Iditarod 54: Thirty-four mushers are on the way to Nome

By Ariana Crockett O'Harra The 54th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicked off with a snowy ceremonial start in Anchorage the morning of Saturday, March 7. The temperature hovered around 20°F and the six inches of snow that started falling the night before made for a wintery atmosphere. Despite the snow, the thousands of spectators lining the streets and trails were not deterred from cheering on the mushers and dogs.Mushers and their dog trucks began showing up at 4th Avenue before 7 a.m. Saturday morning, driving carefully in downtown streets thick with fresh-fallen snow. Some showed up earlier and caught a few more hours of sleep in their vehicles.In the hours before the 10 a.m. start, spectators began to trickle into the side streets surrounding 4th Avenue, seeking out their favorite mushers to take selfies and watching as handlers fed dogs and put on booties on the dogs. Some dogs were excited, barking and straining at their lines, ready to run. Some dogs were mellow, curling up and resting before the coming excitement. Before the hubbub of the ceremonial start, the festivities began with an official meet and greet Thursday afternoon at the Dena’ina Center, followed by the banquet where mushers picked starting numbers out of a boot.The first sled to take off in Saturday’s ceremonial start was Jr. Iditarod champion Stanley Robinson, carrying a representative of the late Mary Shield, this year’s honorary musher, and the first woman to finish the Iditarod.The mushers made the eleven-mile trip from the new Mushing District Arch over 4th Avenue across Anchorage to the Bureau of Land Management Campbell Tract.The fresh snow didn’t bother musher Mille Porsild, who has raced every year since 2020 and been in the top ten four times. In fact, she viewed it as a good thing. “It actually kind of fits me well. I have a little bit of a hot team, meaning they're pretty worked up,” she said. “Not being on too fast of trails, I can have some slowing them down.”Porsild noted that there have been some major changes to the race this year. “I firmly support what has been the spirit of Iditarod, that this race is for the elite of the sport, the top dogs, the top mushers, the most competitive race in the world,” she said. “I hope in the future, that's what it will be again.”Expedition ClassThis year, the Iditarod accommodates a so-called Expedition Class, a new class of mushers who don’t have to run qualifying races and who are allowed to accept outside help and assistance, paying top dollar for the privilege. In the spirit of self-reliance and dealing with adversity on the trail, the Iditarod race has written in its rules that accepting outside assistance is punished with disqualification. The exception is Iditarod mushers can help each other during the race.Danny Seybert, the Iditarod Board of Directors vice president, said that Kjell Inge Røkke, the first to be named to the expedition class, has contributed money to communities along the trail, added to the prize pot and helped racers with the entry fee, an amount totaling more than $300,000.In addition to Røkke, Steve Curtis and 2020 champion Thomas Wærner are a part of this new class. Wærner and a support team including 2018 Champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom and his wife veterinarian Dr. Margot Ulsom, is assisting Inge Røkke.Steve Curtis will be assisted by four-time champion Jeff King and Iditarod finisher and veterinarian Jessica Klejka.Seybert said that the new class is part of the evolution of the race. “If we stayed the same and never changed, we would probably disappear,” he said. “We’ve got to be innovative and we’ve always been in a very cash poor position. This is just another alternative for us to leverage the Iditarod into helping secure its future through raising money.”In an interview Saturday morning, Inge Røkke said that he’s always wanted to be a part of the Iditarod. “I wanted to be respectful of the original race and the heritage to that,” he said. “I wanted to do the race in a way that I think suited my qualifications, at the same time respecting the other mushers.”Inge Røkke said he left the dog training to the experts. “I'm not necessarily a dog person, but I connect well with the dogs,” he said. “If I was up to be the one training the dogs, I don't think the dogs would have the quality that we need.” He is using dogs from Thomas Wærner’s kennel.TrailThe race alternates between Northern (even years) and Southern Route (odd years) to include different villages along the Yukon. This year, the race will be taking the Northern Route. The