Area musher comes in 32nd at Iditarod

NOME ” Bill Pinkham finished the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 32nd place.

The 48-year-old Glenwood Springs man and his dog team rolled into Nome, Alaska at 10:35 Mountain Standard Time on Thursday. He completed the 1,100-mile race in 11 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes, 40 seconds.

Lance Mackey of Fairbanks, Alaska won the race arriving in Nome on Tuesday, in 9 days, 5 hours, 8 minutes and 41 seconds. Mackey, 36, joins his father, Dick, and brother, Rick, as Iditarod champions.

For winning the world’s longest sled-dog race, Mackey pocketed $69,000 and the keys to a $41,000 pickup. Mackey also overcame cancer in 2002.

This was Pinkham’s best finish. He had a 33rd place finish in 2004. This was his fifth Iditarod and he has finished all five.

Pinkham just missed a paycheck for the race. The top 30 finishers earn part of the purse, with most getting $1,049. The number symbolizes the distances of the original Iditarod trail which was used to deliver mail and supplies to miners in the late 1800s.

The Iditarod Sled Dog Race started in 1973.

In 2004, Pinkham finished the race in 11 days, 1 hour and 40 minutes. That was on the northern course. This year, on the southern course, conditions were very difficult. With high winds, extremely cold temperatures and sparse snow on some sections of the course. A total of 22 mushers pulled out of the race after it started. Three Colorado mushers started the race but only Pinkham finished.

Twenty-five mushers were still on the course Friday morning.

To this point, two dogs have died during the race. One dog died late in the race and the musher completed the course. The other dog died Sunday night and the musher scratched after being devastated by the death of her dog.