Jeff Schultz has been the Official Iditarod Photographer for years and years and more years. Over the past couple of races he’s shifted his focus (pun intended) from the active race photos that he’s so famous for to capturing photos of the people who are the race and the dogs who are the racers. His …
You are a serious Iditarod fan if the locations in your weather app include Skwentna and Nikolai amongst others like Ruby, Kaltag and Unalakleet. It’s the first thing I check in the morning and often the last thing I check at night. Early Tuesday morning there are twenty-eight teams out of Rohn heading to Nikolai. …
Starting tonight with happenings at the back of the pack. Julie Ahnen in bib#29 has just made Finger Lake where 11 other mushers are resting. Most of them are rookies but veterans Jeff King, Lisbet Norris and Apayauq Reitan are part of the group camped out in front of Winter Lake Lodge owned and operated …
Dense: closely compacted, and that pretty much describes the flow of teams through Yentna and Skwentna that took place on the first night of Iditarod 50. Those check points are set up and staffed to handle the dense traffic. There are many checkers, there are many vets and the whole set up of the checkpoint …
Sean Williams, wearing bib #2, led the field of 49 mushers out on the trail for the fiftieth running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. I almost said the fiftieth trip to Nome but there was last year when the race made a round trip journey out to Iditarod. Iditarod was the destination Joe …
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has reached the incredible milestone of FIFTY races. When Joe was working to open the trail, organize volunteers, collect purse money and all the other things he had to do in launching the race, did he ever dream about fifty years later? Probably not – he was simply too …
With Part V of Rookie Review you’ve met all of the Class of 2022. On Saturday, March 5th, downtown Anchorage will be rocking! The excitement will start tonight as crews dump and grade snow to create a trail on 4th Avenue and Cordova Street. Side streets will be prepared for mushers to park and stage …
The mushers introduced in this part of the Rookie Review are a diverse as any group can be. One has a degree in nursing, one has a degree in microbiology and one had dreams of playing professional soccer. Taking a gap between school and career brought one to mushing. Doing research on sled dogs brought …
The three mushers featured in Part III of Rookie Review are all from the Wasilla/Anchorage area. One is a principal, one is an ER/CCU nurse and one is a sprinkler fitter for a fire protection firm. Their occupations are diverse but their avocation, mushing, brings them to common ground with training and caring for their …
In Iditarod there are true rookies and there are rookies. In general conversation they are both referred to as rookies. Confusing? The mushers you will meet in Part II of Rookie Review are rookies but not true rookies. So what’s the difference? A rookie is a musher who has yet to complete the race. A …
