Iditarod

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.

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.

After more than two decades of competitive mushing, Aliy Zirkle posted a retirement letter on her kennel’s website Thursday evening.

The sled dog race has called off this year’s 11-mile dash through Anchorage because of coronavirus concerns.

Teams will now travel on a 860-mile loop that starts and ends in the Southcentral community of Willow, instead of heading to Nome.

The Iditarod says it will work with an infectious disease epidemiologist to develop a plan for holding the 1,000-mile race during the coronavirus.

Waerner won the race March 18th. But he couldn't get back to Norway because of coronavirus-related, international travel restrictions related to flying his dogs. So he ended up staying with friends near Fairbanks in Ester.

Mackey’s 21st place finish in this year’s race will be vacated after the positive test from a sample collected in White Mountain, the Iditarod statement says. Mackey finished the race, his 16th Iditarod, in Nome on March 19.

Waerner has been living with friends near Fairbanks in Ester, all because of cornavirus-related, international travel restrictions, coupled with the normal difficulties and rules around flying dogs internationally.

What Matthew Failor did not know when he left White Mountain with two other mushers was the relentless wind was pushing ocean water onto the trail ahead.

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

Nearly a third of the 57 mushers in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have scratched, including a Girdwood's Nicolas Petit, who activated an alert button seeking rescue Thursday morning because of weather conditions.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has another new Norwegian champion: 46-year-old Thomas Waerner. His team arrived in Nome at 12:37 a.m. Wednesday to an enthusiastic, if smaller, crowd. And Waerner still has to figure out how to get home, what with travel restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic. Iditapod host Casey Grove talks with Alaska Public Media's Tegan Hanlon and Zachariah Hughes about what might have been the weirdest Iditarod ever, in terms of what was unfolding outside the race while it was happening. We also have a question about what the dogs dream about, and a dog profile about a pup conceived on the Iditarod Trail.

This is a quick report from our morning radio coverage of the Iditarod. It's called a radio module, and it details Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner winning the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race at 12:37 a.m. Wednesday, March 18. Waerner's team logged a time of 9 days, 10 hours, 37 minutes and 47 seconds.

Thomas Waerner is the winner of a race hobbled by the coronavirus, which became a global pandemic as mushers raced to the finish line.

Shaktoolik is usually a key resting spot for mushers and their sled dogs before they push the 50 miles to the next checkpoint at Koyuk.

It’s Tuesday, and we have a two-fer on dog profiles here on the Iditapod. And as we anticipate Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner winning the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Nome early Wednesday -- barring any unforeseen changes -- we have a story about the modified Shaktoolik checkpoint, a remembrance of an all-star volunteer checkpoint leader in Unalakleet and a little about how a major, longtime sponsor of the Iditarod has announced it’s pulling out. (Maybe not all in that order).

As the leading Iditarod mushers approach the finish line in Nome, a different sled dog race has been crippled by the coronavirus.

Thomas Waerner and his 10-dog team left White Mountain at 1:35 p.m. Tuesday with an hours-long lead over their closest competitors and 77 miles to the finish line in Nome.

The Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership is the Iditarod's second top sponsor to drop its financial support of the race this month.