Tag: Sled dog racing

Iditarod Fast Facts | CNN

CNN
—

Here’s a look at the Iditarod dogsled race. The event is named after the Iditarod Trail, an old mail and supply route, traveled by dogsleds from Seward and Knik to Nome, Alaska.

March 12, 2024 – Dallas Seavey wins his sixth Iditarod, breaking the record for most wins.

March 14, 2023 – Ryan Redington wins his first Iditarod.

The race traditionally begins on the first Saturday in March, starting in Anchorage and ending in Nome.

The race ranges from 975 to 998 miles long, depending on whether the southern or northern route is being run. The length can also vary from year to year based on course conditions.

The beginning of the race in Anchorage is considered a ceremonial start. The competitive part of the race usually begins the next day in Willow, but depends on weather conditions.

There may be only one musher (person who drives the sled) per team.

There are 12-14 dogs on each team. At least five dogs must be in harness (pulling the sled) at the finish line.

The most commonly used sled dogs are the Samoyed, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky, Alaskan Husky and Chinook. The animals get tested for strength and endurance before being selected.

The musher must make a mandatory 24 hour stop at some point during the race.

The route alternates every other year, one year going north through Cripple, Ruby, and Galena, the next year going south through Iditarod, Shageluk, and Anvik.

Most Consecutive Wins – Lance Mackey won four consecutive times from 2007-2010.

Most Wins – Dallas Seavey won six times, in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2024. Rick Swenson won five times, in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1991.

Fastest winning time – Mitch Seavey finished the 2017 race in eight days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, 13 seconds.

Winner by a [dog’s] nose – Dick Mackey finished the 1978 race one second ahead of Rick Swenson. The winner is decided by the nose of the first dog across the finish line.

First female winner – Libby Riddles in 1985.

Youngest winner – Dallas Seavey, 25, in 2012.

Oldest winner – Mitch Seavey, 57, in 2017.

1925 – A diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska, creates an emergency need for medical supplies to be delivered, and dogsledders make the journey. The current race commemorates this mission and partially follows the same route.

1966 – Dorothy Page, President of the Wasilla-Knik Centennial Committee, decides to organize a dogsled race to celebrate Alaska’s centennial in 1967. Page and Joe Redington Sr., a local musher, work together to launch the first event.

1967 – The first Iditarod is held, with 58 mushers competing along a 50-mile trail.

March 1973 – After shorter races in 1967 and 1969, the first full-length race takes place. The course is approximately 1,100 miles long. The first winner is Dick Wilmarth, with a time of 20 days and 49 minutes.

March 12, 2016 – A man on a snowmobile hits two teams competing in the Iditarod, killing one dog and injuring several other dogs. Alaska state troopers arrest Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato. Later, Demoski is sentenced to six months and three days in jail and ordered to pay restitution totaling $36,697.15.

October 6, 2017 – The Iditarod Trail Committee revises Rule 39 after a musher’s team of dogs test positive for an opioid drug called Tramadol. Before the rule is revised, the ITC determines that intent of the alleged musher could not be proven. The revised rule holds a musher liable for any positive canine drug test, unless they can prove that they are not at fault. The ITC later reveals four-time champion Dallas Seavey as the musher. Seavey denies the allegations.

December 4, 2018 – The Iditarod Trail Committee clears Seavey of any wrongdoing and releases a statement saying, “After several meetings with Dallas Seavey, and review of all relevant information and evidence, the board does not believe that Dallas had any involvement with, or knowledge of, the events that led to the positive test in his team.”

2021 – The 2021 ceremonial Mushers’ Banquet is canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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March 13, 2024
5-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey kills and guts a moose that got entangled with his dog team

ANCHORAGEW, Alaska — A veteran musher had to kill a moose after it injured his dog shortly after the start of this year’s Iditarod, race officials said Monday.

Dallas Seavey informed the officials with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Monday morning that he was forced to shoot the moose with a handgun in self-defense.

This came “after the moose became entangled with the dogs and the musher,” a statement from the race said.

Seavey, who is tied for the most Iditarod wins ever at five, said he urged officials to get the moose off the trail.

“It fell on my sled, it was sprawled on the trail,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew. “I gutted it the best I could, but it was ugly.”

Seavey, who turned 37 years old on Monday, is not the first musher to have to kill a moose during an Iditarod. In 1985, the late Susan Butcher was leading the race when she used her axe and a parka to fend off a moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came along and killed the moose.

