Young Mushers are Nipping at Veterans’ Heels
Josh Cadzow is a 24-year-old Athabascan from Fort Yukon racing his first Iditarod, and he’s got a ready answer when asked if John Baker, the defending champion who is also an Alaska Native, inspires him.Baker has already won an Iditarod championship, Cadzow said, almost with a shrug.”He did his goal….
DeeDee Jonrowe is Latest Subject for Iditarod Doll-Maker
For some people, growing older means growing up. But don’t try telling that to Judy Bowers, a bright-eyed, spritely 62-year-old who spends upwards of 12 hours a day with her dolls.There’s Joe, Aurora, Libby, Dusty, Koyuk and her latest favorite, DeeDee. The handmade porcelain doll creations watch intently over Bowers’…
Copper Dog 150 Mushers Reach Copper Harbor
Organizers call it the ‘last hurrah’ of the dog sled racing season. The Copper Dog 150 is well underway, mushers stopped at the checkpoint in Copper Harbor this afternoon.JR Anderson has clocked in the fastest time at stage two, with just eight hours and thirty minutes spent on the trail….
Can Am Brings Mushers Back to Fort Kent
With heavy snow falling amidst a cacophony of cheers and applause, 63 mushers took off from the center of town Saturday morning to kick off the 20th Can Am Crown International Sled Dog race.The annual event includes three races with a separate purse for each. The longest is the Irving…
Iditarod 2012: The Last Great Race Roars Through Streets of Anchorage
It was fitting that during a winter in which many Alaska communities have been pounded with deeper-than-normal snowfall, the 66 mushers competing in the 2012 Iditarod rolled through downtown Anchorage on Saturday as snow fell lightly on the exuberant crowd lining Fourth Avenue.This year’s Iditarod kicked off with the traditional…
Iditarod Officials Change Route, Add Infamous Happy River Steps
Didn’t see this coming. Iditarod officials say the race will indeed include the infamous Happy River Steps.”We heard from our trailbreakers that the winter trail was no longer the better option based upon the amount of snow and wind in that particular section of trail over the last day,” race…
Mackey: ‘People think that I’m on a downhill spiral’
After an unprecedented four-straight Iditarod wins, Fairbanks musher Lance Mackey fell to 16th in the 2011 race. He vowed he’d be back.But is Mackey, who is running this year alongside 25-year-old apprentice Braxton Peterson, happier as a father figure than a perennial Iditarod contender?Can he win again? Does he want…
Boisean Making Iditarod Trek to Nome
Jaimee Kinzer began working with sled dogs on the Greenbelt when she was in the sixth grade.Then she took dogs and a sled to the snow at Grimes Creek outside Boise.Now Kinzer, 29, has reached the pinnacle of her sport — the Iditarod.Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/03/03/2018955/boisean-making-trek-to-nome.html
Can Inupiat Champ John Baker Repeat on the Iditarod Trail?
As the 40th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race nears, it’s not easy being John Baker. But there’s nothing quite like being him either. In the days leading up to the Last Great Race on Earth, Baker has had the attention and distraction of being the event’s defending champion.He won the…
How Will Iditarod Mushers Decide Which Dogs Make The Cut?
The most important strategic decision Iditarod mushers make happens before the race starts. Every musher must choose a team of up to 16 dogs from their kennel to start the race, and for mushers with more than 16 to choose from, the decision who to take and who to leave…