Yesterday I was discussing some of the political problems that are likely to make gas and oil supplies an ongoing news story for a few years yet. There is, however, also a potentially growing physical problem that might also impact the logistics of supply somewhat faster than we might think.

This other problem is actually related to reading some of the conditions of the Iditarod which started this week. Because of the changes in snow patterns there are parts of the course that have almost no snow

Where an avalanche last year killed Richard Strick, Jr. -- a well-liked, longtime volunteer trailbreaker for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -- there is little snow this year. Efforts have been under way for days to cut a trail through thickets of alder and willow that would normally be buried in white, said pilot Barry Stanley of Denali Flying Service in Willow.