Mille Porsild completed her sixth Iditarod out of six starts on Saturday at 10:53 claiming 9th place. This is the fourth time Porsild has finished in the top ten mushers. Her highest finish came in 2021 on the Gold Trail Loop, 5th place. She completed the 2025 run in 11 days, 22 hours and 53 minutes.
When Mille left White Mountain, her out time was recorded and her GPS tracker was working. However when she descended from Topkok Head to the beach, GPS said Mille was resting, resting and still resting. Sometime later, her name showed up in race stats as having checked into and out of Safety. GPS said she was still back at the safety cabin on the beach. She was, so to speak, running under the radar when she left the Bering Sea for Front Street and the burled arch. What happened to her GPS Tracker is anybody’s guess but fortunately the humans – fans and race officials – had it figured out and welcomed Mille to Nome.
When crossing Norton Sound from Shaktoolik to Koyuk, Mille and her dogs, like many other teams, felt the effects of the 30 mph head wind. She described the 50 mile run as sledding on sandpaper. After the tiring 9.5 hour 50 mile run across Norton Sound, Mille decided the young dogs on her team needed an extended rest in Koyuk. She stayed for close to 21 hours before pulling her hook for Elim.
Phoenix, a lead dog for Mille, was a two-year-old on Joar Leifseth Ulsom’s Championship team in 2018. Phoenix is now nine and very seasoned when it comes to the Iditarod trail. Mille said that Phoenix thought the person on the runners giving directions was way off base when they headed south from Kaltag for the Shageluk loop. Once they returned to Kaltag and headed to the coast, Phoenix was happy again and took charge without any direction from Porsild.
Riley Dyche rounds out the top ten for 2025 with a time of 12 days, 0 hours and 54 minutes. His previous best finish was 18th in 2023. At the finish line Riley snacked his dogs with choice steaks which were rapidly devoured.
Riley, who didn’t run in 2024 spent the time developing the young dogs he ran in 2023. That paid high dividends in not only this Ultra-Iditarod but also in the Kusko 300 where he finished 2nd this year.
Dyche called the Ultra-Iditarod “one tough trail.” He also said the coast was very enjoyable this year as there was no weather or other adversity. Manley to Ruby was tough with the soft snow. Grayling back to Kaltag was the same. He, Ryan Redington and Travis Beals all did the lollipop loop out to Shageluk together and couldn’t believe that those 24 miles took over four hours. Dyche said he doesn’t mind the Yukon when it’s fast but this year traveling at just 5 miles an hour for long stretches was mentally tough.
Dyche has the ride concession at Iditarod Headquarters during the summer. He said that was actually an important part of his training this year as the dogs did 4,000 ¼ mile loops from Memorial Day to Labor Day, which accounted for 1,000 training miles so the team went into the fall already well-conditioned.
Riley praised his lead dog Ace. He dropped his tried and true leaders back in Nulato due to some minor athletic injuries sustained in the soft snow. He brought Ace to the front who then ran lead the rest of the race with either Electra or Garnet. Finally, Dyche said that anyone who finished this Ultra-Iditarod should be proud of what they accomplished.
A quick check on the other teams before I hit publish finds Matthew Failor and Nicolas Petit due into Nome later Saturday evening. Veterans Anna Berington, Lauro Eklund and Jason Mackey are completing the eight hour required White Mountain rest along with rookies Samantha LaLonde and Emily Ford.
Rookie Keaton Loebrich is tackling Little McKinley between Elim and White Mountain. Rookies Calvin Daugherty, Connor McMahon and Ebbe Pedersen are in Elim with Dane Baker soon to arrive. Rookie Jenny Roddewig is resting in Koyuk with 10 dogs – 170 miles from the burled arch.
