Iditarod

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

Running the Iditarod takes months of preparation, training and a lot of money. While some mushers have major tour businesses and sponsors that help fund their kennels and pay for staff, Radano waits tables to help balance the big bills that come with being a dog musher.

The race started Sunday in Willow. The winner is expected sometime early next week in Nome, on Alaska’s western coast.

A couple hundred people packed into the basement of Settlers Bay Lodge last week to commemorate the earlier years of the Iditarod. 

Editor's note: This extended interview discusses a violent encounter with a moose and might not be suitable for all listeners. Alaska Public Media's Lex Treinen gets all the details of rookie Iditarod musher Bridgett Watkins' run-in with a moose while on a training run near Salcha, in Interior Alaska, in early February.

Rookie Gerhardt Thiart has a very specific story for choosing Viva for his Iditarod team. Last year, he was running an Iditarod qualifier when he...

Finger Lake is about 125 miles into the 1,000-mile race.

As Alaska Public Media reporters Jeff Chen and Lex Treinen head out on the trail, Iditapod host Casey Grove updates some of the early Iditarod standings. Plus, we have a story of an ER nurse whose training for the Iditarod helped him cope with the trauma of working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Lex also brings us a report on the Sunday restart in Willow, as well as another dog profile, and we have a couple questions with a couple different answers (watch out: one involves some math).

Some mushers worried about the heat for their dogs as warm temperatures heated the snow.

As one race fan put it, the Iditarod felt back to "normal-ish."

The 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicked off Saturday in Anchorage with its usual fanfare, after not holding a ceremonial start in 2021. Alaska Public Media reporters Casey Grove, Tegan Hanlon, Lex Treinen and Jeff Chen were out in the snow with the mushers, dogs and race fans, including plenty of kids and other trailgaters.

In our first daily Iditarod dog profile, we bring you Stealie, rookie Eric Kelly's main leader.

Win or lose, this year’s Iditarod across Alaska will be his last — at least for a while.

The race, in some ways, is back to normal: Mushers are again dashing 1,000 miles to Nome.

Matt Paveglio will start the Iditarod after watching dozens of patients die during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also had to bury his mother.

The five-decade history of the Iditarod is a story filled with adventure, skill, triumph and lots of change, and it's best told by those who have experienced it, firsthand.

Iditapod is back for the 50th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Host Casey Grove and fellow Alaska Public Media reporters Tegan Hanlon, Lex Treinen and Jeff Chen discuss last year's pandemic-altered Iditarod, some of the mid-distance sled dog races this season, as well as COVID-19 protocols (and already a scratch/switcheroo), scary moose encounters and the heartwarming story of an unlikely Iditarod dog.

Bridgett Watkins was training near Salcha when a moose attacked her team, stomping it repeatedly.

Heavy rain and snow have forced moose onto dog trails resulting in several harrowing encounters.

Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King says he took 30 minutes to think about it and then said yes.