Karen Ramstead, the Alberta, Canada, musher who has scratched twice and finished 57th in 2001, said she has five audio books, not to mention every CD in her home collection installed on her iPod. "And I didn't even dent the memory," she said. "This is the slickest little system."
The players, which are the size of a pack of playing cards, came out several years ago and have become fashionable, according to recent accounts in the New York Times and other national media outlets. Mushers loved them early on because of their enormous memory and simple, gloves-on operation. This year's model is better yet, said Ramstead and Buser, because it can use an external rechargeable battery pack or disposable AA cells.
"I tried (cassette) tapes," Ramstead said. "But by the time you got done messing around" with a bag of tapes, adjusting the headphones and getting ready to go, she said, "the batteries were dead."
A friend made her iPod an insulated bag. She slips in a chemical hand-warmer to keep the batteries strong, she said.
Ramstead is listening to Charles Frazier's best-seller "Cold Mountain," and several inspirational books, she said. "I had to be really careful" when selecting novels, she added. "I don't want to be listening to anything too spooky. There's enough scary stuff on the trail as it is."
Her music runs the gamut, Ramstead said, from Hobo Jim to Jennifer Lopez. "I don't think anybody in the world has both those artists on their iPod," she said with a laugh.
The Iditarod Burled Arch Finish Line at 8:30 PM.
