 18 miles out from Stepping Stone.

Back of the leaders, Quest veteran Laura Neese had an impressive day, eating up both trail miles and competitors: by 2:30pm she had passed Vebjorn Aishana Reitan to reclaim fifth place, and by 10:30pm PST had a mile on Hopkins to secure fourth.

Seventh place Tim Pappas ran solo for the day, but briskly, reaching Scroggie by day’s end.

Claudia Wickert (eighth), Alex Buetow (ninth), and Bernhard Schuchert (10th) convoyed to the much-used camp spot halfway between Dawson and Scroggie; 11th place Luc Tweddell catching up to them around 10PM and stopping to camp as well.

Further back, Riley Dyche maintained a 10-mile lead on fellow rookie Nathaniel Hamlyn for much of the day, having now stopped to rest a few miles behind the convoy. Meanwhile, Rob Cooke forges steadily ahead 25 miles behind Hamlyn.

Rounding out the field, Dave Dalton is set to rejoin the race at 12:10am PST, and current Red Lantern candidate Severin Cathryn’s 36-hour layover expires at 9:48am PST tomorrow morning.

There were two scratches to report today: Torsten Kohnert, stating he felt his dogs needed to recover due to the cold weather, and Hugh Neff.

Standings as of 11:59pm: 1. Allen Moore 2. Paige Drobny 3. Matt Hall 4. Laura Neese 5. Ed Hopkins 6. Vebjorn Aishana Reitan 7. Tim Pappas 8. Bernhard Schuchert 9. Claudia Wickert 10. Alex Buetow 11. Luc Tweddell 12. Riley Dyche 13. Nathaniel Hamlyn 14. Rob Cooke 15. Dave Dalton 16. Severin Cathry

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For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Pixie Ingram 867-335-1927 [email protected]

Cameron Webber 778-584-5330 [email protected]

ALASKA YUKON 550 First Ave, Fairbanks, AK 99701 #2 – 1109 Front Street. Whitehorse, YT Y1A 5G4 Phone: 907.452.7954 Fax: 907.452.7959 Phone: 867.668.4711