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Photographer Siri Raitto is out of Rainy Pass headed to Cripple via Iditarod Air Force. The weather eased up in Rainy so dogs and volunteers could be flown back to Anchorage. Siri shares some photos taken along the way of Rohn and the trail to Nikolai. See more Siri photos in the …
Insider interviews with mushers today in McGrath has revealed a common thread – mashed potatoes. If they had been talking about dinner that would have been a good thing but they weren’t. The mushers were talking about the trail – soft trail that slowed teams down heading into Nikolai and again from Nikolai to McGrath. …
Nikolai to Ophir accurately describes the position of teams on the trail – EXCEPT, Dallas Seavey has departed Ophir for Cripple and is resting out of Ophir. Maybe the extra/unplanned rest his dogs got while he dealt with the previously mentioned moose 14 miles beyond Skwentna set him up for a longer run to his …
It’s mid-afternoon on Tuesday. While Insiders Greg Heister and Bruce Lee gave an update from Nikolai, they both agreed that the champion for 2024 would likely come from the group of 12 mushers that have reached Nikolai at this time. Statistics from past races support that statement. Time will tell but I did take a …
As the first musher to arrive in Nikolai, Mille Porsild received the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award. Mille, wearing bib #12 arrived in Nikolai at 09:09 on Tuesday March 5th with 14 dogs in harness. Mille received beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide (handmade by Loretta Maillelle of McGrath), a …
The day of the 2024 Iditarod Restart was cloudy, mid-teen temperatures with little to no wind as evidenced by the flags atop the start banner. Mushers and dogs couldn’t ask for much better conditions. Veteran Anna Berington, wearing Bib #2, led the field of 38 mushers out on the trail for the fifty-second running of …
Leaving Shageluk and mushing on toward Anvik, the teams will have fewer miles to go than they have covered. Anvik (AN-vik) is the first checkpoint of the southern route on the famous Yukon River. No one would be so bold as to say that it’s downhill to Nome from Shageluk because the Yukon River and …
Shageluk is almost 160 miles from Takotna, the last village populated with humans. Since departing Takotna, the teams have traveled through the ghost towns of Ophir and Iditarod. Handler didn’t actually visit Shageluk as the 2006 Teacher on the Trail because ’06 was an even year so the teams followed the northern route. It was …
Ramey Smyth comes from a storied mushing background. Ramey’s mother, celebrated harness maker Lolly Medley, was the second woman to ever finish the race and his father, Bud Smyth has finished Iditarod five times. Lolly Medley began presenting a Golden Harness award to the outstanding lead dog of the race. Since her death, the City …
You know you’re a serious Iditarod fan if the weather app on your phone contains locations along the Iditarod Trail – Willow, Skwentna, Nicolai, McGrath and Iditarod. You’ve seriously got the bug if you check the weather where the mushers are before you check your own weather! The temperature this morning under a clear sky …
