On Friday morning around 7, Mike Owens' phone rang. On the other end was Debbie Janssen, the wife of veteran musher Scott Janssen. 
 
 There was trouble on the trail. 
 
 “Predominantly Jim Lanier was in a life-threatening situation and that [he] needed to be extracted from the trail. He was hypothermic,” said Owens an, Iditarod Trail Committee board member. 
 
 Owens, a Nome resident and finisher of the race back in 1987 and 1990, mobilized a crew on snow machines and set off for the trail. 
 
 Thankfully, Jessie Royer, who'd already completed the race, and Daniel Strang, were already in Safety and were able to reach Lanier and Janssen, bringing them back by snowmachine. Lanier veered off course toward the open water of the Bering Sea, then turned around, only to get stuck on driftwood. Thankfully, Janssen came by, saw him and stayed. 
 
 After being found by Royer and Strang, the Lanier and Owens parties connected. Lanier made it clear what his priority was: his dogs. 
 
 Owens reassured the 77-year-old veteran. 
 
 “I assured Jim, 'Jim, I’m going to take care of your dogs; I’ll bring them home.'” 
 
 But now Owens' had to find the dogs. As he and his team entered the blowhole, they place lived up to its name and reputation. It's known for producing hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions. 
 
 “There were times we were down stake-to-stake," he's said. "I mean, that’s all you could see. You’d have to stop and look, and the wind would let a little to where you could see just the top of the stake. And you would go to the stake and stop and look and wait. And there [were] times you didn’t know if you were on a side hill, flat level-- snow coming at you from all directions." 
 
 They were also dangerously close to the sea ice and open water. 
 
 "That's my greatest fear," said Owens, "To one day lose a musher and team off that ice." 
 
 They avoided that pitfall and ultimately reached the dogs. They were in good condition. 
 
 “They were coiled up, partially snow covered. Very safe. Immediately I started stimulating the dogs, rubbing the snow out of their faces and eyes so they could see.” 
 
 But what to do with 24 dogs? Tie them together using Lanier's sled and get them home. After a stop in Safety-- a good omen-- they snacked the dogs and headed out. Eventually, they all reached Nome. 
 
 “What I’m so thankful for is I have two mushers that I have a lot of respect for that are healthy and doing well recovering. And I have 24 four-footed friends that they, too, have bounced back, are happy and they’ll be ready to run again." 
 
 And everyone is thankful for Mike Owens--in case he needs to run again. 
 
 Copyright 2018 KTVA. All rights reserved. 

 Iditarod mushers Jim Lanier and Scott Janssen both dropped out of the race Friday after they asked for emergency help on the trail and were picked up by snowmachine. 
 
 Around 7 a.m. Friday, the Iditarod Trail Committee was alerted that Lanier and Janssen had requested emergency assistance due to "weather conditions" between the White Mountain (mile 921) and Safety (mile 976) checkpoints, in a place known as "the Blowhole" — an area notorious for hard winds, Iditarod race marshal Mark Nordman said in a written statement. 
 
 "A search and rescue team was immediately notified and then a plan was put in place to safely extract both dog teams and both mushers," Nordman said. 
 
 Janssen had come across Lanier on the trail. Lanier's team was stuck, and Lanier was "starting to freeze," according to a post from Scott Janssen's Facebook page, The Mushin' Mortician, on Friday afternoon. Lanier had 13 dogs and Janssen had 11 when they left the previous checkpoint in White Mountain. 
 
 Race officials said that Janssen first used a satellite phone to call a family member, who then alerted Iditarod officials. Soon after, Janssen pushed the SOS button on his Spot tracker. 
 
 "(Janssen) stayed with his friend until they were rescued and he chose to accompany his friend to Nome to make sure he was safe, but that meant scratching from the race. His team is loaded in a trailer on the way here," the Facebook post said. 
 
