The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday with a ceremonial start in Anchorage. The race clock starts ticking for real with a restart at 2 p.m. Sunday in Willow, as teams head out on the 1,000-mile trail to Nome, where the top teams are expected to arrive about eight days later.
Here’s what to know about this year’s Iditarod:
1. Who’s competing this year?
There are 37 mushers in this year’s Iditarod: 23 veterans and 14 rookies. Only 34 of the teams are competing to win, though.
Most of the mushers call Alaska home, but a few are traveling from other states and countries.
This year’s field is the second smallest in the race’s history and comes after last year’s record low of 33. It’s a fraction of the 85 teams who competed in the race a decade ago.
Mushers have pointed to the high cost of keeping a kennel as a major factor in the decline.
This year’s teams include four past champions on the runners: Jessie Holmes, Ryan Redington, Pete Kaiser and Thomas Waerner, who is not actually in the competitive class of mushers.
Waerner is joining fellow Norwegian Kjell Røkke and Canadian entrepreneur Steve Curtis in the Iditarod’s first-ever Expedition Class. That will allow them to receive outside assistance, which is against the rules for other mushers. It’s controversial.
Røkke is a billionaire and has contributed more than $300,000 to the race to lower entry fees, boost the race purse and to support villages along the trail. The Iditarod says a “significant donation” from Røkke will help deliver preventative pediatric care this year to children in rural Alaska through a series of dental clinics and deliveries of oral hygiene supplies.
Røkke's participation in the Expedition Class has been known publicly since Iditarod signups in the summer of 2025. But it wasn’t until a media briefing Wednesday afternoon that Iditarod officials announced Curtis would also be joining the noncompetitive class. Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said Curtis is a cancer survivor who has climbed Mount Everest, that Curtis is also contributing a "substantial amount” in financial support and said more details would be released at a later date.
Mushers in the Expedition Class will be supported by veteran mushers on snowmachines, Urbach said, including four-time champion Jeff King, three-time competitor Jessica Klejka and Andy Pohl, who finished the race in 2018.
Waerner won the Iditarod in 2020, his second and most recent time competing. That year, Covid-19 restrictions forced Waerner and his dog team to hunker down in Alaska for over two months. They eventually made it home to Norway after a Norwegian museum purchased a vintage DC-6B aircraft in Fairbanks and used the delivery to bring the team home.
Absent this year is the Iditarod’s winningest musher, six-time champion Dallas Seavey, who said after his victory in 2024 that he was looking forward to spending more time with his family.
Other frequent contenders are also not in this year’s race, including Matthew Failor, twin sisters Anna and Kristy Berington, Nicolas Petit – who withdrew because of a shoulder injury – and Deke Naaktgeboren, who pulled out of the race in the best interest of his team after a tough but successful Yukon Quest 750, where they finished second.
2. Is the trail starting in Fairbanks again?
No. The race is back on its northern route out of Willow, which Iditarod officials confirmed in early February.
Officials moved the 2025 start to Fairbanks because of low snow, a decision they said required 10 months of work in 10 days.
“Last year, I often say, it almost broke me, just meaning the huge logistical challenge,” said race director Mark Nordman. “Having the snow is great for Anchorage.”
The Iditarod typically races the northern route on even years and the southern route on odd years. The trail is the same for the first 350 miles before splitting at the ghost town of Ophir, rejoining at Kaltag and continuing up the Bering Sea coast.
3. Can Holmes repeat?
Jessie Holmes describes winning the 2025 Iditarod as “a big cherry on top of my lifelong dream." This will be his ninth Iditarod, and he has placed in the top 10 in all but two of his previous attempts.
Holmes is seeking another win, which few mushers have achieved consecutively.
“I never even let myself be too jubilant about winning last year's race, because I knew that my goal was to be consistent,” he said. “My friends tried to throw a party for me, and I said, ‘Don't bother, wait till next year.’”
Holmes’ win in 2025 came on that rerouted trail out of Fairbanks, the longest Iditarod Trail in history, about 130 more miles than usual.
Having the race back on its normal 1,000-mile course is invigorating for him and his team, Holmes said.
“It’s kind of a foolish thing to say that it's going to be easy, but let's say it's going to be easier, mentally, just to know that we don't have to go extra miles,” he said. “I think it's going to be a mental boost to me and the dogs.”
Holmes said he’s been looking forward to getting back on the Iditarod Trail ever since his team passed under the famed Burled Arch – the Iditarod’s finish line in Nome – a year ago.
“I'm very driven to be able to have the opportunity to do something so special with my life that brings others joy, to see my success,” Holmes said. “I don't want to ever take that for granted.”
4. When does it start?
The Iditarod is the “Super Bowl” of dog mushing, which is the state sport, and starts with a celebration in downtown Anchorage on Saturday, March 7.
The event officially begins at 10 a.m. with the honorary musher Mary Shields, who was the first woman to finish the Iditarod and died in 2025. Her sled will be driven by four-time Jr. Iditarod champion Emily Robinson. She’ll be followed by her younger brother, 14-year-old Stanley Robinson, who recently won the 2026 Jr. Iditarod.