Butcher had to quit that race but went on to win four Iditarods. She died from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 51.

This year’s race started Sunday afternoon in Willow, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Anchorage. Seavey encountered the moose just before 2 a.m. Monday, 14 miles (22 kilometers) outside the race checkpoint in Swenta, en route to the next checkpoint 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in Finger Lake.

Seavey arrived in Finger Lake later Monday, where he dropped a dog that was injured in the moose encounter. The dog was flown to Anchorage, where it was being evaluated by a veterinarian.

Alaska State Troopers were informed of the dead moose, and race officials said every effort was being made to salvage the meat.

Race rules state that if a big game animal like a moose, caribou or buffalo is killed in defense of life or property, the musher must gut the animal and report it to race officials at the next checkpoint. Mushers who follow must help gut the animal when possible, the rules states.

New race marshal Warren Palfrey said he would continue to gather information about the encounter as it pertains to the rules, according to the Iditarod statement.

Musher Paige Drobny confirmed to race officials the moose was dead and in the middle of the trial when she arrived in Finger Lake on Monday.

“Yeah, like my team went up and over it, like it’s that ‘in the middle of the trail,’” she said.

Seavey wasn’t the first musher to encounter a moose along that stretch of the race.

Race leader Jessie Holmes, who is a cast member of the National Geographic reality TV show about life in rural Alaska called“Life Below Zero,” had his encounter between those two checkpoints, but it’s not clear if it was the same moose.

“I had to punch a moose in the nose out there,” he told a camera crew, but didn’t offer other details.

The 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska will end sometime next week when the winning musher comes off the Bering Sea ice and crosses under the burled arch finish line in Nome.

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March 4, 2024
Alaska’s Iditarod dogs get neon visibility harnesses after 5 were fatally hit while training

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Iditarod, the annual sled dog race celebrating Alaska’s official state sport, got underway Saturday with a new focus on safety after five dogs died and eight were injured in collisions with snowmobiles while training on shared, multi-use trails.

For the first time, mushers who line up for the competitive start Sunday will have the chance to snag light-up, neon harnesses or necklaces for their dogs before they begin the dayslong race that takes the dog-and-human sled teams about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) over Alaska’s unforgiving terrain. The original plan was to hand them out Saturday at the race’s ceremonial start in Anchorage, but organizers did not receive approval from competition officials.

The 38 mushers will trace a course across two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and along the ice-covered Bering Sea. In about 10 days, they will come off the ice and onto Main Street in the old Gold Rush town of Nome for the last push to the finish line.

Mushers always have contended with Alaska’s deep winter darkness and whiteout conditions. But the recent dog deaths even while training have put a focus on making the four-legged athletes easier to see at all times. Mushers typically wear a bright headlamp for visibility, but that doesn’t protect lead dogs running about 60 feet (18 meters) in front of the sled.

“I can’t make snowmachiners act responsibly, it’s just not going to happen,” said Dutch Johnson, manager of the August Foundation kennel, which finds homes for retired racing sled dogs. “But I can help make dogs more visible.”

Two dogs were killed and seven injured in November on a team belonging to five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey on a remote Alaska highway used as a training trail in the winter. It has recently become more popular with snowmobilers, bikers and other users, making it more dangerous for dogs.

Seavey said in a social media post that the snowmobile was heading in the opposite direction at about 65 mph (105 kph) when it slammed into the lead dogs on the team. The snowmobile driver was later cited for negligent driving.

In December, musher Mike Parker was running dogs for veteran Iditarod competitor Jim Lanier on the Denali Highway when a snowmobile driven by a professional rider struck the dog team. Three dogs died and another was injured. The driver, Erik Johnson, was testing snowmobiles for his employer, Minnesota-based manufacturer Polaris, and both were cited for reckless driving.

Julie St. Louis, the co-founder and director for the August Foundation, is close to the Lanier family and knew the dogs involved. When brainstorming with Johnson, they decided to use the nonprofit foundation to help outfit the dogs with harnesses and necklaces.

“It was one way we could step up and do something that was still within our mission, because we’re all about keeping the dogs safe,” she said.

The August Foundation has since secured an $8,500 grant from the Polaris Foundation and raised another $2,500 to buy 400 light-up harnesses, which were handed out to mushers at sled dog races in Fairbanks and Bethel earlier this winter.

