It’s day five of the 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The lead mushers are nearly halfway to Nome on the 1,000-mile trail.
Bethel’s Pete Kaiser is ranked in seventh position, at mile 399 with 13 dogs, according to the Iditarod GPS tracker. Kaiser completed his 24-hour layover in McGrath, leaving at 11:42 p.m. on March 9. He overtook Aniak's Richie Diehl around noon today.
Diehl is ranked in ninth position, just a mile behind Kaiser, according to the Iditarod tracker. Diehl completed his mandatory 24-hour layover in Ophir, leaving the checkpoint at 2:27 a.m. with 11 dogs. All the teams ahead of him have more dogs in harness. Between Diehl and Kaiser is last year's second place finisher Aaron Burmeister.
Ahead of both of them, and farthest along the trail, are five other mushers who are taking their 24-hour rest in the Cripple checkpoint at mile 425. The first to arrive in Cripple was last year’s third place finisher, Brent Sass, at 3:50 p.m. on March 9 with 13 dogs. Two hours later, reigning champion Dallas Seavey arrived with 12 dogs.