Then, starting at 10:06 a.m., each of the teams will hit the trail in three-minute intervals from Fourth Avenue near D Street.
Teams will mush 11 miles through the city. There are plenty of places to watch, including with a throng of people along Fourth Avenue, the bottom of the Cordova Street hill and along trails in the city’s Chester Creek Greenbelt and Campbell Airstrip, where the ceremonial ride ends.
For the safety of all pups, it’s a good idea to leave your furry friend at home.
Be prepared for road closures if you’re heading downtown, as the city center gets turned into a dog mushing venue. Fourth Avenue will be blocked, along with many side streets, between I Street and Cordova Street. Cordova is blocked to 16th Avenue, with police officers letting vehicles through sporadically on cross streets.
There are also parties along the trail, collectively referred to as “Trailgating,” where spectators cheer on mushers, blast music, grill hotdogs and often enjoy adult beverages for those ages 21 and up.
The real race officially begins with a restart at 2 p.m. Sunday on Willow Lake, about an hour and a half north of Anchorage.
5. What do mushers bring on the trail?
A lot.
Mushers are required to carry mandatory gear that gets checked at each checkpoint. That includes a cold weather sleeping bag, ax, dog booties, cooking supplies and jackets for each dog. They also carry a veterinarian notebook, which is signed by the vet team at each checkpoint after the team is assessed by staff.
Fuel for cookers and straw to bed down their teams are provided at checkpoints and not considered outside help, as they are provided to all mushers.
Mushers don’t carry everything they’ll need for the full 1,000 miles. Each musher is allowed to send a few “drop bags” to each checkpoint. They’re full of important supplies mushers will need along the trail, like dog food, extra clothes, medicine, replacement plastic for sled runners and hand warmers.
A couple mushers have heartwarming surprises waiting in those bags.
Jaye Foucher, a rookie from New Hampshire, sent out letters to open from a school back home. Foucher was supposed to run the Iditarod in 2022 but had to pull out (more on that later). Her stepmother had written her notes for the race, which Foucher saved to open this time around.
“Knowing my stepmom, they are probably humorous and snarky and funny, designed to make me laugh,” she said. “I'm sure some of them are just loving, supportive messages, too.”
Similarly, seven-time veteran Matt Hall’s wife, Elke, packed him goodie bags with handwritten notes to open at each checkpoint.
Mushers can even have replacement sleds sent to checkpoints before the race and are allowed to use a total of up to three sleds.
6. What can mushers win?
Race officials haven’t announced the official race purse but say it’ll be at least $650,000. That’s $100,000 more than last year, thanks to a pledge from Røkke, the Norwegian billionaire.
The exact amount each musher wins depends on where they place and the number of finishers. The top 20 finishers receive the highest payouts, while everyone after that receives $2,000.
Last year’s champ, Jessie Holmes, received a check for $57,200. But there’s a lot more up for grabs than money.
Mushers can also win a variety of prizes and awards for being the first into certain checkpoints, like a gourmet dinner with flown-in chefs for being the first musher to Ruby, or $1,500 worth of gold nuggets and local handmade art for reaching Unalakleet first.
A successful race to Nome also comes with an Iditarod Finisher’s Belt Buckle.
Røkke, the billionaire, Curtis and Waerner will receive an “Expedition Class Finisher's Buckle” if they make it to the Burled Arch.
7. Are there other international mushers?
Jesse Terry drove nearly 4,000 miles to compete in the Iditarod, which will be his first race in Alaska.
The Anishinaabe musher from Sioux Lookout, Ontario recently won the Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race and placed third in Minnesota’s 2026 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon.
Terry said he’s a big fan of long-haul trips with his dogs, especially during the winter.
“I love traveling with my dogs, I love going to new places, and I tend to really like big adventures,” he said. “You put all those things together and the Iditarod is the perfect fit.”
When mushing, Terry said, he feels a deep connection to his Indigenous ancestors, who also had sled dogs and used the sport as a means for supporting their families and sustaining their traditional ways of life.
That connection, he said, adds a deep intimacy to the sport and inspired the name of their kennel, On the Land Sled Dogs.
“I've always really been drawn to that phrase. You hear that a lot with the Indigenous cultures where I'm from and in many places across North America, this idea of going out on the land, and we're trying to connect with the land in a good way,” Terry said.
Terry said his goal is to simply make it to Nome with a healthy dog team. His dogs include Hans and Oaken, whose names were inspired by the Disney movie “Frozen” and picked by his daughter.
Mille Porsild was born and raised in Denmark and now lives in Willow. She has finished in the top 10 in four of the six Iditarods she’s raced and was named the 2020 Iditarod’s Rookie of The Year, making her the first woman to earn the award in over a decade (three other women have won Rookie of the Year since then). Porsild began mushing in 1992 and has competed in races around the world, including in Canada and Russia.