 FINAL UPDATE: Scott has arrived in Nome but it was by helicopter rather than a dog sled. He left White Mountain at... Posted by The Mushin' Mortician on Friday, March 16, 2018 
 
 The two men were taken to the Safety checkpoint via snowmachine. They officially scratched at 11:30 a.m. 
 
 "Lanier scratched out of concern for his race team and personal health reasons," the Iditarod statement said. "Janssen scratched out of concern for Lanier's safety." 
 
 The mushers were then picked up by helicopter and taken to Nome, race officials said. Both men were in Nome on Friday, "with their loved ones and also in good health," the statement said. 
 
 Their dog teams were mushed to Nome, race officials said. 
 
 Lanier is a 77-year-old Chugiak musher who has run 20 Iditarod races since 1979. He has scratched three times prior to this year. His highest placement was in 2004, when he came in 18th. This is Janssen's seventh Iditarod. He has scratched four times in the past. 
 
 Lanier's wife, Anna Bondarenko, wrote on Facebook on Friday morning that the situation was "very serious." Lanier left White Mountain feeling sick, she wrote. 
 
 "If you know (Lanier), you know he is tough and does not complain about anything. If he says he needs help it means he is really in deep trouble. Scott Jansen (sic) is with him and he made a call. Search and rescue is on their way from Nome," Bondarenko wrote Friday morning. 
 
 A few hours later, Bondarenko posted an update, saying the two men were safe. 

 Musher Scott Janssen's shining Iditarod moment came on the final stretch of his Last Great Race this year. While the 56-year-old "Mushin' Mortician" didn't complete the 2018 Iditarod, he was able to save his good friend and mentor Jim Lanier. 
 
 The 77 year-old Lanier was trapped on a chunk of driftwood early Friday between the checkpoints of White Mountain and Safety, in an area known as the Blow Hole. The roughly 15-mile-long formation along the Bering Sea coast acts as a wind tunnel, creating a "blizzard that would close highways in the Lower 48," according to Janssen. 
 
 Janssen's team was making good time -- about 10.2 mph -- when he happened to look to his left, where he saw reflectors on a dogsled facing the wrong way and hit his brakes. 
 
 "I yelled out, 'Are you all right?'" Janssen said. "I heard a voice yell out, 'I need help.' So I threw my (anchor) down, tipped my sled over and I ran over. And it was my friend Jim Lanier." 
 
 Iditarod musher Jim Lanier (David Poyzer/KTVA) 
 
 Lanier told Janssen he couldn't get his team moving. 
 
 It turned out Lanier and his team had been there for quite some time. He had taken a wrong turn toward the ocean, turned back around and got his sled caught on the stump of driftwood at the high-tide mark that was buried in snow. 
 
 Janssen was able to muster the strength to move the sled off the stump, but the dogs still wouldn't move. That's when both men's eyes started to cloud over, as their corneas started to freeze. 
 
 Frostbite and hypothermia were setting in. 
 
 "At that point Jim said 'I'm not going to make it out of here,'" Janssen said. "He says, 'You need to keep going if you have to.' I said, 'Jim, I have a satellite phone, don't worry about it. I'm going to stay here with you.'" 
 
 Iditarod musher Scott Janssen (David Poyzer/KTVA) 
 
 Janssen laid down a sleeping bag and wrapped his arms and legs around Lanier, as the two mushers tried to keep warm and told stories for more than five hours. 
 
 Lanier, a former ranking official in the Democratic Party, and Janssen, who took his dog Thunder and wife Debbie to Donald Trump's inauguration, shared a moment that Janssen truly appreciates. 
 
 "I said, "Jim, the country should be more like us,'" Janssen said. "He said, "What do you mean?' I said, 'A Democrat and a Republican -- of course the Republican is helping the Democrat.' It was tongue-in-cheek." 
 
 At some point bikers on fat tires stopped and offered help. Due to frostbite Janssen couldn't dial his wife's number on the satellite phone, so one of the bikers was able to contact Debbie. 
 
