by The Associated Press
Monday, March 9, 2009
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Two-time defending champion Lance Mackey has moved from fourth to first place, and is the first musher into the Rainy Pass checkpoint early in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
At midday Monday, Mackey was the only musher to have arrived at Rainy Pass after having negotiated one of the steepest parts of the 1,100-mile trail where it descends sharply into a gorge along Happy River.
In years where the trail is icy and fast, descending into the gorge can be terrifying.
But mushers were told this year that there was less to worry about on this portion of the trail because there was good snow cover for the sled runners.
