Iron Dog tests racers stamina

BIG LAKE, Alaska — They were more than 1,500 miles away, and Rod Downey was willing to lose his left eye to get there.

The four men from Montrose — Downey, Terry Hawkins, Joey Hamilton and Charles Distel — had driven 4,000 miles in six days to compete in the 25th annual Teroso Iron Dog snowmobile race, a 1,971-mile endurance race that takes its competitors through some of the most brutal snowmobile terrains Alaska has to offer.

They had already ridden nearly 400 miles through the course’s most difficult sections for 21 hours straight, completing arguably the toughest portion of the race. At certain points during the race, wind chills hit an estimated 100 degrees below zero.

The men were bruised, battered and sore by the time they got to the first mandatory checkpoint, but there wasn’t any hesitation about completing the race.

That, after all, was the entire reason for their trip.

But when Downey took off his helmet, finishing suddenly became an afterthought. Though he could feel the left side of his face begin to burn miles before they got to the checkpoint, no one had any idea how badly the sub-zero temperatures had damaged Downey’s face.

Despite employing all the tricks to prevent frostbite — including putting duct tape over any exposed skin, even on their faces — nearly a full day of high winds and standing temperatures that dipped as low as -60 degrees had taken its toll.

The entire region around Downey’s left eye had swollen up into what teammate Hamilton described as a dark red, swollen sore. If he were to finish the race, a local doctor told him upon examination, he would inevitably lose his eye.

For Hawkins, Hamilton and Distel, the choice was simple: though they had planned this trip more than a year in advance, it was in no way worth one of them losing an eye.

Downey, though, wasn’t quite ready to give up so easily.

“About five miles before the McGrath checkpoint, I could tell my goggles were leaking air around the nose line,” Downey said. “Eventually my eye started tearing up,  and I could feel my eye start to freeze shut. But that wasn’t going stop me. I’m the type that just wanted to keep going.”

Said Hawkins: “When we saw his eye, we knew we had to stop. It’s disappointing that we didn’t finish, because that was our only goal. But we went up there as a team, and if we finished, we were going to do it as a team.

“There’s no reason to lose an eye for a snowmobile race.”

Though there will be a permanent scar under his eye, Downey said his face has mostly healed and that he suffered no damage to his eye.

Downey’s frostbite wasn’t the only reason the team had to withdraw. Before Downey was examined by a doctor, the team actually decided to continue on. They made it another 13 miles before the suspension on Hawkins’ sled broke, making it basically impossible to travel another 1,500 miles without a major repair.

The team was forced to return to the McGrath checkpoint, where Downey decided it might be a good idea to get his eye checked out.

“My wife said that broken suspension was a blessing,” Downey said. “Knowing me, I would’ve kept going.”

They were by no means in the minority by not finishing, either. Of the 42 teams who began the race, only 16 were able to complete the entire course. Only two of the 16 finishing teams were not Alaska natives.

“The trail conditions — it’s hard to put a picture in your head of how extremely rough the trails were,” Hawkins said. “The guys who finished are extremely tough. Living in the lower 48 (United States), there was no way we could prepare for those conditions.”

Hamilton may have described the race’s first 400 miles the best.

“It was a rough, bumpy forest trail where you had to dodge trees and go over all these deep bumps that were sometimes 2- or 3-feet deep,” Hamilton said. “For about 200 miles, it was some of the most technical riding I’ve ever done. There were some parts where you had about 6 inches on either side of your snowmobile to work with.”

Though the team was obviously disappointed with not finishing the race, they all have agreed that their first try at it certainly won’t be their last.

Although they likely won’t compete in next year’s race because of finances and training time, Hamilton and Hawkins both said the 2010 race is a definite possibility.

Whenever they return, they won’t be inexperienced rookies anymore, and not finishing certainly won’t be an option.

“It was absolutely the trip of a lifetime,” Hawkins said. “ It was just an awesome experience; there wasn’t a sore soul out there. We all will do it again for sure.”

Contact Robin Washut via e-mail at robinw@montrosepress.com