The good news is that the expedition arrived in the Yukon Territory community of Old Crow this evening to a warm welcome. The bad news is they limped in to town towing one of their snowmobiles and have spent most of this difficult day dealing with the expeditions first major mechanical problem. But there is a happy ending thanks to the generosity of this remote community and the skill and resourcefulness of the expedition crew-- I will let the soundclip and dispatch they sent tell the story. It sounds like the cew plans to layover in Old Crow until midday on Monday:

Click here for a short soundclip from Matthew Sturm

Trouble on the Trail

24 March 2007

Camp 9 Location: Old Crow, 67 35'N 139 50'W

Our camp 8 was just below Old Rampart.  We left in blowing and snowing weather, but it gradually got better. That was good because trouble developed shortly after we left. The clutch (a device that transfers power from the engine to the track of the snow machine via a belt) in Dan's machine broke.  We were about 30 miles (48 km) from Old Crow.  We switched our sleds around and Matthew, Glen and Henry towed 3 sleds each. Jon put Dan's snow machine on a sled we had emptied, then put Dan on Dan's disabled snow machine, and off we went.  We arrived at Old Crow at 7:00 P.M.  More miraculous, even though we had called all over Alaska and western Canada to find a replacement part and failed, Jon had located a used part in Old Crow within 30 minutes, and within 2 hours had the machine repaired.  Thank you Jon!  Thank you friends in Old Crow who welcomed us and helped us!  Tonight we are staying at the Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow, thanks to Gary, the Principal. 

LAST NEWS: Today, our odometers turned past 1000 km.

Here are some pictures of towing the dead machine, one machine towing 3 sleds, and Jon "The Fix-It Man" Holmgren

.