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Iditarod five-time champion Dallas Seavey had to kill a moose in self-defense 14 miles out of the Skwentna checkpoint. It was 1:43 a.m. when race officials were notified on March 4th. In 2015, Dallas stated he carried a Taurus stainless .357 magnum on the Iditarod trail. In 2015, Seavey said he had to use the revolver to defend one of his dogs two years earlier. The dog still lost a leg in the attack. This year, in 2024, Dallas had to shoot a moose that was attacking his dogs in the first hundred miles of the race. It is unknown...

*video on link* But a top executive of the Iditarod says sponsors come and go and the future of the race is not threatened. Several big-name national sponsors have walked away from the annual Alaska sled dog race in recent years, while other local sponsors and a handful of national companies remain as partners.

he 2023 Iditarod kicks off Saturday with a ceremonial start in Anchorage followed by an official race start in Willow. From there, 33 mushers and dozens of sled dogs will make the 1,000-mile dash to Nome. It’s the smallest group of teams in the Iditarod’s history, but it’s a pretty competitive one. Here’s what to know about this year’s race: When will the Iditarod start? The race begins with a parade-like, 11-mile ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday, March 4. Mushers and their sled dogs will gather downtown early that morning to get ready. Starting at 10 a.m., they’ll take...

WILLOW, Alaska (AP) — The race to Nome began Sunday for 33 mushers in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska. Jessie Holmes. an Alabama native living in the Alaska community of Brushkana, was the first musher to leave across a frozen lake about 70 miles north of Anchorage. Holmes works as a carpenter and appears on the reality television show “Life Below Zero.” Other mushers left in two-minute intervals. They will travel nearly a thousand miles over the unforgiving Alaska winterscape, climbing over two mountain ranges, mushing on frozen rivers and streams and across the treacherous Bering...

t was 11 degrees when Nicolas Petit and his team of 12 dogs roared into the checkpoint at Nikolai a little before 7 a.m. Tuesday, the sky beginning to stain with a slow orange sunrise over the south fork of the upper Kuskokwim River. Then, he did something unusual this early in the race: he declared he’d be taking his mandatory 24-hour rest, just 263 miles into the nearly 1,000-mile race route. Wiley mushers will sometimes “declare” they are taking their 24 at a checkpoint to start the clock, then change their minds and head up the trail to take...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Emmitt Peters, Sr., the 1975 Iditarod Champion know as the "Yukon Fox," passed away Thursday in Ruby. He was 79 years old. Peters won the Last Great Race on Earth in 1975 as an Iditarod rookie, the most recent first-time racer to do so. He would not win a second title, but finished in third in 1978 and took the runner-up position in 1979. Along with his race crown, Peters' Iditarod accolades were numerous. After becoming champion and Rookie of the Year at the same time in 1975, he would go on to win the Golden...

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - Veteran Iditarod musher Nicolas Petit has scratched from the 2020 Iditarod. Petit scratched at 5:20 a.m. Thursday between the Elim and White Mountain checkpoints. Iditarod officials say a mix of “weather and resulting trail conditions, Petit was not able to continue, and by activating his SOS, Petit scratched.” Golovin Search and Rescue helped Petit to the shelter cabin located between Elim and White Mountain. Race marshal Mark Nordman spoke with Petit by satellite phone and confirmed that he and his race team are fine. As soon as the weather clears, Petit and his team will travel to...

ANCHORAGE (KTUU0 - Rookie Iditarod musher Quince Mountain's time on the Iditarod trail has come to an end. Race marshal Mark Nordman made the call around 11:38 a.m. to withdraw Mountain from the race at the Unalakleet checkpoint. Nordman made the decision based on rule 36 of the official Iditarod race rules regarding competitiveness. Rule 36 -- Competitiveness: A team may be withdrawn that is out of the competition and is not in a position to make a valid effort to compete. The Race Marshal may consider, but is not limited to, weather, trail conditions and the overall pace of...

Dog teams coming into Unalakleet for a break are hungry after long stretches on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Kelly Maixner’s team gets a steak snack several times a day to keep them fat and happy. “New York strips it looks like. I’ve gotten cases of New York strips and rib-eyes from Three Bears," he said. "Ray Redington taught me that trick." Iditarod veterinarians estimate the canine competitors burn up to 12,000 calories a day. Jeff Deeter of Fairbanks said mushers have a strategy on how to get those calories back into the dogs during the race. “I like...

