newsminer.com

Winners in this year’s Nenana Ice Classic will split a jackpot of $303,895.

While that’s an increase of only $623 from last year, Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness was happy to see the jackpot go up instead of down, given the effect skyrocketing fuel and food prices are having on Alaskans.

“I thought it was going to be lower,” Forness said by phone from Nenana on Tuesday after announcing this year’s payout. “Our ticket sales were up a hair.”

Last year’s jackpot was $303,272.

Now in its 92nd year, the Ice Classic is a unique Alaskan tradition. Thousands of people pay $2.50 a ticket to guess what date and time — to the minute — a tripod set up on the Tanana River ice at Nenana, 55 miles south of Fairbanks, will move downstream and trip a clock that it’s wired to on shore.

Ticket sales in Anchorage and Fairbanks appeared to be up, but Forness said vendors in the Bush didn’t fare as well, probably because of the high price of fuel. The price for a gallon of gas in the Bush is almost double what it is in the state’s two largest cities.

“I noticed the village sales were down,” Forness said. “I think that’s where (the high price of fuel) hits the hardest.”

Judging from the looks of the ice, it will probably be another week before the tripod falls or moves, Forness said. While there is water on top of the ice as a result of snow melting, there are no open holes to be seen. The last ice measurement on April 21 was 40.5 inches.

“The tripod is still standing firmly in place,” stated a Tuesday update on the Nenana Ice Classic Web site. “The Tanana River is still frozen from bank to banks with no open water showing.”

However, there are signs that could change any day now, Forness said.

For one thing, the Nenana River, which flows into the Tanana River about a half mile downstream of where the tripod is set up, went out late Monday afternoon, she said. The Tanana River typically goes out seven to 10 days after the ice goes out on the Nenana River, Forness said.

The same is true with the Chena River, which broke up in downtown Fairbanks on Tuesday.

Also, the Tanana River at Nenana has come up about two feet in the last week, Forness said. More water in the river could push the entire ice sheet downriver or cause it to break up, she said.

Officials still haven’t attached the trip wire to the clock tower but Forness said that formality will probably happen this weekend. At that point, watchmen will take turns standing guard over the clock tower 24 hours a day to ensure that the winning time is legitimate.

This year’s breakup is already later than last year’s, when the ice went out April 27 at 3:47 p.m. There were 22 winning ticket holders.

Workers are still in the process of entering guesses into a computer, and Forness is hoping to have that task complete before the ice goes out.

“If we’re lucky, all the entries will be in Saturday,” she said.