Jessie Holmes was born and raised in Alabama. He left there at the age of 18 to go see Alaska. But he ended up in Montana where he worked as a carpenter for three years. He came to Alaska in 2004 looking for adventure and found it running dogs on a remote trap line on the Yukon River. This love for the wilderness and dogs eventually led to his competing in many races, both sprint and distance. He won the Kobuk 440 in 2017 and placed seventh in the 2018 Iditarod, taking home the honor of being the “Rookie of the Year” in that Iditarod. A subsistence resident of Nenana, Jessie currently works as a carpenter and TV personality, appearing in Life below Zero, a documentary television show about the daily lives of people living in remote Alaska. He lists his hobbies as running ultra-marathons, hunting and fishing.