Iditarod

The mushers and their sled dogs banked rest and calories during their longest rest of the race.

Iditarod veteran Aliy Zirkle was the second musher out of Ruby early this [Friday] morning, but was the first to reach Galena, checking in at 10:46 a.m.

The three mushers leading this year’s Iditarod pack passed through Unalakleet yesterday afternoon. The racers arrived in very differing shape, offering signs of what could be ahead in the last stretch toward Nome.

Musher Dallas Seavey was assessed a two-hour penalty for failing to properly gut a moose he shot earlier in the race after it attacked his team.

Girdwood's Nicolas Petit pulled into Manley Hot Springs just after 3 a.m. Tuesday, with Martin Buser, Hugh Neff, DeeDee Jonrowe and Aaron Burmeister less than two hours behind. The competition in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race can only be described as stiff. There are six returning champions and a handful of other mushers vying for a top-10 finish. But, mushers are all feeling a little new to the race as they travel down an unfamiliar, rerouted trail. Download Audio

There was a major shakeup at the front of the 2018 Iditarod on Monday, when Joar Leifseth Ulsom slipped past previous leader Nicolas Petit while Petit lost the trail on the Bering Sea coast between Shaktoolik and Koyuk. The table is now set for Ulsom, first to White Mountain and only 77 miles from the finish in Nome, to win his first Iditarod championship and the first for a Norwegian -- or anybody else not originally from the U.S. -- since 2005. But, as we hear in this episode, a lead and a long rest at White Mountain hasn't always translated to a win. Meantime, many of mushing's old guard are happy to pass the mantle to the next generation of elite mushers (not including defending champ Mitch Seavey, still mushing near the front in third place).

Winterlake Lodge on Finger Lake is an official Iditarod Trail checkpoint, 153 miles down the trail from Anchorage. The Dixon family owns and operates the lodge, hosting mushers, their dogs and paying guests alike. http://youtu.be/lMNLzEwfjCw

Another low snow year in Alaska is playing havoc with the world's most famous sled dog race, at least for the start.

The Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) is taking steps to tighten security along the race route in the near future. Listen now

Mushers slept. Dogs slept. And sled repairs got underway.

Mitch Seavey has won the 2013 Iditarod, crossing the finish line at 10:39 p.m. Tuesday. After racing neck and neck with Aliy Zirkle through the last few checkpoints, he widened the gap after both mushers left White Mountain about 15 minutes apart, not taking a minute over their mandatory 8-hour layover.

eigning Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey was the first into Shaktoolik early Monday morning, but Aaron Burmeister was the first out of the checkpoint. Both are running with 12 dogs as they enter the last 170 miles of the race. leading the charge to Koyuk.

A new book, out just in time for this year's race, documents stories of the Iditarod. Lew Freedman, a former Anchorage Daily News reporter and author of numerous other books on Iditarod legends, gets people who race or love and support the race, to tell their own stories. The book is called Iditarod Adventures, Tales from Mushers Along the Trail. Freedman starts with Martin Buser. He says he's had a question he's wanted to ask Buser since 1991. Download Audio

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race organizers are deciding to make a change in the route for the 2012 race. This year’s race marks the 40th run, and it follows the Northern route.

“A lot of dogs here, they love to be hugged and cuddled and snuggled. And she likes it to some extent, but then she wants her space,” said Anja Radano. “And I'm the same way.”

The roughly 80-mile stretch from Rohn to Nikolai usually has has some of the worst trail conditions anywhere along the 1,000-mile route. But not this year.

Iditarod contenders are recalibrating their race strategies as the trail pushes through its most remote stretches.