Iditapod: Slip slidin’ away

An aerial view of a musher and sled dogs racing across a vast, snowy expanse with mountains in the background.
Matt Failor drives his dog team up towards Rainy Pass, Monday, March 8, 2021. (Zachariah Hughes / for ADN)

We rejoin the Iditarod something like 48 hours in, and, on what sounds like a hard and fast trail, mushers are pacing themselves for the shorter 850-mile race. There’ve been a total of three scratches so far, none bigger than Aliy Zirkle, who suffered a concussion and upper body injury in the Dalzell Gorge and had to be flown out of Rohn by helicopter. Also, we catch up with our pal Zachariah Hughes in McGrath.

Related: Follow all of our coverage of the 2021 Iditarod here.

a portrait of a man outside

Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere

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