Iditarod

Six years ago, Kailyn Davis adopted Zeke. He was a hairless, scabby rescue dog. She says running with a dog team has helped him heal.

Mushers will also have to get COVID tested three times before the start of the 1,000-mile race to Nome, and once in the checkpoint of McGrath.

Dallas Seavey has won the 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, tying Rick Swenson's five first-place finishes for the most ever. Will he be back next year to vie for a sixth? That is the question... Also, a sleepless but not tired Alaska Public Media reporter Tegan Hanlon fills us in on the scene at the finish, including interviews with Seavey and Aaron Burmeister, who took second.

This is Seavey’s fifth Iditarod win, tying him with Rick Swenson for the most Iditarod victories ever. Swenson has held the record alone since 1991.

Just an hour separates mushers Dallas Seavey and Aaron Burmeister, with less than 70 miles to the finish line.

Dog musher Quince Mountain sat down with Raymie Redington, son of Iditarod founder Joe Redington Sr., to talk about dog mushing, the history of the race and a lot more.

The Iditarod’s five top mushers were running within two hours of each other Saturday as they started their last push to the finish line, with Aaron Burmeister of Nome seizing the lead in search of his first victory.

Since we left off, an Iditarod musher has tested positive for COVID-19 and been withdrawn, Dallas Seavey has taken the lead in his return to the race and, instead of leaving problematic sections of trail behind, mushers are heading back over them, on a modified, out-and-back trail. We talk to three-time champion Mitch Seavey, who's a spectator this year, as well as Iditapod co-founder Zachariah Hughes in McGrath, and we get an Iditarod veteran's take on a listener question about dog booties.

More than two dozen Iditarod teams are retracing their route back to Willow Friday afternoon after reaching this year’s turnaround spot. Four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey and his dogs are holding onto the lead, and another team has called it quits on the trail.

The Iditarod is trying to track down two mushers who shared a tent with Gunnar Johnson and may have been exposed to the virus.

Alaska Public Media's Tegan Hanlon talks with four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey in February in the dog lot at his Talkeetna-based kennel. Seavey is back in the Iditarod this year after taking three years off following a scandal in 2017's race, after which the Iditarod said two of Seavey's dogs had tested positive for a banned pain-reliever, then later cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Minnesota musher Gunnar Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 at the checkpoint in McGrath, near mile 310 a little less than halfway through the race.

The race director has chopped about 20 miles off this year's trail because of too much snow. Also, another musher has dropped out of the competition.

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.

Aliy Zirkle's race ended Monday night after she crashed on her way into the remote Rohn checkpoint. Race officials say she suffered a concussion and other injuries.

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.

With Gallea’s scratch, 45 teams remain on the Iditarod trail. There's still a long way to go, but by late Monday afternoon, Skagway musher Ryan Redington had taken over the lead.

Race officials put tight restrictions on who could be near the Iditarod starting line on Sunday, as part of their COVID-19 mitigation plan, leading to a much smaller crowd.

The 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is going to look a lot different, one year into a global COVID-19 pandemic. (The Iditapod’s going to be pretty different this year, too, as we'll explain). The ceremonial start is canceled, so the race begins Sunday in Willow under strict COVID-19 protocols, with a shortened trail that doubles back on itself, a challenge to sled dog teams to cross the Alaska Range not once, but twice, plus coronavirus testing along the way and less access to indoor spaces at checkpoints... This Iditarod is certainly going to be unique.

It’s set to be an Iditarod like no other. There’s required testing and face masks, plus a shorter trail and a smaller group of mushers signed up to compete.