I know they track the sleds with GPS, but how can you take the wrong turn with GPS.
Recalculating?
..... how can you take the wrong turn with GPS.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No telling. I checked the rules to make sure they can use GPS and they can.
I was wondering how Ulsom got ahead of Petit - now I know. Big mistake by Petit & likely to cost him the race.
Via Michael Rogers
3/12/18 9:12 p.m.
From the Iditarod...
Mother Nature is proving once again to be a game changer in the Iditarod. Frontrunner Nic Petit got lost in a ground blizzard and deviated from the course to the east during the Norton Sound crossing. The weather was well and truly horrible- 40 mile per hour winds and blowing snow that erased all signs of a trail.
Petit’s 90 minute lead vanished as he was passed by Joar Ulsom as he attempted to relocate the trail. He pulled into Koyuk 1:09 after Ulsom arrived.
Petit isn’t the first musher to go off course on the Norton Sound crossing. It seems simple, until someone actually goes onto sea ice in a ground blizzard- all sense of direction basically vanishes and visibility may only be a few feet.
Whatever scant trail was there, is gone in seconds and mushers have even reported that the all-important trail markers have been ripped from the snow and hurled downwind. There is some speculation that Petit wandered onto the Iron Dog course during a gap in the trail markers.
At this point, It’s pretty much anyone’s game where this morning Petit had it tidily won.
Just proves that it’s not over...till it’s over.