trail takes the teams from the start on Willow Lake to Skwentna, to Finger Lake and Rainy Pass, across the Alaska Range and onwards to Nikolai, McGrath and to Ruby on the Yukon. The mushers then follow the Yukon to Kaltag, take the portage trail to Unalakleet and begin their coastal push to Nome.Race Marshal Dan Carter said the weather for the first half of the trail looks like it will make for good racing, with temperatures staying below the teens during the day and dropping below zero at night. “I think we're actually going to have a pretty good year weather wise,” he said.Carter said that the Iditarod has put a lot of work into clearing the trail. “There has been a lot of downed trees this year, not only from the beetle kill here on this side of the range, but also up between Kaltag and Unalakleet with the hurricane,” he said.Taking it day by dayJessie Holmes, last year’s champion, said he feels “awesome” coming into this year’s race. “This is what we live for. We work hard for it,” he said. “Whether I'm the champion or whether I got 10th place last year, it's just so much excitement to work hard all year and come to this event.”Holmes said that he put on about 4,500 miles on the dogs this year, more than ever before. He’s ready to get started. “I’m here to enjoy the trail. I don’t think about the finish line,” he said. “Getting to the starting line is the best feeling ever, because there's a huge adventure that lies ahead of us.”Holmes doesn’t feel pressured to defend his title. “The experiences that I'm gonna have with this dog team, that's what matters the most to me, not the outcome of the race,” he said.Jason Mackey, a nine-time finisher of the Iditarod, said that he has more confidence in his dogs than he ever has. “Eight are young. Eight are veterans. It's an exciting team,” he said. “I know that it's not the same as normal, so I'm excited.”Sadie Lindquist, a rookie musher from Moose Pass, had a team of excited young dogs. Lindquist is racing dogs from former Iditarod Champion Mitch Seavey’s kennel and said that most of the dogs she had with her had never been in a race, let alone the Iditarod. The prospect of running inexperienced dogs doesn’t make Lindquist nervous, it excites her. “Nobody knows who they are yet, nobody has ever seen their potential and what they can be,” she said. “I spent a long time training them when they were super young, and now we get to finally make a really big jump together.”Last year’s runner up Matt Hall of Two Rivers was adding tags to each of his dogs’ collars as they waited calmly and patiently. Hall has mushed the Iditarod eight times, earning second place in the 2024 and 2025 races. His team is the opposite of Lindquist’s– full of veteran dogs that have either already raced the Iditarod or been training for it for over a year. His main lead dog Dyea is an eight-year-old that’s been racing with Hall for about five years. Hall was as calm as his dogs. “They’re very focused, very mellow,” he said. “They’re very calm, collected, quiet, until I give the whistle or the hand clap or basically put my parka on, whichever comes first, then it's time to go.”Hall said he’s going to take the race as it comes. “As far as a game plan goes, I never start the race with one. I run by the clock and where I need to rest is where I need to rest,” he said. “We should be prepared for anything. We are prepared for anything.”Kevin Hansen of Kotzebue is a rookie this year. He’s also planning on taking the race day by day. “I think my whole plan this year is to kind of take it as it comes. One run at a time, and kind of go from there,” he said. “I'm not trying to make any crazy strategic moves.”Hansen said that his dogs mostly train on the open tundra, so the parts of the race that wind through tree country are exciting for his dogs. “We don’t get much of that,” he said. “I think running through that stuff's fun for me, too. Bob and weave in and have to work the sled a little bit.”Bailey Vitello, a veteran musher originally from Maine, now training out of Nenana, shared the same day-by-day mentality as Hall and Hanson. “If we get into a slump, and we're going slower, we're going to be falling back a little bit,” he said. “That's okay, because we're going to work through it. We'll figure it out. We work through everything.”“You know, that's the best thing about Iditarod,” he added with a big smile. “You're adjusting every day.”After the ceremonial start on Saturday, the official race began with a restart at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 8, in Willow, under blue skies and enough wind to make the flags above the Iditarod start sign flutter. Section: News