Iditarod

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.

Things get pretty technical for Iditarod mushers heading out of the Rainy Pass checkpoint and into the Dalzell Gorge before Rohn and Nikolai. Plus, we hear from animal-rights activist and documentary filmmaker Fern Levitt, and we get four-time Iditarod Jeff King's take on criticism of dog mushing.

Ryan Redington will be the first musher to hit the trail Monday morning in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The grandson of Iditarod race founder Joe Redington, Sr., the younger Redington pulled bib #2 from a mukluk at the Iditarod Mushers’ Drawing Banquet Thursday night. Listen now

Reigning Iditarod champion Brent Sass has scratched from this year’s race, due to what race officials described as “periodontal health” issues. So 31 teams remained in the race Saturday, and in this episode we hear from the chase pack-turned lead pack about how they were feeling about heading up the Yukon River, plus more from the top rookies in this year’s race. We have a powerhouse Dog of the Day with a funny, uh, pungent name, and a listener question about sled dog breeds that led us to the famous poodle musher.

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.

That’s right: Iditarod has a new champion. And it’s really looking like we’re going to have three women in the top 10 for the first time in 47 years for the Last Great Race. As for the pride and swelling hearts of Bethel, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, maybe all of Western Alaska, Peter Kaiser and eight dogs crossed under the Burled Arch in Nome at 3:39 a.m. Alaska time Wednesday trailed only 12 minutes later by the 2018 champ, Joar Leifseth Ulsom.

) The 2014 Iditarod will easily go down in the books as one of the most memorable. From snow-starved trails to lightning-fast runs, conditions were treacherous for this years field, nearly a third of which have been forced to scratch. Mike Santos is among the many who called it quits in Rohn after a particularly rough stretch after Rainy Pass. But, for Santos, it's not about the race, it's all about the dogs. Part 3 of 3.

Dallas Seavey and Aaron Burmeister are running neck-and-neck down the Yukon River, leading the Iditarod field between Tanana and Ruby.

Martin Buser regained the early lead in this year’s Iditarod. He was the first to Tanana Tuesday afternoon. He was followed by Hugh Neff and Aliy Zirkle, both had made it to Tanana by early evening.

Front running teams are making their way for White Mountain Tuesday morning.

Dallas Seavey maintained his lead over Aliy Zirkle and Aaron Burmeister Sunday night in the Iditarod and was the first to reach Koyuk early Monday morning. He arrived about about an hour and a half sooner than Zirkle. Last year's champion, John Baker was just outside of Koyuk at 7 am.

This is a story about a family and their names. Both hold deep meaning. That’s something Kaktovik musher Apayauq Reitan knows all too well.

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.

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.

This year the Iditarod is mired in scandals: Fallout from a dog doping fiasco, a musher mutiny, and unprecedented pressure from protest groups. All of which, according to a leaked report, are putting the event’s future in dire jeopardy. Listen now

Nome is amazing. It’s a grid of buildings that butts up against the Bering Sea and unlike most bush communities it boasts things like a movie theater, multiple bars, hotels, and restaurants, and even a Subway. For someone who’s spent multiple years in a town of about the same size but out in the Aleutians, this was shocking.

Martin Buser and his son, Rohn, stopped for only a few minutes in Takotna and bolted into the Iditarod lead Wednesday morning. Martin Buser arrived in Takotna about 8:30 am, stopped a few minutes and then headed towards the ghost town of Ophir. Rohn, who won the Kusko 300 earlier this year, reached Takotna about 9:45 am and left almost immediately. As of 11:30 Wednesday morning, Aliy Zirkle, who had led much of the race, was still in Takotna.