Watching Alaska's Iditarod Dogsled Race
In the Toughest Race on Earth Sled Dogs Race from Anchorage to Nome
Jan 17, 2009
The Iditarod could only happen in Alaska. Superlatives lose their meaning when measured against the scale of the land. It seems fitting that the Iditarod, called "the toughest race on earth," should take place among Alaska's grand expanse of jagged peaks and dense, uninhabited forests, frozen tundra and windswept seacoast.
The Mythic Alaskan Landscape, the Mythic Iditarod Race
The Iditarod Trail, now a National Historic Trail, began as a mail and supply route from the coast to mining camps in the interior. In 1925, part of the Iditarod Trail earned its place in the iconic Alaskan imagination when dog mushers raced against time to bring diptheria treatment across the wilderness to epidemic-stricken Nome.
The race runs 1150 miles from Anchorage to, located in southern Alaska, to Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea. Most sled dog teams cover the distance in 10 - 17 days, during which they contend with pretty much every natural obstacle the Alaskan wilderness can conjure: wind-driven ground blizzards, frozen rivers, snowstorms, too many hours of darkness and not enough of light, and .temperatures that plummet far below zero and stay there for days at a time.
The race has bred a cast of characters as mythic as the landscapes, each known for a different impossible feat: the musher to have won the most times, completed the most races, the first female musher to win, the oldest musher to compete. The list goes on. Many of the Iditarod mushers become local heroes, as they enter the race yet again and again.
Watching the Start of the Iditarod in Anchorage
With its rich history and its epic scale, the Iditarod is not merely a sporting event. It is a celebration, firmly rooted in local tradition, but also open to everyone. Mushers can be men or women; they have included fishermen and doctors, artists and lawyers, as well as a collection of nationalities: Alaskans, including native Americans, Canadians, and a sampling of Europeans.
The race begins in Anchorage with a ceremonial start (which doesn't count in the overall official times). The Anchorage start is a media event and a celebration, a big city-wide party. So what if global warming has raised temperatures so much that snow must sometimes be brought in by the truck load and spread over the streets to give the dogs a place to pull their sleds? Spirits are high, there are banquets and parties. Plus, having a ceremonial start allows each competitor to test drive the team and equipment one last time before heading into the wild.
At the Anchorage start, each musher is announced and starts. each sled carries a guest rider who has either paid $7500 for the privilege of riding with a fvaorite musher, or who has won the place at an auction. Thousands of volunteers act as coordinators, checkers, dog handlers, and crowd controllers to keep the race running smoothly. Events open to the public include book signings and lectures by veterinarians
A few words to the wise: Book hotels early, because everything fills up. And bring warm clothes, especially boots. .
Wasilla's "Restart" is the Real Start of the Iditarod
The real start of the Iditarod takes place in Wasilla. This is where mushers head into the wild. The route alternates every two years, to give more communities the chance to participate in the event, which brings an economic injection of tourist dollars to towns along the route. Mushers head to places with names like Yentna Station Roadhouse, Skwentna, the Kuskokwim River, the Yukon River, as well as Iditarod, Shageluk, and Anvik, or Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, and Koyuk. Finally, they reach Nome, and a hero's welcome.
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