Joar’s team trots into McGrath

Defending Champion Joar, Leifseth Ulsom is second into McGrath.  Joar check in at 16:45 with 13 dogs.  He headed on to Takotna at 16:49 with the same number of dogs.  Prior to 2019, Joar has started and completed 6 Iditarod runs.  The defending Champion has 6 top-ten finishes.  Growing up in Norway, Joar started his mushing career with his neighbor’s two house dogs to pull him around on skies.  Watching Iditarod movies is what fueled his dreams growing up.  In 2007 Joar started mushing and building up his own team,  He received a degree from an agricultural college in Norway and worked as a cowboy while he ran the great races of Scandinavia before coming to Alaska.

Defending Champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom

Joar Leifseth Ulsom is back on the trail heading to Takotna.

Between the snow and the mushers, there’ll be a flurry of activity for the rest of the evening.  Jessie Royer, Peter Kaiser, Aliy Zirkle, Ryan Redington, Travis Beals, Richie Diehl and Mitch Seavey should round out the first ten mushers into McGrath.  Time will only tell as to who stay and who goes on up the trail before taking the long layover.  Snow is falling and will affect the speed of the trail as mushers come this way and continue to Takotna.