Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

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Fans, Field Meet in Anchorage
Fans, Field Meet in Anchorage
Mar 7, 2026 4:40 PM CST

Fans, Field Meet in Anchorage

1,000-mile Iditarod kicks off Sunday

(Newser) - Hundreds of barking dogs took over downtown Anchorage as the ceremonial start of the world's most famous sled dog race got underway Saturday. As snow fell, fans lined up near the starting line in frigid, 19-degree weather to see and cheer their favorite mushers. The competitive start to the...

Lack of Snowfall Confounds Anchorage

Winter events in Anchorage, including the Iditarod, have to adapt this year

(Newser) - Anchorage has reached a new low in snowfall, shaking up the usual winter activities—including the famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Just 4.3 inches was recorded this week at the National Weather Service's Sand Lake gauge, the least to fall between Dec. 1 and mid-February since recordkeeping...

Dallas Seavey Makes Iditarod History
Dallas Seavey
Makes Iditarod History
Mar 12, 2024 10:48 PM CDT

Dallas Seavey Makes Iditarod History

By winning his 6th championship, the most ever in the sled dog race

(Newser) - Dallas Seavey's path to an Iditarod championship was like none he's faced before, including killing a moose and overcoming a time penalty that had him in 10th place at one point to win a record-breaking sixth championship in the world's most famous sled dog race, the AP...

5-Time Iditarod Champ Takes a Big Hit on the Trail

Dallas Seavey gets a 2-hour penalty for not properly gutting moose he killed during Alaska race

(Newser) - Iditarod officials on Wednesday imposed a two-hour time penalty on musher Dallas Seavey for not properly gutting a moose he killed during the race earlier this week. Race Marshal Warren Palfrey convened a three-person panel of race officials to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the moose, which became...

This Year's Iditarod Dogs Are Wearing Something Special

They'll be sporting light-up harnesses, necklaces in famous Alaska race after 5 dogs died while training

(Newser) - The Iditarod, the annual sled dog race celebrating Alaska's official state sport, is set to get underway Saturday with a new focus on safety after five dogs died and eight were injured in collisions with snowmobiles while training on shared, multiuse trails. For the first time, mushers who line...

Iditarod Scion Finally Wins on 16th Try

Ryan Redington, 40, is grandson of race's co-founder

(Newser) - Ryan Redington on Tuesday won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, bringing his six dogs off the Bering Sea ice to the finish line in Nome. Redington, 40, is the grandson of Joe Redington Sr., who helped co-found the arduous race across Alaska that was first held in 1973 and...

Most Anemic Iditarod in History Is About to Begin

Iconic race battered by inflation, climate change, PETA, retirements

(Newser) - The second half-century for the world’s most famous sled dog race is getting off to a rough start. Only 33 mushers will participate in the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Saturday, reports the AP , the smallest field ever to take their dogs nearly 1,...

Iditarod Mushers Pay for Sheltering Dogs From Winds

Race marshal decides taking dogs inside during storm gave them a competitive advantage

(Newser) - A fierce winter storm in the last stretch of this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog, which ultimately forced six mushers to scratch the same day, now has cost three other mushers for sheltering their dogs instead of leaving them outside in the harsh conditions. Mille Porsild of Denmark, Michelle...

Iditarod Rookie Describes 'Most Horrific 24 Hours of My Life'

Bull moose attacked Bridgett Watkins' dogs for nearly an hour during a training run

(Newser) - A woman training for the Iditarod in Alaska on Friday says she and her sled dogs withstood a harrowing, hour-long attack—not by a bear, but a bull moose. The state's Department of Fish and Wildlife says more moose-related injuries are logged each year than those inflicted by bear,...

Pandemic Strands Iditarod Winner in Alaska for Months

Coronavirus basically shut down his travel options after March race

(Newser) - Thomas Waerner won this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in March, but he is still waiting to return to his home in Norway, the AP reports. Waerner and his 16 dogs have been stranded in Alaska by travel restrictions and flight cancellations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the...

