RAINY PASS LODGE — A snow-covered frozen lake near the remote lodge here turned into a sled dog parking lot Monday afternoon as Iditarod teams stopped to rest in temperatures that hovered around 40 degrees.
Mushers shed layers. Dogs sunbathed. Tourists flown in on charter planes snapped photos under a hot sun.
"It feels like it's 100 degrees," said musher Wade Marrs.
The Rainy Pass checkpoint is about 150 miles into the race and, tucked into the Alaska Range, it’s a scenic place to wait out the heat.
"Beautiful here," said rookie Hunter Keefe. "This is a part of the trail I was excited to see."
By the time teams arrived in Rainy Pass, they had already navigated some early challenges, including the Happy River Steps, but faced the trickier trail ahead through Dalzell Gorge.
Here’s what the checkpoint looked like Monday. (And for more from the mushers, read our story on how they coped with the warm-for-winter temperatures.)