Race leader Jay P is still in Kaltag this morning, soft trails, more snow and wind

The race leader Jay Petervary has been in Kaltag for over 14 hours now. He is reporting that many packages racers send "general delivery" to the village post offices a week ahead of the race start have not arrived at many of the villages from Shageluk to Kaltag. This morning he found his in Kaltag with patience it had arrived and he is ready to resupply and keep moving along. The next section is the Kaltag portage historically used between interior Athabascans and Inupiaq people on the coast. This stretch to the Bering sea coast village Unalakleet (means where the east wind blows) is 80 miles long. There are two BLM shelter cabins (Tipod Flats and Old Woman)

Jay is reporting pretty epic conditions out there according to his wife's FB post who he spoke with this morning:

"It was pretty epic out on the river, whiteout conditions, vertigo, 4-6 inches of snow fell, could barely see the trail, was following an old snowmachine track, if he stepped off the trail he was crotch deep. Didn't see anyone until 25 miles from Kaltag."

The closest racer behind Jay is Phil who is moving at 2 mph (pushing speed) towards Eagle Island, not a check point in the ITI but a check point for the mushers in the Iditarod dog race.

There are a total of 13 racers heading to Nome in the 2018 ITI and the last racer has just left McGrath, runner Klaus Schweingerber. Jay is 316 miles ahead of him at this point.