Jessie Royer’s 14-dog team in Nikolai on Tuesday. Royer, who spilts her time between Fairbanks and Montana, was the second musher into the checkpoint. She arrived just before 11 a.m. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)
With temperatures plunging deep into the negatives on Tuesday, mushers and dogs sported a coating of frost when they pulled into Nikolai, a small village about a quarter of the way into the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Here are some of our favorite photos from the cold day in Nikolai:
Josie Owen, center, of Alaska Air Transit and local children practice presenting a blanket and handmade beaver mitts to the first musher to reach Nikolai on Tuesday. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Richie Diehl mushing into Nikolai along the upper section of the Kuskokwim River on Tuesday. Diehl was the first musher into Nikolai, arriving at 10:33 a.m. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Richie Diehl, of Aniak, arrives in Nikolai on Tuesday with plenty of frost from cold night on his run from Rohn. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Frosty dogs on Richie Diehl’s team in Nikolai on Tuesday, waiting for a snack and a nap. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Richie Diehl puts straw down for his dogs to sleep on in in Nikolai on Tuesday. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)The beaver mitts made by Oline Petruska of Nikolai and presented to Richie Diehl for his first place arrival to the community on Tuesday. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Mushers get their hot water from modified oil drums in Nikolai. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Jessie Royer, who splits her time between Montana and Alaska, pulls into Nikolai with 14 dogs at 10:56 a.m. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Travis Beals, of Seward, and his 14 dogs race into Nikolai at 11:05 a.m. Tuesday, about 10 minutes after Jessie Royer’s team. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Then comes Wade Marrs, of Willow, around 11:15 a.m. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Wade Marrs and his frosty, frozen mustache. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Joar Leifseth Ulsom and his sled dogs wear matching neon orange jackets as they glide into Nikolai around 11:30 a.m. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)One of Joar Leifseth Ulsom’s frosty dogs in Nikolai on Tuesday. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Joar Leifseth Ulsom is also frosty. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)Sixth into Nikolai on Tuesday is Aaron Burmeister. He, like many mushers, decided to park his team and take a break after a cold run from Rohn. (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media)