 Debbie in turn alerted Iditarod officials, and race marshal Mark Nordman called the checkpoint of Safety. That's where Jessie Royer, who had just completed her own Iditarod run, was waiting with a snowmachine. Royer and a friend of the Janssen family drove out and took the two men back to Safety. 
 
 Iditarod musher Scott Janssen (David Poyzer/KTVA) 
 
 "To leave your dogs out there...You know, people look at it like, 'How can you do that?'" Janssen said. "But you have to think about the situation we were in. If you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of your dogs; if you can't take care of your dogs, they can't take care of you." 
 
 Iditarod staff sent trailers out to retrieve the dogs and the sleds, the snowmachines saw the trailers coming about two miles from the site. Once they reached Safety, the men were medevaced to Nome where they refused medical treatment. 
 
 "I hope [Lanier] doesn't get down on himself because that could happen to any of us, any of us," Janssen said. "This wasn't anything he did. This was a culmination of Mother Nature. Sometimes she doesn't want you walking through her back yard." 
 
 Iditarod musher Jim Lanier (David Poyzer/KTVA) 
 
 As for the "Mushin' Mortician," he said at this year's bib-draw banquet that this would likely be his final trek on the trail. 
 
 "This, for the foreseeable future was my last Iditarod," Janssen said. "I don't lament not crossing the burled arches. Had a great time laying in the snow, feeling like I was dying.... so did Jim, with my friend. That's what it really came down to in this race." 
 
 Although the medevac meant both Janssen and Lanier have been scratched from this year's race, Janssen was philosophical about leaving the trail. 
 
 "We had every bit of adversity that was there," Janssen said. "And for some reason, say the grace of God, I looked to my left and saw Jim. And if I wouldn't have and I pulled in here with a woo-hoo of a finish and found out that I went by Jim Lanier, or anybody else, but especially Jim Lanier... I wouldn't be able to live with myself." 
 
 The Iditarod's Safety checkpoint, 22 miles from the finish line in Nome (Jason Sear/KTVA) 
 
 Lanier, from North Dakota, and Janssen, from Minnesota, grew up about 60 miles away from each other, hunting and fishing the same areas. Janssen says when he grew up he always wanted to be like Jim Lanier. 
 
 On Friday, though, Janssen was in the right place at the right time doing what he would do for anyone -- but this time, for a good friend and mentor. 
 
 Copyright 2018 KTVA. All rights reserved.
– Scott Janssen hoped to win the world's most famous sled-dog race across Alaska. Instead, the 56-year-old took home a sportsmanship award for spending a chilly night with a friend in a sleeping bag he feared would become a body bag. Some 45 miles from the Iditarod finish line, Janssen saw his dogs' ears perk up before they pulled his sled off course and onto the frozen Bering Sea. At least two other racers had taken the same route with 50mph wind gusts creating blizzard conditions, per the Washington Post: Janssen's friend and mentor, 77-year-old Jim Lanier, whose sled was stuck on a piece of driftwood, and another racer who'd passed by without noticing him. "For some reason, say the grace of God, I looked to my left and saw Jim," Janssen tells KTVA. "At that point Jim said, 'I'm not going to make it out of here.' He says, 'You need to keep going.'" Janssen didn't. Losing his gloves in the process, he freed his friend's sled, then used a satellite phone to call for help since Lanier's dogs were too tired to continue. Janssen then huddled with Lanier to battle frostbite and hypothermia. "The guy is a mortician, so he made a joke about how if they found us frozen to death, he would make sure we had the right sized coffins," Lanier tells the Post. "I told Jim that American society should be like what we are now, a Democrat and a Republican helping each other out," says Janssen. Had the Republican not seen his friend, a Democrat, "I wouldn't be able to live with myself," Janssen adds. But "I knew I was going to die if someone didn't come along." After five hours, rescuers arrived early Friday to find the men safe, reports the Anchorage Daily News. Their dogs, rescued a short time later, were in good condition, per KTVA.