There was a noticeably different vibe at the finish line of the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as spectators waited for winner Thomas Waerner. “It’s very quiet. You don’t feel the energy as much just because everyone is not crowding around and able to cheer them in,” said Samantha Robler, who’s lived in Nome for three years. Because of concerns about the novel coronavirus, the City of Nome canceled Iditarod-related activities and urged people not to come into town. Still, a few hundred people ended up lining Front Street as the Norwegian musher crossed under the burled arch. Robler...

Thomas Waerner, a 46-year-old Norwegian, has claimed his first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race victory. Waerner made the winner's march up Front Street and arrived at the famed burled arch Wednesday at 12:37 a.m. with 10 dogs. He finished the race in 9 days, 10 hours and 37 minutes. Waerner was a clear leader early on in the race. The only true mystery was how big the margin of victory would be. He took hold of the race in Unalakleet, putting the rearview mirror and the rest of the field away. As far back as Cripple, 550 miles from Nome,...

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - Veteran Iditarod musher Aaron Peck, wearing bib no. 36 scratched at the Shaktoolik checkpoint Monday afternoon. According to the Iditarod's public relations team, Peck scratched at the Shaktoolik checkpoint - which was relocated to Old Shaktoolik - at around 3:50 p.m. Peck, of Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada, reportedly made the decision to scratch "in the best interest of his race team." He and his dogs will be flown back to the Unalakleet checkpoint.

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - UPDATE: 3/17, 11:26 a.m. Veteran Iditarod mushers Anna Berington and Kristy Berington have both scratched at the Unalakleet checkpoint. The Beringtons made the decision to scratch due to a death in the family and for the good of their race team. Anna Berington had eight dogs in harness at the time she made the decision to scratch. Kristy Berington had 10 dogs in harness at the time she made the decision to scratch. Original Story Veteran Iditarod musher Larry Daugherty scratched at 12:42 a.m. Tuesday at the Kaltag checkpoint. Daugherty had 13 dogs in harness at the...

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - Veteran musher Richie Diehl, of Aniak, scratched from the 48th running of the Iditarod after deciding to leave the race at the Unalakleet checkpoint on Monday. Diehl, wearing bib no. 16, was consistently on the top-ten leaderboard throughout the duration of the race thus far. He was in as high as second place starting with the McGrath checkpoint, but had dropped to 23rd at the time of his departure, which came after a nearly 12-hour rest in Nulato and a seven-hour break in Kaltag ahead of arriving to the coast. Veteran musher and special correspondent DeeDee Jonrowe...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has lost another major sponsor. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed Monday that the Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership in Anchorage will no longer sponsor the race. The independently owned and operated dealership has been a core race supporter for 30 years, and annually presents the winner with a new pickup at the finish line in Nome. Dealership spokesman Chuck Talsky says as a franchisee, they are subject to various controls. The announcement came as mushers enter the final stretch of the race. Leader Thomas Waerner was the first musher to...

NCHORAGE (KTUU) - Update: 3/16, 10:46 a.m. Waerner is the first to check into Koyuk. He checked in at 9:30 a.m. Original Story Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner is currently in the lead to the Koyuk Checkpoint.

Raymie Redington, 75, has three children who have run the Iditarod, which is a pretty great track record. But his dog Bison, 8, definitely has him beat. Bison is one of Alaska’s most popular stud dogs, with litters of pups in at least 12 Iditarod mushers’ kennels, including those of three former champions. Several of his pups are running in this year’s race, Redington said. How did this dashingly handsome athlete — “all heart,” as Redington called him — become mushing’s most eligible bachelor? The answer is a combination of genes, timing, a sportwide trend toward traditionalism and a very...

<p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Deep snow is slowing down mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, but the leader has a secret for dealing with the difficult conditions.</p> <p>“I’ve been training with 120 pounds of concrete and all the gear in the sled,” Thomas Waerner, 46, told a camera crew from the Iditarod Insider as he was preparing his sled to leave a checkpoint outside the Alaska community of Kaltag late Saturday.</p>

On Friday, the Iditarod announced that mushers would not be stopping in the village of Shaktoolik, a key source of shelter along the notoriously stormy Norton Sound, and would instead pick up their drop bags and straw at a hospitality stop outside town — without shelter, water, food or volunteers. The village had voted that, in light of the spread of COVID-19, they didn’t want outsiders coming in at this time. They have to protect their elders, and other vulnerable people, from the risk of infection. The decision was not made lightly. A century ago, the Spanish influenza epidemic left...

Iditarod - a song parody If Brian Wilson and Mike Love had written a song about the annual 1000-mile dogsled race in Alaska, it may have sounded like this. Massive apologies to the Beach Boys!