Due to a warm winter, the trail for the 2025 Iditarod will be different than in previous years. Instead of its traditional start in Willow, just north of Anchorage, the Iditarod will start in Fairbanks, and will run mostly on frozen rivers. It will also be the longest Iditarod in the race’s 50+ year history.
How Did We Get Here?
It’s been a mild winter in Alaska. Anchorage has essentially no snow, and the popular mushing areas north of there – Willow and Big Lake – aren’t much better off. The winter has been a rainy one, with temperatures frequently above freezing. Multiple mid-distance sled dog races have been canceled, rescheduled or had their routes significantly altered.
As such, it seemed inevitable that the start of the Iditarod would, for the fourth year ever in its history, be changed to Fairbanks instead of Willow. But on January 31st the Iditarod announced that conditions were favorable enough for mushers to take the traditional “southern route.”
Many mushers rejoiced at the news, despite understanding that conditions would still be “rough.” Racers could expect icy, fast conditions off the start line, and all the way to Skwentna. From there, things might improve as teams climbed into the Alaska Range and found snow at higher elevations. Unlike in 2014, the infamous Gorge (a dramatically steep 15 mile drop out of the mountains and onto the Kuskokwim River) was reported to have good snow. At least mostly. As the trail reached the bottom of The Gorge, the snow thins out, and mushers should expect lots of glare ice and possibly open water going into the checkpoint of Rohn. On the other side of Rohn, the snow would disappear once again, as mushers entered The Burn.
It’s important to note here that there is rarely ever much snow in The Burn. This unique and stunning area on the southside of the Alaska Range lies in a snow shadow. As such, precipitation there is limited. Additionally, it’s an area that gets a lot of wind. And after a forest fire went through several decades ago, scouring the land, the wind’s ability to rip away any trace of snow here has been magnified. In a normal year though, The Burn is only about 25 miles long – from approximately Rohn to an area called Tin Creek. As mushers near Nikolai – about 70 miles north of Rohn – the snow returns and conditions generally improve. But not this year.
A few weeks before the Iditarod, there is a snowmachine race called The Iron Dog. This race follows approximately the same course as the traditional Iditarod, and thanks to the wonders of the internet and social media, gives mushers and Iditarod organizers their “first glimpse” of the trail. And this year, The Burn didn’t end at Tin Creek. Instead, the snowless, scoured landscape extended essentially all the way to Nikolai. Snowmachiners arrived into that community this week with busted up machines and worn out attitudes. In addition to the warm winter we’ve been having, it appears that fall moose hunters have also taken a serious toll on the trail. Community members and Iron Dog riders reported incredibly deep ruts between Nikolai and points south. Apparently wealthy sport hunters are able to fly large trucks into this area in the fall time, when the Alaskan landscape is typically saturated with heavy rainfall. In their quest to bag the biggest bull, these hunters also leave behind massive damage to the tundra. The end result for locals, Iron Doggers and Iditarod mushers, is to pray for a heavy snow year, with enough powder to fill in all of the damaged areas. Without it, travel is treacherous. Machines and dog sleds are weirdly fragile – slamming in and out of frozen ruts for dozens of miles just isn’t sustainable. And although the dogs tend to be incredibly resilient, we do need some snow in order for the brakes on our sleds to work. Without brakes, our speeds are out of control, which makes bouncing in and out of frozen ruts all the more dangerous.
Once word got back to the Iditarod organizers about the condition of the trail going into Nikolai, they felt there was no other choice than to change course to a Fairbanks start.
What’s Next
Now that the decision has been made to start the Iditarod in Fairbanks after all, what exactly will be different?
1 – LOTS of river running (*Cue the sad music*) If the traditional route was too scary to be considered, the alternative route is almost too boring to digest. Sure, mushers won’t be smashing their bones and sleds on barren ground, or risk losing their dog teams on fields of ruts, rocks and tussocks. Instead, they’ll be absolutely bored to death by the monotony of running about 700 miles on wide, flat, straight, frozen rivers, all the way from Fairbanks to Kaltag, down to Shageluk and back to Kaltag. The best mushers will be praying for overflow, snowstorms or challenging headwinds to keep things interesting and break up the competition. Without at least one of those elements, the first week of this race will simply be a demonstration of who can run furthest fastest. So boring! Good thing we still have the coast – the final 250 miles from Unalakleet to Nome – to keep things interesting with hills, high winds, and other challenges. Â
2 – A longer route. This year’s Iditarod will be the longest in the race’s history — about 1200 miles! It seems like the Iditarod attempted to included as many of the communities along the traditional southern route as possible, taking the race all the way down the Yukon from Kaltag to Shageluk and back up.
3 – Fairbanks is psyched to host the start! All week we’ve been hearing from excited locals who can’t wait to send off mushers as the race starts here in Fairbanks at 11 am on Monday, March 3rd.
(But as a quirky aside, all pre-race hoopla will still be in Anchorage! Events start on Thursday, Feb 27th with a musher meeting, public Meet and Greet, and the pre-race banquet. On Saturday, March 1st, Anchorage hosts the annual ceremonial start, although the route will be significantly shorter.)
