The Iditarod Air Force

摘要

"HEY, LAND THIS THING RIGHT NOW," I told the veteran Alaska bush pilot at the controls of a Cessna Skywagon that was boring into a headwind 300 feet above the frozen Yukon River. 'Teah, well, the thing is," the pilot replied, "it's the skis, see? 'Cause I dunno how chunky it is down there." I didn't know from chunky. My real frustration was that I'd been assigned to cover the 1999 Iditarod sled-dog race— 1,131 miles, 26 checkpoints, 60 entrants, each towed by up to 16 Alaskan huskies—and I hadn't talked to a musher in three days. And now, directly beneath us, was the race leader.