Dane Baker and Ebbe Pedersen arrived in Nome early this morning a few hours after the Finisher’s Banquet wrapped up. They will be honored for their accomplishment of completing the 2025 Ultra-Iditarod at a second banquet held on Monday. The Red Lantern Award will be presented as will the Howard Farley Sr. Memorial Award from the Nome Kennel Club.
Each rookie that completes the race receives the coveted Iditarod Finisher’s belt buckle. There were 16 rookies who tackled the Ultra-Iditarod. Seven of those rookies completed the 1128 miles to stand under the newly fashion burled arch on Front Street. The longest Iditarod was considered by seasoned veterans to be the one of the hardest in the 53 year history of the race.
Dane Baker behind a Matthew Failor yearling team completed the race in 21st place with a time of 13 days, 13 hours and 35 minutes with 9 dogs in harness. Dane’s whole family, with the exception of his twin brother, were at the burled arch to celebrate his accomplishment. Having started mushing in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Dane thought the snow might have been better there this season.
Dane said he really enjoyed and appreciated the experience of working with Matthew Failor saying, “He’s an amazing mentor and I can’t say enough about working with Matthew and Liz”. Baker likes the large mushing community around Willow. It’s inspiring to be around so many like-minded people. As to his future, Dane has purchased property with a dog yard but doesn’t know if he’ll start building a team. For the foreseeable future he says he’ll let Matthew pay for the dog food and he’ll play with Matthew’s dogs.
For his Iditarod qualifiers, he completed the Copper Basin 300, Willow 300 and Knik 200. His plan of taking a single gap year to run dogs between high school and college has turned into a mushing career.
Ebbe Pedersen of Alta, Norway has had Iditarod on his mind ever since 2004 when he came to Takotna with an outdoor school to help with the race. Early this morning Ebbe completed his rookie Iditarod in 13 days, 13 hours and 40 minutes for 22nd place with 12 dogs in harness. At the arch, Ebbe was disappointed that he had to give his vet book to race officials, he wanted to keep the souvenir. The announcer assured him that vet books are returned to each of the mushers once the veterinarians do their analysis. When asked how he felt when he crested Cape Nome and could see the lights of Nome, he said he had to look for the trail and couldn’t enjoy the view because the trail markers were down and he had to zig-zag to find the trail.
Running the race is a different than volunteering and he’s happy to have had the opportunity to see the race from both perspectives. Since the first time he saw the race, he’s wanted to do it and has been helping friends prepare for and train for Iditarod for many years. Ebbe is a part of the Turning Heads Kennel team running their young dogs and joining his mentor Travis Beals on the Iditarod Trail.
Ebbe, the finial musher of the 2025 race is the winner of the Lynden “Committed Through the Last Mile” Red Lantern Award. The final musher to cross the finish line is also asked to extinguish the Widow’s Lamp that hangs on the burled arch. The Widow’s Lamp is a tradition carried forward from Roadhouse days. A lantern would be lit and hung outside of the roadhouses to guide travelers in the dark. When the final musher was off the trail, the lantern was extinguished.
Jenny Roddewig scratched this morning in White Mountain. Roddewig had completed her 8 hour required rest and was eligible to depart at 05:31. She however decided to scratch shortly before 06:00 for the best interest of her team. She had completed 1,057 of the 1,128 miles of the 2025 Iditarod.
Jenny is a Jr. Iditarod veteran who’s been mushing for twenty years. Born into a mushing family, she rode in her father’s sled on training runs when she was just a baby. As a teenager she acquired her own dogs and started running longer distance junior races. In the Jr. Iditarod, Jenny (Greger) earned rookie of the year honors in 2011 with 5th place, the 2012 Humanitarian award with 5th place and the 2013 Humanitarian award with 3rd place.
Jenny’s career racing accomplishments include winning the Race to the Sky 350 and 100, Eagle Cap Extreme along with numerous 100 mile races. She also earned 5th in the John Beargrease Marathon and has been honored with numerous humanitarian awards. Jenny and her husband, Michael operate Sage Mountain Kennel near Fairbanks. They have a young racing team and enjoy camping and traveling with their canine family.