The harnesses burn with bright neon-like colors that help illuminate the dogs in the darkness of the Alaska winter and pierce the clouds of snow sometimes kicked up by snowmachines, what Alaskans call snowmobiles.

They are now accepting donations to outfit as many dog teams as possible. Providing each team with four harnesses or lighted necklaces and one illuminated vest for the musher costs $120. A separate effort, called Light Up the Lead Dogs, is raising money to buy lighted collars for dogs.

In each of the accidents, Johnson said the snowmobile that hit the dogs was riding behind another snowmobile, which obscured visibility by kicking up snow.

“What I’ve witnessed with these harnesses is they make a halo effect in that dust,” Johnson said. “So they do give you some warning of where the lead dogs are.”

Jeri Rodriquez, the vice president of the Anchorage Snowmobile Club, said the multiuser trails are getting busier and all users need to do all they can to be seen.

Johnson will hand out the lighted harnesses Sunday at the competitive start in Willow, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Anchorage. Saturday’s event was a fan-friendly affair, where mushers took auction winners riding in their sleds over about 11 miles (18 kilometers) of city streets and trails.

The dog deaths are the latest pressure point for the Iditarod, which began in 1973 and has taken hits in recent years from the pandemic, climate change, the loss of sponsors and the retirement of several big-name mushing champions with few to take their place.

The ranks of mushers participating this year dwindled even more last month as accusations of violence against women by two top mushers embroiled the Iditarod. Both were initially disqualified officially for violating the race’s conduct rules. One was reinstated later but wound up scratching because he had leased his dogs to other mushers and could not reassemble his team in time.

Three former champions remain in the race: 2019 champion Pete Kaiser, defending winner Ryan Redington and Seavey, who is looking for a record-breaking sixth championship.

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March 2, 2024
Iditarod co-founder’s grandson Ryan Redington wins dog race

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Ryan Redington on Tuesday won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, bringing his six dogs off the Bering Sea ice to the finish line on Nome’s main street.

Redington, 40, is the grandson of Joe Redington Sr., who helped co-found the arduous race across Alaska that was first held in 1973 and is known as the “Father of the Iditarod.”

“My grandpa, dad and Uncle Joee are all in the Mushing Hall of Fame. I got big footsteps to follow,” Ryan Redington wrote in his race biography. He previously won the Junior Iditarod in 1999 and 2000. His father, Raymie, is a 10-time Iditarod finisher.

Redington, who is Inupiat, becomes the sixth Alaska Native musher to win the world’s most famous sled dog race. After crossing the finish in Nome around 12:15 p.m., he said it has been a goal of his since he was “a very small child to win the Iditarod, and I can’t believe it. It finally happened.

“It took a lot work, took a lot of patience. And we failed quite a few times, you know? But we kept our head up high and stuck with the dream,” he said.

Redington won the Iditarod in his 16th try. He scratched from seven of those races, but his performance this decade has been the best of his career. He finished ninth last year, seventh in 2021 and eighth in 2020 — his only other top 10 finishes before this year’s race.

The nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race started March 5 in Willow for 33 mushers, who traveled over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and on the Bering Sea ice. Since then, three mushers have scratched. A fan-friendly ceremonial start was held in Anchorage the day before.

It was the smallest field ever to start a race, one short of the first race run.

Among those who scratched was defending champion Brent Sass, who was leading when he withdrew Saturday over concerns for his health. because of periodontal issues.

He was doing OK and resting in the community of Unalakleet, he posted on Instagram Sunday. The Iditarod was caring for his dogs, he said.

Sass said he had been sick the entire race with a bad cold. Then on Friday “some cracked teeth started giving me issues and over a 12-hour period turned into nearly unbearable pain,” he said. “My body basically shutdown and for two runs I just hung on. Ultimately I couldn’t care for the dogs.“

He said the colder temperatures, dipping to minus 30 F (minus 34 C), were making his dog team stronger, but it made him weaker.

For the first part of the race, mushers dealt with high temperatures, causing some to alter their strategies.

Redington will earn about $50,000 for winning. The exact amount won’t be calculated until the total number of finishers are known to split the prize purse.

The two mushers who were chasing him to Nome are also Alaska Natives, Pete Kaiser, who is Yup’ik and won the 2019 Iditarod, and Richie Diehl, who is Dena’ina Athabascan.

