The Iditarod Sled Dog Trail Race
February 27, 2011 by Beth
Filed under Dog Activities and Training, Featured Articles
The official Iditarod website calls this the “Last Great Race on Earth…over 1150 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer.” Detractors call it a heinous crime of animal cruelty, with dogs being pushed beyond the limits of their endurance for the entertainment of man. No matter which side of the fence you’re on, no one can deny that the Iditarod is the granddaddy of all sled dog races, and an important event in the canine world.
When is the Iditarod run?
The race begins the first weekend in March, but there are actually two starts: a ceremonial start on Saturday, March 5th at 10:00 am in downtown Anchorage, and a “real” restart on Sunday, March 6th at 2:00 pm, in the nearby town of Willow.
Temperatures during March usually range from 18 – 33 degrees F in Anchorage and from 1 to 17 degrees F in Nome. With wind chills often well below zero, it’s not unusual to see mushers with snow and ice encrusted in their facial hair.
Depending on weather conditions, as well as the skill and stamina of the mushers and dogs, the race ends somewhere around the middle of the month, when all of the teams finally arrive in Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea.
What’s the Iditarod course like?
Because the race provides an economic boon to the areas through which it runs, organizers use two different routes to allow all (or most) of Alaska to participate. In odd-numbered years, the race runs a southern course, while in even numbers they take the northern route.
At the start, the routes run the same path, a reasonably straight line from Anchorage to Ophir, then the northern route turns to the checkpoints in Cripple, Ruby, Galena, and Nulato, before rejoining the southern route at Kaltag. The southern route runs through checkpoints in the towns of Iditarod, Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling, and Eagle Island. From Kaltag, the course takes a sharp turn to Unalakleet, then follows the coastline through the native villages of Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain, and Safety, then on to Nome.
Detailed descriptions of the terrain between checkpoints, along with maps of the two routes, are available on the Iditarod’s Trail Page.
What happens at an Iditarod checkpoint?
Every team must check into every checkpoint along the trail. This is required for the safety of both the dogs and the mushers, assuring that no one is lost on the trail for a great length of time. At some checkpoints, the team may just check in and check right back out, but at others they will sleep, eat, get veterinary check-ups for the dogs, or even drop off dogs who are too exhausted to continue.
Mushers are required to stay at least 24-hours in at least one checkpoint. In addition, they must take an 8-hour layover on the Yukon and another 8-hour stop at White Mountain.
Checkpoints are supplied by air prior to the race, including straw, dog food, and people food. Volunteers meet in the weeks before the race to palletize the food brought in by the mushers and deliver it to the proper checkpoints.
Canine Care on the Iditarod Trail
As I mentioned at the top of this article, many people think the Iditarod is cruel and inhumane. In the early days of the organized race, this was undoubtedly true, and even the modern races often experience at least one dog fatality. However, conditions and care have improved drastically as the race has grown.
A typical pet in the lower 48 often lives indoors and enjoys the good life. However, the dogs who run the Iditarod are not typical pets. What seems cruel to the average pet’s family is just another day in the life of a sled dog.
These dogs eat better than any pet on earth, as their caloric requirements are intense. Mushers are required to carry routine food, as well as emergency food, for all of the dogs on their sleds at all times. They must also provide eight booties for each dog on the team. In addition, they must complete a veterinary log book on all of their dogs, to be checked by the veterinary staff at the checkpoints.
Mushers start the race with anywhere between twelve and sixteen dogs, and must finish with at least six of them. This allows the musher to drop off dogs at the checkpoints if needed to preserve their health. Remember, the dogs are a big part of the musher’s ability to win prize money, so they want to keep the dogs in prime health. In fact, if a dog is dropped from a team in critical condition, the musher can be detained for up to eight hours while the cause of the dog’s condition is investigated.
A good part of the official race rules deals with veterinary issues and dog care. Prior to the race, each dog is examined by a licensed veterinarian including blood work, an EKG and the insertion of a microchip. Shot records are checked and the dogs must be de-wormed within ten days before the race. The dogs competing in the race are under the jurisdiction of the Iditarod’s veterinary staff from the time they enter the staging area until 72 hours after the staff releases the dog when he or she is done racing.
If a dog dies on the trail, the musher is required to bring the dog to a checkpoint and submit the animal for necropsy. If the cause of death is found to be the result of cruel, inhumane or abusive treatment, heat stress, hyperthermia, hypothermia, or because a musher refused to drop a dog upon the veterinary staff’s recommendation, the musher is disqualified from competition.
For more information about these amazing canines, check out the blogs “written” by a few Huskies and Malamutes.
How can I see the Iditarod?
If a trip to Alaska is not in your spring-time plans, the only way to catch more than a snippet of the race on your evening news is to become an Iditarod “Insider“. The $19.95 fee will buy you access either to the “Insider GPS Tracker” which allows you to track the mushers as they race OR to the Video on Demand section which lets you view both new and archival video, live events, and a behind-the-scenes view of the race. A combined “Ultimate Insider” membership is available for $33.95. Different price points are available for school-wide shared memberships and for individual classroom memberships.