It has been a very busy day at Nikolai. Mushers have been arriving one after another since the early morning. The first musher to make it into the checkpoint was 2018 Iditarod Champion, Joar Leifseth Ulsom. He arrived around 6:30 A.M. After a couple of hours, it felt like a musher was arriving every 15-20 …
Many people are often curious about how mushers can have enough supplies for themselves and their dogs as they travel along the Iditarod Trail and make their way to Nome. At almost every checkpoint that a musher arrives at, he/she has a drop bag, or several drop bags, waiting there. For most mushers, planning what …
And so it begins! All 52 mushers have successfully left the Willow starting line and are making their way, approximately 1,000 grueling miles, to Nome, AK. Mushers and their teams will traverse some of the most challenging terrain that is beautiful in so many ways. Walking through the musher staging area before the restart, it …
Every year, lucky Iditarod fans have the opportunity to be an IditaRider during the ceremonial start of the race. Essentially, IditaRiders are people who get to ride in the sled of one of the Iditarod mushers. I was incredibly fortunate to ride in the sled of Ramey Smyth, who’s wearing bib #6 during this year’s …
On the first Saturday of March every year, the Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod takes place in downtown Anchorage. Thousands of people will line the streets of Fourth Avenue, as well as the rest of the route, in order to cheer on the mushers as they depart from the starting line at Fourth Avenue and …
This evening, the 2019 Iditarod Musher’s Drawing Banquet took place at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. Prior to the banquet, Iditarod fans had the opportunity to have a meet-and-greet with this year’s mushers. Many pictures were taken, thousands of autographs were signed, and hundreds of people left happy after having met …
If you ever have the chance to speak with any musher, or see them with their dogs, you will quickly learn how much the mushers love their dogs, know their dogs, care for their dogs, and will do anything to ensure that their dogs are happy and healthy. On a year-round basis, mushers conscientiously and …
Growing up in Wisconsin, Monica Zappa was accustomed to being around sled dogs due to the fact that her parents mushed and competed in mid-distance races. After years of being away from mushing and earning various college degrees- a B.S. in Meteorology and a M.S. in Geography- Monica eventually had the thought of heading to …
Are you in need of a math lesson that will engage your students and allow them to make a real-life connection? Integrate the Jr. Iditarod into your classroom and provide your students with opportunities to learn math concepts while using relevant and timely data. Just like the Iditarod mushers, the Jr. mushers also have records …
The 2019 Jr. Iditarod has officially come to an end with the safe and successful arrival of all seven mushers. Last night, the mushers spent their night at Yentna Station. Whenever a musher approached the entrance to the checkpoint, you could hear someone yell, “dog team!” This quickly alerted everyone to prepare for the musher’s arrival. …