Redington splits his time between Alaska and Wisconsin. He trains his dogs in Brule, Wisconsin, in the fall and winter. He races in Alaska and Minnesota beginning in December. In the summers, he has a sled dog tour for tourists in the ski community of Girdwood, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Anchorage.

In January 2022, Redington was training in northern Wisconsin when a snowmobile driver veered into his dog team, injuring two dogs, before speeding off.

One of the dogs, Wildfire, suffered a broken rear tibia, fibula and femur but recovered after multiple surgeries and started this year’s race. However, Redington dropped him at the checkpoint in Skwentna a day after the official start.

“His heart was there, but he was just a little sore,” Redington told the Iditarod Insider webpage.

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March 14, 2023
Defending champion leaves Iditarod race over health concerns

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Brent Sass, the defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion, withdrew from this year’s race on Saturday, citing concerns for his health.

Sass scratched at the Eagle Island checkpoint, a statement from the Iditarod said. Eagle Island is about 600 miles (966 kilometers) into the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race.

“He didn’t feel he could care for his team due to current concerns with his periodontal health,” the statement said. The condition typically relates to gum disease.

A plane was being sent to Eagle Island to fly Sass off the trail, according to a video posted on the Iditarod Insider web page.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sad, but it is what it is,” Sass’ father, Mark Sass, told Alaska Public Media. “I just want him to be OK.”

The Iditarod said all 11 dogs on Sass’ team were in good health.

Sass was in the lead when he arrived at the Eagle Island checkpoint late Friday night with an almost four-hour advantage over his nearest competitor, Jessie Holmes of Brushkana.

Holmes was the first musher to leave the Eagle Island checkpoint early Saturday morning. The 40-year-old Alabama native in 2004 moved to Alaska, where he is a carpenter and appears on the National Geographic reality TV show “Life Below Zero,” about people who live in rural Alaska.

The race started for 33 mushers on March 5 in Willow. It takes the sled dog teams over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and the treacherous Bering Sea ice en route to the finish line in Nome. Mushers had to contend with another issue during the first week of competition: Altering their race strategy because of high heat in interior Alaska.

The winner is expected to mush down Nome’s Front Street, a block off the Bering Sea, to the finish line either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Before the competitive start to the race, mushers greeted fans March 4 during a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and drove auction winners riding in their sleds for an 11-mile jaunt through the streets of the state’s largest city.

The 33 mushers represented the smallest field ever to start a race, one short of the first race run in 1973.

Since then, two mushers including Sass have withdrawn.

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March 11, 2023
33 Iditarod sled dog race mushers to trek across Alaska

The race to Nome has 33 mushers — its smallest field ever — in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska

WILLOW, Alaska — The race to Nome began Sunday for 33 mushers in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.

Jessie Holmes. an Alabama native living in the Alaska community of Brushkana, was the first musher to leave across a frozen lake about 70 miles (112 kilometers) north of Anchorage. Holmes works as a carpenter and appears on the reality television show “Life Below Zero.”

Other mushers left in two-minute intervals. They will travel nearly a thousand miles (1,609 kilometers) over the unforgiving Alaska winterscape, climbing over two mountain ranges, mushing on frozen rivers and streams and across the treacherous Bering Sea ice. The winner is expected to drive their sled dog team down Nome’s Front Street to the iconic burled arch finish line in about 10 days.

Leading the charge will be defending champion Brent Sass, a kennel owner and wilderness guide who lives on a homestead about a four-hour drive northwest of Fairbanks.

Also competing is Pete Kaiser, the 2019 champion. The 33 mushers in the race is the smallest field ever. The very first race, held in 1973, had 34 mushers, but the average number of starters in the first 50 races was 63.

Only having two former champions in the race this year is a rarity.

Several veteran mushers have decided to retire or take a break from the Iditarod, including five-time champion Dallas Seavey, four-time winners Martin Buser and Jeff King and three-time champ Mitch Seavey.

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March 5, 2023
Alaska’s arduous Iditarod kicks off with ceremonial start

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Brent Sass was just miles from fulfilling his dream of winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska when vicious, 60-mph (96-kph) winds whipsawed in from the Bering Sea, taking visibility down to about 10 feet (3 meters) and forcing him off his sled as his dogs hunkered down in the snow.

