Musher Nic Petit changes his wet socks after running into overflow on the Chena River during his first run of the Quest. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)
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:
Jennifer LaBar’s team leaves the the Chena River on Saturday on the Yukon Quest 300 mile race. LaBar ultimately scratched from the race in Central, one of two teams to not complete this year’s Quest, which was notable for excellent trail conditions. (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public Media) Deke Naaktgeboren’s dog Pokey prepares for a run from Mile 101 of the Steese Highway. Naaktgeboren said that the loss of her eye didn’t affect her running, but she was skittish if approached from her right side.
“Pokey got poked by a pokey porcupine protecting her puppies,” he said with a laugh.
(Lex Treinen/KUAC)Riley Dyche’s team charges from the start gate for the start of the 550-mile Yukon Quest. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)550 musher Wade Marrs chops blocks of frozen meat at the Two Rivers checkpoint. Marrs said some trappers from his home in Wisconsin donated beaver meat to support his dogs. Marrs finished the Quest in third place. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Brent Sass rubs his eyes after a short nap at Nenana checkpoint, about 50 miles from the finish line. Sass had a comfortable four-hour cushion over the second place team of Amanda Otto. “I’m just glad I have a good buffer,” Sass said. In March, he will defend his Iditarod title. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)amShaynee Traska’s team pulls along Birch Creek, known as a cold and tedious stretch of trail where mushers often hallucinate on the innumerable switchbacks on their way to Circle. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Shaynee Traska’s team approaches the crest of Eagle Summit, where trail markers were caked with several inches of snow from the constant wind of the treeless mountain pass off the Steese Highway. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)A dog pulls at the harness in Two Rivers checkpoint, about 40-miles into the race. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Jumble ice on the Yukon River forced organizers to reroute the course, originally scheduled to travel from Fairbanks to Circle and then along the Yukon to Eagle before finishing in Tok. Instead, teams traveled from Fairbanks to Circle and then back to Nenana, before finishing in Fairbanks. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Second-place Quest 550 racer Amanda Otto poses with her leaders, Butch and Patience. Otto came from behind, thanks to a marathon 100-mile run on the Tanana River to pass more established teams. The former semi-pro soccer player got huge accolades from mentor Jeff King, whose dogs she’s driving. King said he could “easily” see her at the top of the Iditarod podium some day. “She’s got the head of a champion,” he said. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Rookie Nic Petit takes off on the 550-mile Yukon Quest. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)A dog team heads under the Steese Highway bridge near the start of the 2023 Yukon Quest (Lex Treinen/KUAC)A snow-caked caribou rack on Eagle Summit. Mushers reported excellent snow coverage over Eagle and Rosebud Summits this year. (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public Media)Riley Dyche uses an ax to scrape ice from his sled runners. Dyche said he ran into overflow on the Chena River during his first run that froze onto his runners. He later lost a few hours repairing his foot pad of his sled after going over Eagle Summit. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)300-musher Keaton Loebrich approaches Mile 101 of the Steese Highway. Loebrich, a former Marine, arrived looking exhausted. He said in the first 24 hours of the race, he’d only eaten a muffin. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Pink, one of Brent Sass’s lead dogs, shares a moment before the start of the 550-mile Yukon Quest. Sass called Slater, his other leader, “the best sled dog I’ll probably ever drive.” (Lex Treinen/KUAC)550-winner Brent Sass hands thawed beef steaks to his dogs at the finish of the Quest 550. Sass, in his fifth Quest win, took home a $40,000 prize. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Matt Hall, a former Quest 1000-mile champion, poses with his lead dogs, Dyea and Bestie. Hall said Dyea has led about every race he’s done in the last few years. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Vickie Justice’s 300-mile team approaches the Circle checkpoint. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Isaac Teaford leaves the Circle checkpoint for the last stretch of his 300-mile race. Teaford said he does air squats on the back of his sled to keep blood flowing on the flat, cold Birch Creek, and invents songs about his dogs. “Any one who hears me out on the trail might hear me singing a rendition of Prophet the red-nosed lead dog or something silly,” he said. Teaford, a rookie racing some of Dallas Seavey’s Iditarod championship dogs, finished second in the 300. Riley Dyche finished about 15 minutes behind Nic Petit in the Quest 550. Dyche said he and Petit were battling for 5th place finish — which comes with a $5,000 prize — over the last 50 miles of the race before Petit pulled away. “I was able to almost chase Nic down, or chased him down for a minute before he did his usual tricks,” said Dyche. Petit, a Quest rookie, says he’ll be back next year “as long as it’s not too cold.” (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Shaynee Traska, her lead dog Logan, and her family pose at the finish of the Yukon Quest. Traska, an Iditarod finisher, finished in 8th place for the Red Lantern in a competitive field.. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)Deke Naaktgeboren approaches the finish line in the Quest 550. Naaktgeboren finished in 7th place. Naaktgeboren said he enjoyed the 550-mile race as an pre-Iditarod warmup, but lamented the break up of the Alaska and Canada Yukon Quest boards this spring. “Nothing will ever replace the 1,000-mile international Yukon Quest,” he said at the finish line. (Lex Treinen/KUAC)