He Won the Iditarod as a Rookie. Now, 'Yukon Fox' Gone at 79

Sled dog race legend Emmitt Peters Sr. dies in Alaska

(Newser) - Emmitt Peters Sr., an Alaska Native who won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as a rookie in 1975, has died at age 79 in his home village of Ruby. Peters died Thursday of natural causes, Alaska State Troopers said. Peters, an Athabascan, was nicknamed the "Yukon Fox” after...

Here's One Event Not Hit by Coronavirus

It's the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

(Newser) - When 57 mushers line up Sunday for the official start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, it will be the second-smallest field in the past two decades, the AP reports. Only last year’s field of 52 was smaller. Interest in the world’s most famous sled dog race...

For 2nd Year in a Row, Iditarod Leader Hits Bad Luck

Frenchman Nicolas Petit had to drop out after his dogs just refused to keep going

(Newser) - You could be the best dog-musher in the world, but if your canine charges simply refuse to move, those mushing skills mean nothing. Frenchman Nicolas Petit found that out Monday when he had to withdraw from Alaska's famous Iditarod sled dog race after he and his team got stuck...

Iditarod Racer Saw Dogs' Ears Perk Up. Then He Saw His Friend

Scott Janssen awarded for helping save stranded racer Jim Lanier

(Newser) - Scott Janssen hoped to win the world's most famous sled-dog race across Alaska. Instead, the 56-year-old took home a sportsmanship award for spending a chilly night with a friend in a sleeping bag he feared would become a body bag. Some 45 miles from the Iditarod finish line, Janssen...

Iditarod Winner Takes Home $20K Less Than 2017 Champ

Joar Ulsom of Norway won the world's most famous sled dog race Wednesday

(Newser) - Joar Ulsom of Norway won the world's most famous sled dog race Wednesday after a grueling dash across Alaska's rough terrain, but he earned tens of thousands of dollars less than last year's top musher at the struggling Iditarod. "It's pretty unreal I pulled it...

Iditarod IDs Musher in Doping Uproar

And its 4-time champ Dallas Seavey, who denies he gave dogs drugs, quits 2018 race in protest

(Newser) - Four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey denied Monday that he administered banned drugs to his dogs in this year's race and has withdrawn from the 2018 race in protest of the allegation. "I have never given any banned substance to my dogs," Seavey said in a video posted...

World's Most Famous Racing Dogs Busted for Doping

Several canine Iditarod competitors tested positive for pain reliever tramadol

(Newser) - For the first time in the history of the world's most famous sled dog race, several of the high-performance animals have tested positive for a prohibited drug—but race officials have refused to name the musher involved. Several dogs tested positive for the opioid pain reliever tramadol, the governing...

Record Iditarod Win Marred by Deaths of 4 Dogs

Mitch Seavey, 57, becomes oldest, fastest to win race, which PETA wants to end for good

(Newser) - Mitch Seavey became the oldest and fastest musher to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, in a year marred by an abnormally high number of dog deaths. After bringing in his dog team off the Bering Sea ice and under the famed burled arch on Front Street in Nome...

Iditarod Dogs Reach Checkpoint Without Musher

Linwood Fiedler fell asleep, toppled off sled

(Newser) - Add sleep to the already long list of hazards in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. A video posted on the official race website shows a dog team that arrived at a checkpoint without a musher. "Now you've seen it all, huh?" a man in the video says....

Attacked Musher Finishes 3rd in Iditarod

A 'bittersweet' ending for Aliy Zirkle, as Dallas Seavey takes 1st again

(Newser) - Musher Aliy Zirkle has completed a bittersweet Iditarod. Zirkle finished third in this year's race Tuesday morning, bringing her team of 13 dogs down Nome's Front Street through a boisterous crowd chanting her name. It's Zirkle's fifth top five finish in the last five years. But...

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