“I did not voluntarily make that stop,” laughed Sass, who was seeking his first Iditarod victory last year but had five-time champion Dallas Seavey just a few miles behind him. “We got blown off the trail and it took me an hour to get all my stuff back together and figure out where I was.”

Sass regrouped and led his team of 11 dogs off the Bering Sea ice and down Nome’s main street to the iconic burled arch finish line, winning the Iditarod, the world’s most famous sled dog race, in his seventh attempt.

Sass is back to defend his title in the race, which begins Saturday with a fan-friendly 11-mile (18-kilometer) jaunt through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Thousands of people are expected to line up to cheer on the mushers, who carry “Iditariders,” lucky auction winners, on their sleds for the ceremonial start.

Things get serious Sunday with the competitive start of the race that will take mushers nearly 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) across Alaska. It begins in Willow, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Anchorage.

This is the 51st running of the Iditarod, but its 33 mushers are the smallest field ever to start the race. Mushers and race organizers point to the retirement of some veteran mushers; others taking a break to recoup financially after the pandemic; inflation, and the loss of deep-pocketed sponsors amid continuing pressure from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA took out full-page newspaper ads in Alaska’s two largest cities decrying what it calls the cruel abuse of dogs forced to haul their mushers and gear over the race’s thousand miles. The group also staged a protest outside the mushers’ annual banquet Thursday.

Six mushers who account for 18 Iditarod championships are not racing this year. Last year, the sport lost another four-time winner when Lance Mackey died of cancer. Mackey was named honorary musher for this year’s race.

Only 823 mushers have reached the finish line in the Iditarod’s first half-century, and only 24 individual mushers in all have won the grueling event. Mushers and their dog teams encounter some of the harshest conditions in untamed Alaska, crossing both the Alaska and Kuskokwim mountain ranges, mushing on the frozen Yukon River, trekking through monotonous flat tundra and navigating the treacherous Bering Sea ice.

Along the way, they stop in numerous, largely Alaska Native communities that serve as checkpoints.

“It’s a celebration of spring for villages all across the state. It kind of brings communities and people together for an event that celebrates the history of our state and dog mushing,” said Aaron Burmeister, an Iditarod musher who grew up watching the race end in his hometown of Nome and who finished in the top 10 eight times over the last decade.

Climate change has and will likely continue to play a role in how the race is run.

The warming climate forced organizers to move the starting line 290 miles (467 kilometers) north from Willow to Fairbanks in 2003, 2015 and 2017 because of a lack of snow in the Alaska Range. That will become more common as the weather warms, and the Bering Sea ice leading into Nome could also become thinner and more dangerous, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Challenges to the globe’s foremost sled dog race are mounting, said Bob Dorfman, a sports branding expert with Pinnacle Advertising in San Francisco.

“With the high expenses, the low payout, dwindling sponsorship support, PETA pressure, the danger of it all, it feels more like a trend than just an anomaly,” he said. Sass earned $50,000 for winning last year’s race.

Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach says the race is financially healthy, and he expects the Iditarod to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2073.

Dorfman did not disagree, but said the 2073 race may not look that much different than this year’s race.

“I don’t see the fortunes changing that much,” Dorfman said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be more than 30 participants.”

Sass, 43, is considered the front-runner to win the 2023 race. Pete Kaiser, the first Yup’ik and fifth Alaska Native to win the race, is the field’s only other ex-champion.

The winner is expected in Nome about nine or 10 days after Saturday’s start.

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March 4, 2023
Alaska’s arduous Iditarod kicks off with ceremonial start

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Brent Sass was just miles from fulfilling his dream of winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska when vicious, 60-mph (96-kph) winds whipsawed in from the Bering Sea, taking visibility down to about 10 feet (3 meters) and forcing him off his sled as his dogs hunkered down in the snow.

“I did not voluntarily make that stop,” laughed Sass, who was seeking his first Iditarod victory last year but had five-time champion Dallas Seavey just a few miles behind him. “We got blown off the trail and it took me an hour to get all my stuff back together and figure out where I was.”

Sass regrouped and led his team of 11 dogs off the Bering Sea ice and down Nome’s main street to the iconic burled arch finish line, winning the Iditarod, the world’s most famous sled dog race, in his seventh attempt.

Sass is back to defend his title in the race, which begins Saturday with a fan-friendly 11-mile (18-kilometer) jaunt through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Thousands of people are expected to line up to cheer on the mushers, who carry “Iditariders,” lucky auction winners, on their sleds for the ceremonial start.

Things get serious Sunday with the competitive start of the race that will take mushers nearly 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) across Alaska. It begins in Willow, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Anchorage.

This is the 51st running of the Iditarod, but its 33 mushers are the smallest field ever to start the race. Mushers and race organizers point to the retirement of some veteran mushers; others taking a break to recoup financially after the pandemic; inflation, and the loss of deep-pocketed sponsors amid continuing pressure from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA took out full-page newspaper ads in Alaska’s two largest cities decrying what it calls the cruel abuse of dogs forced to haul their mushers and gear over the race’s thousand miles. The group also staged a protest outside the mushers’ annual banquet Thursday.

Six mushers who account for 18 Iditarod championships are not racing this year. Last year, the sport lost another four-time winner when Lance Mackey died of cancer. Mackey was named honorary musher for this year’s race.

Only 823 mushers have reached the finish line in the Iditarod’s first half-century, and only 24 individual mushers in all have won the grueling event. Mushers and their dog teams encounter some of the harshest conditions in untamed Alaska, crossing both the Alaska and Kuskokwim mountain ranges, mushing on the frozen Yukon River, trekking through monotonous flat tundra and navigating the treacherous Bering Sea ice.

Along the way, they stop in numerous, largely Alaska Native communities that serve as checkpoints.

“It’s a celebration of spring for villages all across the state. It kind of brings communities and people together for an event that celebrates the history of our state and dog mushing,” said Aaron Burmeister, an Iditarod musher who grew up watching the race end in his hometown of Nome and who finished in the top 10 eight times over the last decade.

Climate change has and will likely continue to play a role in how the race is run.

The warming climate forced organizers to move the starting line 290 miles (467 kilometers) north from Willow to Fairbanks in 2003, 2015 and 2017 because of a lack of snow in the Alaska Range. That will become more common as the weather warms, and the Bering Sea ice leading into Nome could also become thinner and more dangerous, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Challenges to the globe’s foremost sled dog race are mounting, said Bob Dorfman, a sports branding expert with Pinnacle Advertising in San Francisco.

“With the high expenses, the low payout, dwindling sponsorship support, PETA pressure, the danger of it all, it feels more like a trend than just an anomaly,” he said. Sass earned $50,000 for winning last year’s race.

Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach says the race is financially healthy, and he expects the Iditarod to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2073.

Dorfman did not disagree, but said the 2073 race may not look that much different than this year’s race.

“I don’t see the fortunes changing that much,” Dorfman said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be more than 30 participants.”

Sass, 43, is considered the front-runner to win the 2023 race. Pete Kaiser, the first Yup’ik and fifth Alaska Native to win the race, is the field’s only other ex-champion.

The winner is expected in Nome about nine or 10 days after Saturday’s start.

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March 4, 2023
“A little scary:” Iditarod begins with smallest field ever

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The second half-century for the world’s most famous sled dog race is getting off to a rough start.

Only 33 mushers will participate in the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Saturday, the smallest field ever to take their dog teams nearly 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) over Alaska’s unforgiving wilderness. This year’s lineup is smaller even than that of the 34 mushers who lined up for the very first race in 1973.

The small pool of mushers is raising concerns about the future of an iconic race that has taken hits from the pandemic, climate change, inflation and the loss of deep-pocketed sponsors, just as multiple big-name mushing champions are retiring with few to take their place.

The largest field ever was 96 mushers in 2008; the average number of mushers starting the race over the last 50 years was 63.

“It’s a little scary when you look at it that way,” said four-time winner Martin Buser, 64, who retired after completing his 39th race last year. “Hopefully it’s not a state of the event and … it’s just a temporary lull.”

The Iditarod is the most prestigious sled dog race in the world, taking competitors over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and treacherous Bering Sea ice in frigid temperatures before ending in the old Gold Rush town of Nome. The roughly 10-day event begins with a “ceremonial start” in Anchorage on Saturday, followed by the competitive start in Willow, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the north, on Sunday.

And while the world-renowned race has the highest winner’s purse of any sled dog competition, the winner only pockets about $50,000 before taxes — a payout that is less appealing amid inflation and the continued reverberations of the pandemic.

