Brent Sass was just miles from fulfilling his dream of winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska when vicious, 60-mph winds whipped in from the Bering Sea, taking visibility right down to about 10 feet and forcing him off his sled as his dogs hunkered down within the snow.
“I didn’t voluntarily make that stop,” laughed Sass, who was nearing his first Iditarod victory last yr but had five-time champion Dallas Seavey just just a few miles behind. “We got blown off the trail and it took me an hour to get all my stuff back together and work out where I used to be.”
Sass regrouped and led his team of 11 dogs off the Bering Sea ice and down Nome’s fundamental street to the long-lasting burled arch finish line, winning the Iditarod, the world’s most famous sled dog race, in his seventh attempt.
Sass is back to defend his title within the race, which began Saturday with a fan-friendly 11-mile (18-kilometer) jaunt through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Hundreds of individuals braved temperatures hovering near 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-17.78 degree Celsius) to line as much as cheer on the mushers, who carried “Iditariders,” lucky auction winners, on their sleds for the ceremonial start.
Things get serious Sunday with the competitive start of the race that may take mushers nearly 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) across Alaska. It begins in Willow, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Anchorage.
Sass was enthusiastic to get on the trail Saturday, with 11 of 14 dogs getting back from last yr’s championship team. “I believe the replacements … are stronger dogs, so I’m really excited,” he said.
He’s expecting mild temperatures until mushers hit the western coast, where there’s been more fluctuations and predicting trail conditions is sort of meaningless since they modify so fast.
“They’ve went from icy trails to snow trails and forwards and backwards all season,” he said. “I believe we’re going to get what we get.”
That is the 51st running of the Iditarod, but its 33 mushers are the smallest field ever to begin the race. Mushers and race organizers point to the retirement of some veteran mushers; others taking a break to recoup financially after the pandemic; inflation, and the lack of deep-pocketed sponsors amid continuing pressure from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA took out full-page newspaper ads in Alaska’s two largest cities decrying what it calls the cruel abuse of dogs forced to haul their mushers and kit over the race’s thousand miles. The group also staged a protest outside the mushers’ annual banquet Thursday.
Gordon and Beth Bokhart of Fort Wayne, Indiana, made their first-ever trip to Anchorage specifically to see the Iditarod after getting a taste for the game by participating in a sled dog tour in Canada. Since then, they’ve spent a variety of time reading concerning the Iditarod and the history of the race.
“It’s just been incredible,” he said. Bokhart said people he’s spoken to in Alaska concerning the race feel it would rebound.
“Having been here, I can let you know it’s an exciting thing to come back and watch, and if everybody else had the identical experience I’ve had, they’d understand and wish to come back back,” he said.
Six mushers who account for 18 Iditarod championships usually are not racing this yr. Last yr, the game lost one other four-time winner when Lance Mackey died of cancer. Mackey was named honorary musher for this yr’s race.
Only 823 mushers have reached the finish line within the Iditarod’s first half-century, and only 24 individual mushers in all have won the grueling event. Mushers and their dog teams encounter a few of the harshest conditions in untamed Alaska, crossing each the Alaska and Kuskokwim mountain ranges, mushing on the frozen Yukon River, trekking through monotonous flat tundra and navigating the treacherous Bering Sea ice.
Along the best way, they stop in quite a few, largely Alaska Native communities that function checkpoints.
“It’s a celebration of spring for villages all across the state. It form of brings communities and folks together for an event that celebrates the history of our state and dog mushing,” said Aaron Burmeister, an Iditarod musher who grew up watching the race end in his hometown of Nome and who finished in the highest 10 eight times during the last decade.
Climate change has and can likely proceed to play a task in how the race is run.
The warming climate forced organizers to maneuver the starting line 290 miles north from Willow to Fairbanks in 2003, 2015 and 2017 due to an absence of snow within the Alaska Range. That may turn out to be more common because the weather warms, and the Bering Sea ice leading into Nome could also turn out to be thinner and more dangerous, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist on the International Arctic Research Center on the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Challenges to the globe’s foremost sled dog race are mounting, said Bob Dorfman, a sports branding expert with Pinnacle Promoting in San Francisco.
“With the high expenses, the low payout, dwindling sponsorship support, PETA pressure, the danger of all of it, it feels more like a trend than simply an anomaly,” he said. Sass earned about $50,000 for winning last yr’s race.
Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach says the race is financially healthy, and he expects the Iditarod to rejoice its one centesimal anniversary in 2073.
Dorfman didn’t disagree, but said the 2073 race may not look that much different than this yr’s race.
“I don’t see the fortunes changing that much,” Dorfman said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be greater than 30 participants.”
Sass, 43, is taken into account the front-runner to win the 2023 race. Pete Kaiser, the primary Yup’ik and fifth Alaska Native to win the race, is the sector’s only other ex-champion.
The winner is predicted in Nome about nine or 10 days after Saturday’s start.