This will be Yukoner Michelle Phillips’ 13th time competing in the Iditarod. She achieved her highest finish ever last year, coming in 4th. It takes about 15 hours to drive from the kennel she shares with her husband, Ed Hopkins, to Willow, but Phillips said she doesn’t mind the road trip.
“The Iditarod is the ultimate long-distance race with the best mushers in the world. You know you're competing against the best,” Phillips said.
Phillips won the Yukon Quest 450 consecutively in 2024 and 2025 and has competed in numerous other mushing events in Alaska and Canada.
Long-distance mushing runs in Hanna Lyrek’s family: Her parents, Don and Trine, are both Iditarod finishers. Lyrek lived in Alaska until she was five years old, then moved to Norway, where she lives now. Lyrek’s been mushing for more than two decades and won the 2019 600-kilometer Finnmarksløpet, one of the biggest races in Europe. In 2022, the only year she has previously raced the Iditarod, she finished 19th and won Rookie of the Year.
8. Any interesting rookies this year?
There are 13 rookies in this year’s Iditarod.
One is Adam Lindenmuth, a musher originally from Whitehouse, Texas. He’s raised his team since they were pups.
“I know all their quirks, and they know all mine. I know what they think and they know what I think,” he said in a message. “My entire life revolves around them and I wouldn't want it any other way.”
Lindenmuth has a competitive side, but he said he’ll push that aside for this race, saying he wants to fully experience each of the checkpoints. He will also likely enjoy the 120 Smucker’s Uncrustables he packed to eat along the way. Lindenmuth is also a fan of fantasy books, according to his musher bio.
Getting to the starting line hasn’t been easy for the aforementioned rookie Jaye Foucher. She withdrew in 2022 after a truck hit her team near Willow a little over a month before the race started. One dog died as a result. Foucher said the incident has left her with PTSD.
“I've dedicated a lot of years getting here and chasing this dream,” Foucher said.
It took about 10 days for Foucher to drive from her kennel in New Hampshire to the Fairbanks area, where she has been training with her team since August. Like many mushers, her goal is to simply finish the race.
“A hefty enough goal for a rookie,” she said.
As you might guess, the Rookie of the Year Award goes to the top finishing Iditarod rookie and comes with a trophy, along with a $2,000 check.
Inupiaq musher Kevin Hansen, also a rookie, is from Kotzebue and ran his first distance race in 2017, according to his musher bio. He works as a physical therapist at the Maniilaq Association.
A few rookies are running veteran mushers’ dogs. Case in point, there isn’t a Seavey in the race, but Sadie Lindquist from Moose Pass is racing a dog team from three-time champ Mitch Seavey’s kennel. Seward’s Sam Paperman is running a team of young dogs from Travis Beals’ kennel. Sam Martin, originally from Massachusetts, will be racing with Matt Failor’s dogs.
Not all rookies are new to the race. Brenda Mackey of Fairbanks scratched in the 2021 race in Nikolai and again at the Tanana checkpoint in the 2025 race. Sydnie Bahl of Wasilla was withdrawn from last year’s race at the Grayling checkpoint for being too far behind. Technically, Richie Beattie finished the race in 2019 but was withdrawn from the race two days later after his dog, Oshi, died.
9. A Buser is back on the trail
For the first time, Rohn Buser will be racing the Iditarod with dogs from his own kennel, Susitna Sled Dog Adventures. He’s the son of Martin Buser, who competed in the Iditarod 39 times and won it four times.
Despite being the younger Buser, Rohn said he’s too old to chase that legacy, and it carries weight. It’s something he tries not to think about too much, he said.
“If I do well, people (will be) like, ‘That's just a given.’ But then if you don't do well, it's like, ‘Why didn't you do so good?’ Well, damned if you do, damned if you don't,” Rohn said.
He had to reflect on the reason he’s racing, he said, and it came down to the challenge it poses for him and his team. He described the trail as an “incredible puzzle” that involves a lot of strategy.
Rohn plans on running a younger group of dogs and said, although he’s competitive, his goal is just to make it to the finish line.
“Could I run the Iditarod for the next 10 years if I didn't have a winning team, would I still be happy? And the answer is yes. I'll be happy to just travel the trail,” he said.
Both Rohn and his older brother, Nikolai, were named after race checkpoints.
10. How can I follow along?
Alaska Public Media will have coverage online and on the radio throughout the race. Find the latest trail stories at alaskapublic.org/Iditarod. The race itself also has varying levels of coverage through its paid Iditarod Insider subscriptions.
There’s also Fantasy Mushing, which lets you put together a “team” of mushers and score points based on how well they do in the real Iditarod.
11. Will there be reporters out on the trail again?
Alaska Public Media will cover the ceremonial start in Anchorage and is sending Ava White to the McGrath checkpoint. Then, through a partnership with the Anchorage Daily News and KNOM, we’ll have stories from Ruby and Unalakleet. And, of course, we’ll have coverage of the finish in Nome.
Have other questions? Email awhite@alaskapublic.org or cgrove@alaskapublic.org, and we’ll get back to you.
