5 Yukon mushers chase Alaskan frontrunner to Quest's halfway point

Five mushers from the Yukon were in hot pursuit of Alaskan Jon Little in the Yukon Quest on Tuesday, with all five teams vying to be the first to arrive at the 1,600-kilometre sled-dog race's halfway point in Dawson City.

Little, a 45-year-old veteran musher from Kasilof, Alaska, took the lead away from William Kleedehn of Carcross, Yukon,early Tuesday morning at the Scroggie Creek dog drop point.

Little was first to pass through Scroggie Creek, bound for Dawson City, at4 a.m. PT, according to the race's website. He is followed by:

• Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse, now in second place.
• Kleedehn,currently in third place.
• Hugh Neff of Annie Lake, Yukon.
• Michelle Phillips of Tagish, Yukon.
• Hans Gatt of Whitehorse.

Also en route to Dawson Tuesday is Brent Sass of Fairbanks, Alaska. Four-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser of Big Lake, Alaska, and Warren Palfrey of Yellowknife are stil at the Scroggie Creek point, according to the race's website.

Scroggie Creek is the last stop before Dawson City, the halfway mark in the 1,600-kilometre northern sled dog race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, Alaska.

Teams leaving Scroggie Creek now have to run 160 kilometres to Dawson, where they will take a mandatory 36-hour layover to rest up before they can continue through the Alaska half of the race.

Little is expected to arrive in Dawson sometime Tuesday evening, in what has shaped up so far to be one of the fastest-moving Yukon Quests on record.

Mushers' dog handlers and team members, as well as film crews and veterinarians, are beginning to trickle into Dawson on Tuesday, in anticipation of the impending arrivals.

A total of 28 teams are still in the Yukon Quest since it began from Whitehorse Saturday morning. The remaining mushers are checked in at or have left the Stepping Stone hospitality point or the Pelly Crossing checkpoint.

Dawson City is 323 kilometres farther along the trail from Pelly Crossing.

Yukon musher Jean-Denis Britten scratched from the Quest Monday afternoon at Pelly Crossing, making him the first to drop out of the race so far.