Past champs take early lead in Yukon Quest

Some past champs were leading the pack in the Yukon Quest on Monday, three days into the race.

Yukon musher Hans Gatt, and Americans Allen Moore and Brent Sass, were all within a fewkilometres of each otherMonday, heading toward Dawson City.

The three leading mushers had left the PellyCrossing checkpoint late Sunday night.All are past winners of the Quest.

It's been extremely cold on the trail so far, with temperatures dropping below 40 C on Sunday. Some mushers and dogs have suffered frostbite.

"We have had a couple of dogs that have a little bit more moderate to severe frostbite.But most of them, it's very minor, it's being dealt with," said Dr. Cristina Hansen, the race's head veterinarian. "Otherwise they're doing very well."

Musher Remy Leduc, from New Brunswick, said at the Carmacks checkpoint on Sunday that he needed to fashion some new face protection for himself.

"The temperature was so cold, I had second degree frostbite on the nose so that's the downside for me. But besides that, I can't complain," he said.

"I put some cream on it, and I'm working on a last-minute piece of equipment I'm going to craft with my knife, I guess, and a piece of blanket to cover my nose for the rest of the run."

Alaska musher Andy Pace said in Carmacks that the trail was in better shape than he had expected. Race officials had earlier warned of a lack of snow, and made changes to the race route.

"It sounded pretty doomsday when we got the initial trail report, and I think that little bit of snow that came in the week before we got here was really helpful," he said.

His dogs were doing well despite the extreme cold, he said.

"They like cold weather. They weren't complaining I was the only one complaining," he said.

Laura Allaway, an Alaska musher who's running her first Yukon Quest, said at the Pelly Crossing checkpoint that she's been having an "absolutely wonderful" time so far.She's not competing to win, she says.

"I want to make sure that everybody ...is totally having fun and not feeling stressed out or anything. And so going slow is totally where it's at for this one," she said.

After the PellyCrossing checkpoint, the next mandatory stop for mushers is at Dawson City, Yukon. That's considered the halfway point of the 1,600-kilometre race.

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