Iditarod

Race Update 6:00 pm: Five mushers were closing in on Ruby. The group of leaders included Mitch Seavey, Dallas Seavey, Aaron Burmeister, Martin Buser and Aliy Zirkle. The Mackey brothers were taking a layover in Tanana. The Mackey family has long been known as a mushing dynasty within the Iditarod community. Patriarch Dick Mackey won the race in 1978. Years later, Lance Mackey claimed four championships in a row. Little brother Jason just might take on the most meaningful race of his life. When Jason Mackey arrived in Tanana, he was not feeling good about his dog team.

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.

At Rainy Pass Lodge, many mushers soaked up the mountain views and the love from a few excited tourists who arrived on charter planes.

The mushers and dogs are in good health, Iditarod officials say.

This year marks Dallas Seavey’s 12th Iditarod. But it’s the four-time Iditarod champion's first since a dog-doping whodunit turned his mushing career upside down four years ago.

Mille Porsild and Michelle Phillips were the top female finishers in this year’s race. On one of the final runs they moved their dogs indoors to get out of a severe windstorm.

Dozens of mushers and hundreds of sled dogs paraded through Anchorage on Saturday.

Mille Porsild of Denmark, Michelle Phillips of Canada and Riley Dyche of Fairbanks were penalized for taking dogs inside shelter cabins to ride out the storm with winds so strong, they whipped up white-out conditions.

The arch, which marks the end of the Iditarod Trail, collapsed Saturday. It was last renovated in 2013.

Chatanika musher Kaduce says it’s a combination of luck and good dog care habits that have helped him surge to the front of the pack,

After briefly relinquishing the lead Monday, Nicolas Petit is back in front on the way to Nikolai. But, the pack isn't far behind. Dallas Seavey, Wade Marrs, Mitch Seavey and Hugh Neff are within 10 miles of Petit.

For being first to the coast on Sunday, Thomas Waerner earned $2,000 worth of gold nuggets. But, more importantly, he was in a full five hours in front of the next team.

For Dallas Seavey’s first-place arrival, he won mittens made of beaver fur and moose hide, plus a beaver-fur hat. McGrath is roughly a third of the way into the race.

As teams come off their mandatory 24-hour rest and head for the Yukon River, they’ll be thinking of how best to pick up the pace in what is turning out to be one of the most dramatic, but also the most competitive races in Iditarod history.

It was busy overnight in Skwentna as teams passed through the second checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail and made their way into the Alaska Range. Teams are shaking out the kinks early as they settle into race mode.

The Iditarod's decision came nearly four months after the race received a letter accusing Sass of sexual assault.

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