Many mushers supplement their income by offering uniquely Alaska experiences to cruise ship passengers, but for several years the pandemic has meant fewer summer visitors to shell out money for a sled dog ride on a glacier.

“There’s a lot of kennels and a lot of mushers that rely on that to keep going,” said Aaron Burmeister, a Nome native who is sitting out this year’s race to spend more time with family. Burmeister, who works construction, has had eight top 10 finishes in the last decade.

“Being able to race the Iditarod and the expense of putting together a race team became more than they could bear to maintain themselves,” he said of mushers.

Inflation has also taken a toll, and several mushers said they’d like to see a higher prize purse to attract younger competitors.

Defending champion Brent Sass, who supplements his income as a wilderness guide, isn’t surprised some mushers are taking a break to build up bank accounts.

Sass, who has 58 dogs, orders 500 bags of high-quality dog food a year. Each bag cost $55 a few years ago, but that has swelled to $85 per bag — or about $42,500 total a year. That’s about how much money Sass pocketed from his Iditarod win last year.

“You got to be totally prepared to run Iditarod, and have enough money in the bank to do it,” said Sass, who lives in Eureka, about a four-hour drive north of Fairbanks.

With other race costs, Buser said running the Iditarod now can mean spending $250,000 to win a $40,000 championship.

The race itself has suffered under the increased inflation, Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said. Supply costs have gone up about 30%, he said, and last year it cost nearly $30,000 to transport specially certified straw from the lower 48 for dogs to sleep on at race checkpoints.

The Iditarod also continues to be dogged by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has targeted the race’s biggest sponsors. Over the past decade, Alaska Airlines, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo have ended race sponsorships after being targeted by PETA.

PETA took out full-page newspaper ads in Anchorage and Fairbanks in February with a husky — the predominate sled dog breed — prominently featured with the headline, “We don’t want to go to the Iditarod. We just want the Iditarod to go.”

But Urbach said the race’s financial health is good, and payouts should be a little higher this year. The top 20 finishers receive payouts on a sliding scale, and every other finisher gets $1,049, reflecting the stated mileage of the race, though the actual mileage is lower.

Urbach noted they are paying “the healthiest prize money” among competitive sled dog races and called the PETA campaign “pretty offensive, I think, to most Alaskans.”

There’s also worry about the future of the race because of climate change.

The warming climate forced organizers to move the starting line 290 miles (467 kilometers) north from Willow to Fairbanks in 2003, 2015 and 2017 because of a lack of snow in the Alaska Range. Poor winter conditions and urban growth likewise led the Iditarod to officially move the start from Wasilla about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north to Willow in 2008, even though Wasilla last hosted the start in 2002.

Moving the start of the race north will likely become more common as global warming advances, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Ice on Alaska’s western coast could also get thinner and more dangerous, he said.

“It doesn’t have to be that there’s waves crashing on the beach,” Thoman said of the impacts of ice melt. “It just has to be at the point where the ice is not stable.”

As challenges stack up, several veteran mushers with multiple championships have stepped away this year after decades of braving the frigid and windy conditions to train in the dead of the Alaska winter for the Iditarod. They are finding that few are willing to take their place, at least this year.

“I just got back from Cancun to see the Grateful Dead play on the beaches of Mexico,” said four-time champion Jeff King, who is now 67. “I first said I was going to retire at 40, and I ran the race at 66, so I don’t feel like I’m bailing on anybody.”

Five-time champion Dallas Seavey said last year’s race would be his last, at least for a while, to spend time with his daughter. Other past champions not racing include Dallas’ father, three-time champion Mitch Seavey, and Joar Leifseth Ulsom and Thomas Waerner, who have one title each.

Waerner said sponsors are holding back, and it’s too expensive to pay $60,000 to get his team from Norway to Alaska.

Lance Mackey, another four-time champion, died last year from cancer. He is the honorary musher for this year’s race, and his children, Atigun and Lozen, will ride in the first sled to leave the ceremonial start line in Anchorage and during the competitive start Sunday.

That leaves two former winners in this year’s field, Sass and Pete Kaiser.

Sass said he is confident the Iditarod will survive this downturn.

“If we can just keep the train rolling forward, I think it’s going to come back, and hopefully our world can get things under control and things maybe get a little less expensive,” Sass said. “I think that’s going to help get our numbers back up.”

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February 28, 2023