Banner, Straw and Drop Bags Ready for Musher Arrival (Photo: Terrie Hanke)

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 the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  I almost said the fifty-second trip to Nome but there was the Gold Trail Loop of 2021 that made the trip from Deshka Landing out to Iditarod and back.  Berington lives in Knik, Alaska and operates Seeing Double Kennel with her twin sister, Kristy.  The twins grew up in Wisconsin and started their mushing career through neighbors who ran sprint races.

The final musher of the day, wearing bib #39 was Wally Robinson.  It’s been 23 years since Robinson’s rookie run in 2001.  He’s excited to be on the trail, seeing the northern route this year.  Wally is running Josh McNeal’s team.  Josh injured his shoulder in an earlier race so has to sit this one out but called on Wally to step on to his runners.  In a small, long distance race Wally is comfortable drawing any start position, even the last one.  While his major goal is reaching the burled arch with the McNeal dogs, he will be taking notes as he goes down the trial.  Emily Robinson, Jr. mushing phenom is 16 years old.  In two years she’ll be eligible for the big Iditarod.  Wally says he’ll be scouting for her future run.  Out of the chute, Emily gave Wally a high five!

A theme mentioned often during Insider interviews with the mushers in the past few days, is the changing of the so called guard.  The old guard has retired and the once young mushers have now become the new old guard of the race.  Anna Berington is doing her 13th race, Aaron Burmeister is running his 22nd race, Peter Kaiser is starting his 15th Iditarod, Jessie Royer is ready for her 21st run, Matt Failor his 13th, Nicolas Petit his 13th, Dallas Seavey 14th and Ryan Redington his 17th.  Amazing to see these mushers we remember as rookies not too long ago who now in 2024 are the most experienced mushers on the trail.

Just a few hours and 42 miles into the race, teams will arrive at Yentna Station, the first of 22 northern route checkpoints.  The late Dan Gabryszak and his wife Jean established the Roadhouse in 1981 and a few years later, the Iditarod route shifted to run the Yentna River and Yentna became an official checkpoint of the race.  The Gabryszak family graciously hosts the checkpoint, opening the lodge to house the communications equipment and serving meals to the small army of volunteers who descend upon Yentna for the first day and night of the race.

On the river, there will be five chutes set up for checkers to handle the tightly packed field of mushers as they descend upon Yentna.  Inside, the comms team will be reporting dog traffic, in times and out times back to Anchorage.  Back in Anchorage comms workers will be receiving the information and uploading it to race stats for fans, friends and family to track the race.  Bibs are collected at Yentna for safe keeping and returned to the mushers outside of Nome.

Skwentna Outback Cabin and Abundant Snow (Photo: Terrie Hanke)

Another few hours and 30 miles further into the race, teams will arrive at Skwentna.  Having worked comms at Skwentna for a number of years, I can vouch for how thrilling it is to see the headlamp of the first musher way up river.  It’s the trigger for several hours of intense activity in the checkpoint.  So when might the Skwentna River Crew see the headlamp of the first musher to come around the bend?  Looking back at 2020, Robert Redington arrived in Skwentna at 23:40.  That was a slow run through deep newly fallen snow.  We can’t look at 2021 because the race started at Deshka Landing rather than Willow.  In 2022, the first four mushers, led by Ryan Redington arrived in Skwentna between 21:23 and 21:45.  In 2023, Ryan Redington was again first into Skwentna at 20:51.  Based on these most recent races, I think a safe bet would be a few minutes after 21:00.  Okay, so I’ll pick 21:12.

Last year after teams cleared out of Skwentna, the River Crew stayed on to do some much needed repair on the Outback Cabin.  The floor had been sagging for years, was spongy in many places and actually rotten in other spots.  The entire floor and joist system was removed and replaced.  It was a labor of love that will add many years of life to the beloved checkpoint cabin, Joe and Norma Delia’s former home.

Something to watch tonight and into tomorrow is who moves up toward the front of the pack.  Teams depart the start in two-minute intervals.  Veteran Wally Robinson wearing bib #39 will depart 74 minutes after Anna Berington in bib #2.  This start differential is added to the 24-hour required layover.  So for tonight and up through the 24-hour rest, the leader isn’t the first team charging down the trail.  But watch to see who’s moving up toward the front from the teams that drew the higher bib numbers.

To set up a run/rest schedule to avoid the “heat” of the day, we’re likely to see mushers camping between Yentna and Skwentna this evening.  That would be a 5 to 6 hour run of 50 to 60 miles this afternoon then set the snow hook and put straw down for the dogs to sleep on.  They’ll rest for 4 to 6 hours then stop briefly at Skwentna  for drop bags and vet check then head to Finger Lake arriving to rest during the heat of the day on Monday after two 60-ish mile runs.   Watch how the 50-60 mile runs schedule plays out going further down the trail.  We’re likely to see a lot of camping between checkpoints.

While we wait for race stats to come out of Yentna, here are a few facts about the 2024 race.  The field of 38 mushers is made up of 27 Alaskans, 4 international mushers, 16 rookies (42%) and 22 veterans including 3 former champions.  Of the entire field 11 are women (29%) and 27 are men.  Of the 16 rookies, five are women (31%).  Two of the rookies are re-rookies, as Gabe Dunham would say.  Gabe attempted the burled arch in 2020 but scratched in Unalakleet.  Sean Williams is a re-re-rookie.  He signed up for the race in 2021 but had to scratch just hours before the race for family reasons then in 2022 he was one of six mushers  to scratch due to the windstorm out of White Mountain.  Foreign contender Mille Porsild hails from Denmark, Connor McMahon the Yukon Territory of Canada, Mats Pettersson from Sweden and Severin Cathry from Switzerland. The three former champions  – Dallas Seavey, Peter Kaiser and Ryan Redington – together hold 7 victories in fifty-one races (14%).

Sit back and enjoy the race.  It’s not too late to select your top ten, rookie of the Year and Red Lantern musher list.  Following the action through the lens of the Insider crew and through GPS tracker is the next best thing to being on the trail and you don’t have to dress for the cold and wear big heavy boots.