Alaska Public Media © 2025. All rights reserved.
Alaska Public Media / KSKA
All Things Considered
Alaska Public Media / KSKA
All Things Considered
Next Up: 6:00 PM Alaska News Nightly
0:00
0:00
All Things Considered
Alaska Public Media / KSKA
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Aaron Burmeister first Iditarod musher to reach Nikolai, while Brent Sass is first to dash out

A musher in an orange jacket
Brent Sass and his 14-dog team pulled in third to the Finger Lake checkpoint early Monday, March 7, 2022. Sass grabbed a bale of straw and took off down the trail, stopping for just four minutes. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)

Aaron Burmeister was the first Iditarod musher into the snowy village of Nikolai Tuesday morning, his 13-dog team pulling in at 7:38 a.m.

Nikolai is 263 miles into the nearly 1,000-mile race.

Burmeister told race officials he planned to stay and rest.

He was followed into the checkpoint about 30 minutes later by Ryan Redington. Then came Richie Diehl at 8:29 a.m., Brent Sass at 9:12 a.m., defending champion Dallas Seavey at 9:24 a.m. and Michelle Phillips at 9:25 a.m.

By 11 a.m., Travis Beals, Jessie Holmes, Mitch Seavey, Hugh Neff and Paige Drobny had also made their way to Nikolai.

Nearly all of them were resting at the checkpoint, except for Sass and Dallas Seavey.

Sass spent just eight minutes at Nikolai before racing out at 9:20 a.m. Seavey gave chase eight minutes later. They're headed to McGrath, about 48 miles away.

The race started Sunday in Willow. The winner is expected sometime early next week in Nome, on Alaska’s western coast.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.

here. Sign up four our new daily Iditarod newsletter  here.>