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EARLY MARCH -
ANCHORAGE to NOME -
16 DOGS -
9-15 DAYS
EARLY MARCH ANCHORAGE to NOME 16 DOGS 9-15 DAYSTeams generally race through blizzards causing whiteout conditions, sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds. The trail is through a harsh landscape of tundra and spruce forests, over hills and mountain passes, and across rivers. While the start in Anchorage is in the middle of a large urban center, most of the route passes through widely separated towns and villages, and small Athabaskan and Inupiat settlements.The race is the most popular sporting event in Alaska, and the top mushers and their teams of dogs are local celebrities. The race's namesake is the Iditarod Trail, which is named for the town of Iditarod, which was an Athabaskan village before becoming the center of the Inland Empire's Iditarod Mining District in 1910, and then becoming a ghost town at the end of the local gold rush. The trail reached its peak between the late 1880s and the mid-1920s as miners arrived to dig coal and later gold. The primary transportation link to the rest of the world during the summer was the steamship; but between October and June many ports like Nome became icebound, and dog sleds delivered mail, firewood, mining equipment, food, furs, and other supplies.
The trail is composed of two routes: a northern route, which is run on even-numbered years, and a southern route, which is run on odd-numbered years. Both follow the same trail for 444 miles, from Anchorage to Ophir, where they diverge and then rejoin at Kaltag, 441 milesfrom Nome. There are 26 checkpoints on the northern route and 27 on the southern route where mushers must sign in. The race used the northern route until 1977, when the southern route was added to distribute the impact of the event on the small villages in the area, none of which have more than a few hundred inhabitants. Passing through the historic town of Iditarod was a secondary benefit. The exact measured distance of the race varies from year to year, but officially the northern route is 1,112 miles long, and the southern route is 1,131 miles long.
The race starts on the first Saturday in March, at the first checkpoint on Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage. This is an exciting portion of the race for dogs and musher, as it is one of the few portions of the race where there are spectators, and the only spot where the trail goes through an urban environment. However, many mushers hate the Anchorage start. They don't like crowds. They worry that their dogs get too excited. Some mushers prefer to camp on the trail and immediately press on, but others stay and rest. Mushers preptare "drop bags" of supplies, which are flown ahead to each checkpoint by the Iditarod Air Force. The gear includes food for the musher and the dogs, extra booties for the dogs, headlamps for night travel, batteries (for the lamps, music, or radios), tools and sled parts for repairs, and even lightweight sleds for the final dash to Nome. There are three mandatory rests that each team must take during the Iditarod: one 24-hour layover, to be taken at any checkpoint; one eight-hour layover, taken at any checkpoint on the Yukon River; and an eight-hour stop at White Mountain.
In the early years of the Iditarod, the last stretch along the shores of the Norton Sound to Nome was a slow, easy trip. Now that the race is more competitive, the last stretch has become one last dash to the finish. All teams must rest their dogs for at least eight hours at White Mountain, before the final sprint. From White Mountain to Safety is 55 miles, and from Safety to Nome it is 22 miles. The last leg is crucial because the lead teams are often within a few hours of each other at this point. As of 1991, the race has been decided by less than an hour seven different times, less than five minutes three times. The closest race in Iditarod history was in 1978 when the winner and the runner-up were only one second apart. A "Widow's Lamp" is lit and remains hanging until the last competitor crosses the finish line. The tradition is based on the kerosene lamp lit and hung outside a roadhouse, when a musher carrying goods or mail was en route. For this reason, the last musher to complete the Iditarod is referred to as the "Red Lantern". The city's fire siren is sounded as each musher hits the 2-mile mark before the finish line. While the winner of the first race in 1973 completed the competition in just over 20 days, preparation of the trail in advance of the dog sled teams and improvements in dog training have dropped the winning time to under 10 days in every race since 1996.
