Rain started to speckle the Kuskokwim River ice as Bethel musher Pete Kaiser and his nine-dog team ran under the arch in his hometown early Sunday, winning his 9th Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race, and tying the all-time record.
Kaiser arrived in Bethel at 1:57 a.m., after holding and then increasing a narrow lead he had over Big Lake musher Riley Dyche leaving the Tuluksak checkpoint.
At the finish line, Kaiser said that it had been a tough year.
“Didn't know how it was going to play out,” Kaiser said. “But these dogs are so talented, it's just, it's really all credit to them.”
Kaiser said that making it with a good team to the K300 made him just as grateful as tying the all-time record.
“Honestly, not even the nine thing, but just how challenging of a year this was for training and being able to pull this off after so many setbacks and difficulties this year. And honestly, had a few points even wondering if we'd have the team ready to even do the race at all,” Kaiser said. “So I'm pretty proud of our efforts to get us to this after this training season this year. So that's really what's sitting with me right now.”
This year’s K300 was unique in many ways. It was delayed two weeks because of warm weather, low snowpack, and dangerous river conditions. The day before the race, officials moved the start up by seven hours in anticipation of another warm weather window. Kaiser said that it made for ideal racing.
“Overall, one of the best trails I've ever been on in the [K300],” Kaiser said. It’s a sentiment that was echoed by other competitors throughout the race this year. “And, you know, weather-wise, a little bit warm here at the end, but not too terrible. I think we hit it just right here and but, yeah, northern lights, clear skies, stars out. [...] we're probably going to be a little spoiled now for next year.”
Kaiser’s winning time of 36 hours, 41 minutes comes within 10 minutes of the speed record, albeit on a somewhat modified course and with an untraditional daytime start. The biggest route change was a switch from the traditional Whitefish Lake loop outside of Aniak to a route through Aniak Slough.
In contrast to the conditions and course, the outcome was far from unexpected. Kaiser’s ninth win in 11 years matches the all-time win record set by Denali Park’s Jeff King, a legend of the sport. Kaiser has also achieved the feat in half the time it took King, who made 18 attempts from his first win to his ninth over a 22-year span (1991-2013).
Kaiser used a strategy for the second half of the race that’s become routine, holding off a strong challenge by second-time K300 musher Riley Dyche of Big Lake.
“I kind of tried to stay somewhere near the front in that first run, and I was in a really good position in Kalskag. Usually I'm anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes behind the leaders up there, and I have time to make up during the race and to try to equalize things,” Kaiser said. “This year, I was right with the front pack, and so I just kind of used that loop as the opportunity to just kind of hold my position and make sure the team was really strong for the push from Kalskag down to here. And it played out almost perfectly.”
Dyche arrived in Bethel 18 minutes after Kaiser at 2:15 a.m. He had nine dogs on the line, having dropped three throughout the course.
Dyche ran at the front of the 17-team field for much of the route, using a race-rest strategy previously employed by Willow musher Matt Failor that set the speed record for the course in 2019.
“I'm still ecstatic at the results,” Dyche said. “You know, anytime you're close to Pete in the K300 you're doing a lot of things right. So it's very encouraging, that's for sure.”
In Dyche’s first go at the race in 2024, he came in eighth.
“This is my new favorite race,” Dyche said. “I decided that last year, even on a cold, cold, tough year, last year.”
First-time K300 musher Cody Strathe of Fairbanks was third, finishing at 2:29 a.m. He called it a very competitive field and a very challenging race.
“It was all surprise, really,” Strathe said at the finish. “I didn't know what to expect. It was great.”
One musher who did know what to expect was 13-time finisher Mike Williams Jr. of Akiak. After six years away, he stuck it out with the top pack to take home fourth place, crossing the line at 2:41 a.m.
“Boy, wasn't really expecting a race with this nice of a trail, with the winter we had this year,” Williams Jr. said. “The dogs were pretty strong throughout the course, and they ate everything, and I'm proud of them.”
Williams Jr. was also first to the halfway checkpoint of Aniak.
This year’s K300 top ten finished within about 3 hours of each other. After Kaiser, Dyche, Strathe and Williams:
- 5th place: Hunter Keefe 3:13 a.m. with 8 dogs.
- 6th place: Emily Robinson 3:30 a.m. with 8 dogs.
- 7th place: Lev Shvarts 3:34 a.m. with 7 dogs.
- 8th place: Matthew Failor 3:57 a.m. with 6 dogs.
- 9th place: Cim Smyth 4:06 a.m. with 7 dogs.
- 10th place: Bailey Vitello 4:08 a.m. with 8 dogs.
For 17-year-old Rookie of the Year Emily Robinson of Nenana, the K300 was a new challenge – the first 300-mile race of her career after mostly competing against juniors.
“I've been competing against adults for a little bit now, but to have the K300 – this is a completely different field, and it changes a lot of different aspects of the racing,” Robinson said. “I just really had fun, and I really enjoyed competing with these – really the entire field was men, except for me. A lot of guys that really know what they're doing.”
Robinson has won the past three Jr. Iditarods, and the Knik 200 for the past two years. She said that it was nice to step away from that sort of expectation.
“I think when you're winning all the time, it just becomes so much pressure,” Robinson said. “And actually, coming and running this race, there wasn't as much pressure because I knew I could leave it to Pete. I knew he'd win the race, so I just kind of came out here to run in and to see where my team could stack up against all these guys, and we had fun with it, and it was a challenge, and we enjoyed it.”
In addition to winning Rookie of the Year, Robinson placed sixth, and her finish matched the top result by a woman in the K300 in more than 20 years. KattiJo Deeter also placed sixth last year.
Of the 17 mushers who set out from Bethel for the race to Aniak and back, none scratched this year – in fact, the field was tightly packed. Fifteen mushers finished within five and a half hours of the winner. 2025 Red Lantern winner Ebbe Winstrup Pedersen, the last to finish the race, crossed the line around 15 hours after Kaiser in the evening sun on the Kuskokwim River.
Angela Denning in Bethel, Nat Herz in Kalskag and Tuluksak, and Evan Erickson in Aniak contributed to this reporting.
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