The Yukon Quest 550 wrapped up just before noon on Wednesday as the final team pulled into the finish at the Chena Pump House restaurant in Fairbanks. Shaynee Traska got eighth place and her first Red Lantern award.
It was a tiny but competitive field vying for the $40,000 first-place prize, including three Iditarod top-five teams. Reigning Iditarod champ Brent Sass handily won the race, his fifth Quest win.
This year’s Quest was notable for a few reasons. Mushers reported exceptional trail conditions, and there were remarkably few broken sleds after the rollercoaster run up and down Eagle and Rosebud summits, which teams had to traverse twice. It was also the first time the 550-mile race has been run since the Canada and Alaska Quest boards publicly split over a rules disagreement, ending — at least for now — the 1,000-mile version of the Quest between Alaska and Canada.
Several mushers expressed enthusiasm for the new distance, which they said was a perfect warm-up for Iditarod.
“The dogs have a metabolic change as far as how they absorb nutrition the same way they would over a 1,000-mile race,” said Riley Dyche, one of the Quest mushers running Iditarod.
Sass said the 550-mile race was the “perfect niche” for the Quest.
Here’s a handful of our favorite photos from throughout the course:
