John 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
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Iditarod Standings - the top three (Dallas Seavey, Jessie Holms, Travis Beals) left Shaktoolik last night
UPDATE: Dallas Seavey breezed through the Koyuk checkpoint and is two hours ahead of the competition.
Iditarod Standings - the top five are in the Nulato checkpoint
Race map:
March 20 - 12:01 a.m.
Apayauq Reitan of Kaktovik has won the Red Lantern award, as the last musher to finish the Iditarod this year. Yuka Honda was not far in front of her, finishing just minutes ahead of Reitan.
Reitan finished with seven dogs in 13 days, 8 hours, 39 minutes, and 13 seconds.
March 17 - 9:35 p.m.
A total of 32 teams have crossed the finish line in Nome in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Official race standings show that Matthew Failor finished 30th at 8:51 p.m. on Thursday, followed by rookie Matt Paveglio at 9 p.m. and musher Karin Hendrickson at 9:05 p.m.
The remaining 11 teams are still on their way to the Nome, led by Riley Dyche, who left the White Mountain checkpoint at 8:06 p.m. Thursday. The remaining mushers are spread between the Koyuk and White Mountain checkpoints.
In all, six mushers have scratched this year. Lisbet Norris was the most recent to scratch, at the Unalakleet checkpoint with 10 dogs in harness at the time.
The race for third place in the 50th Iditarod is coming down to a duel between two mushers looking for their best Iditarod finish.
Brushkana’s Jessie Holmes and Chatanika’s Dan Kaduce left White Mountain midday Tuesday, with Holmes getting out at 11:35 a.m. and Kaduce leaving at 11:51 a.m.
Holmes has never finished better than seventh in the Last Great Race, a feat he accomplished as a rookie in 2018, while Kaduce has never finished in the top 10 in three previous races. Kaduce’s best career finish is 16th last year.
Richie Diehl and Pete Kaiser follow behind them, with Diehl leaving White Mountain at 12:50 p.m. Tuesday and Kaiser leaving 11 minutes later. Diehl has a best Iditarod finish of sixth in 2018, while Kaiser is a former champion (2019) with six total top 10′s in 12 starts.
Sass claims 2022 Iditarod title for first time in the Last Great Race
NOME, Alaska (KTUU) - Brent Sass of Eureka finally got the monkey off his back Tuesday morning when he hit the finish line in Nome to win the 2022 Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
It’s the first Iditarod victory for Sass, a former winner of the Yukon Quest sled dog race that had been shut out of the win column in six previous tries in the Last Great Race.
Not anymore.
Sass passed under the burled arch on Nome’s Front Street at 5:38 a.m. Tuesday, led by a team of 11 dogs in harness. The veteran beat five-time and defending champion Dallas Seavey to the finish, depriving Seavey of a record-breaking sixth Iditarod title.
As of 05:25 Alaska time, Brent Sass is 90 minutes ahead of Dallas Seavey, and only a few miles from the finish line in Nome.
Sass left the final checkpoint in Safety at 2:48 this morning. Seavey, the only other musher to reach Safety thus far, pulled out at 4:13.
Sass is still running with 11 dogs, while Seavey's team has shrunk to 7.
In the absence of some unforeseen obstacle, Sass is expected to pull into Nome first sometime early Tuesday morning. It is unlikely that Seavey would be able to make up the approximately 20 miles of distance between them in the miles they have left.
The next top four mushers have made it to White Mountain, and the rest are scattered across several checkpoints.
March 13 - 6:17 p.m.
Brent Sass is approaching Koyuk, only two miles away after traversing the sometimes dangerous sea ice of the Norton Sound. Second place musher Dallas Seavey is maintaining pace just 20 miles behind Sass as the pair prepare for the home stretch of the Iditarod along the southern edge of the Seward Peninsula, according to the Iditarod GPS tracker. Sass left Shaktoolik less than two hours ahead of Seavey. Sass left the Shaktoolik checkpoint at 9:18 a.m. and Seavey was right behind him, leaving at 11:04 a.m. for the Norton Bay sea ice.
“It’s not really that cold, to be honest with you. I mean it’s windy, but it’s not really that cold,” Sass told Iditarod.com on the Norton Bay ice.
The three mushers chasing Sass and Seavey are out of Unalakleet and headed for Shaktoolik, led by Aaron Burmeister with eight dogs. Richie Diehl is just three miles behind Burmeister with 11 dogs and Jessie Holmes is 12 miles behind Diehl. The mushers in places 6-13 have all arrived in Unalakleet, but have yet to leave. Sixth place musher Dan Kaduce is the only musher in the race to have all 14 dogs he started with still on his line.
Along the Yukon River, Apayauq Reitan and Yuka Honda remain in Ruby while rookie Kailyn Davis and Lisbet Norris are headed to Ruby from Cripple. Another 10 mushers have departed Kaltag for Unalakleet, six mushers remain in Nulato and seven mushers are at the Galena checkpoint.
Update: Brent Sass is already through the checkpoint at Elim. Complete standings may be found here.
March 13 - 10:21 a.m.
Musher Dogs Checkpoint Arrived Departed Miles to Nome Status
1. Brent Sass 12 Shaktoolik 3/13 9:10 a.m. 3/13 9:18 a.m. 213 Racing
2. Dallas Seavey 10 Unalakleet 3/13 1:22 a.m. 3/13 5:38 a.m. 227 Racing
3. Aaron Burmeister 9 Unalakleet 3/13 10:15 a.m. N/A 261 Racing
4. Jessie Holmes 11 Kaltag 3/12
4:12 p.m. 3/12 9:28 p.m. 281 Racing
5. Richie Diehl 11 Kaltag 3/12 5:50
p.m. 3/12
10:59 p.m. 283 Resting
Sass, Seavey rest dog teams along Iditarod Trail
Iditarod race leader Brent Sass is resting his team 40 miles out from the Unalakleet checkpoint, maintaining a 20-mile lead on five-time champion Dallas Seavey’s dog team, who is also resting. The pair of mushers have distanced themselves from much of the rest of the chase pack.
Seavey left the Kaltag checkpoint at 12:44 p.m. and ran his team for 37 miles before stopping to rest. Only two other musher — Jessie Holmes and Richie Diehl — has checked into Kaltag. Holmes has not yet left the checkpoint, and five other mushers are en route to Kaltag from Nulato.
Sass stopped over just after 5 p.m. along the trail to rest with just 299 miles between his team and Nome. Seavey’s chose to give his dogs a rest just after 4 p.m.
As the strategy of mushers deciding when to rest dogs and how many dogs they should keep on their line becomes more important, 7th place Mille Porsild and 9th place Chad Stoddard lead the top 10 with 13 dogs still leading their sleds. Aaron Burmeister — running in 4th place — and 8th place Mitch Seavey both have just nine dogs running ahead of their sleds.
Ryan Redington and Burmeister lead the group headed for Kaltag, and will arrive at the last checkpoint along the Yukon River shortly.
~ as of 6:45 pm yesterday. Stand by for updates.
March 12 - 10:04 a.m.
Brent Sass maintained the Iditarod he’s held since the Cripple checkpoint and was the first musher to arrive in Kaltag at 2:36 a.m. Saturday morning. Sass won the First Fish Award of $2,000 and 25 pounds of salmon from the Bristol Bay Native Corporation as the first musher in Kaltag.
Sass appears to be taking his 8-hour break in Kaltag, the last mandatory layover he has yet to complete. Second-place musher Dallas Seavey arrived in Nulato at 12:32 a.m. and took his 8-hour break, according to the Iditarod standings.
Sass was among the last mushers to take their 8-hour break. Mushers in places 3-8 have completed both their 8-hour and 24-hour mandatory layovers, and all of the top 20 mushers have completed their breaks except Sass, Chad Stoddard in 9th place and Matt Hall in 15th.
Sass maintains a 32-mile lead on Seavey and Seavey has a 15-mile lead on Jessie Holmes and Richie Diehl, both of whom have arrived in Nulato according to the Iditarod GPS tracker. The top 13 mushers are positioned between Galena and Kaltag, separated by just 84 miles.
Once Sass has finished his 8-hour layover at 10:36 a.m., he will then lead his dogs toward the Bering Sea Coast on the longest leg between checkpoints on the Iditarod Trail, an 85 mile trek from Kaltag to Unalakleet. Sass and Seavey are the only two mushers to have led their teams out of Nulato. Holmes and Diehl — currently resting in Nulato — are closely followed by Aaron Burmeister and Ryan Redington.
If Sass can beat Seavey and the rest of the chase pack to the Bering Sea coast, he will win the Ryan Air Gold Coast Award of $1,000 in gold nuggets and a carved ivory sled dog team.
The top six mushers all have less than 400 miles between their dog teams and the burled arch in Nome.
Sass first to Ruby, claims 5-course gourmet meal as first musher to Yukon River
Eureka’s Brent Sass arrived in Ruby at 5:57 a.m. Friday morning with 13 dogs in harness to claim the “Lakefront Anchorage First Musher to the Yukon Award”, according to a release from Iditarod officials.
It took Sass over 13 hours to make the 70-mile stretch from Cripple to Ruby, but was rewarded with a five-course gourmet meal prepared by Lakefront Anchorage executive chef Mark Castillo, according to the release.
The meal consists of pan-seared blackened shrimp served with mango chutney and cucumber for an appetizer, a reindeer minestrone soup with crostini bread, an iceberg wedge lettuce salad with bacon, apple, blue cheese crumbles and dried cranberries, an eight-ounce seared beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon with sides of asparagus, baby carrots, fingerling potatoes and a red wine mushroom sauce, and to top it all off, a dessert consisting of a trio cheesecake bar with strawberry sauce.
The meal is topped off with an “after dinner mint” of $3,500 in one-dollar bills, along with a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne, according to Iditarod officials.
Sass, however, did not enjoy the meal in Ruby, as he whisked through the checkpoint in five minutes, leaving at 6:02 a.m. Iditarod officials say the meal will be re-presented at a later time. The Ruby checkpoint is closest to the true halfway marker of the near-1,000 mile race; 495 miles from Anchorage and 480 from Nome.
Like most of the top runners in the race, Sass has taken his mandatory 24-hour layover and is in position to make a solid run at victory. In five previous starts in the Last Great Race, Sass has two top-five results, including a career-best of third last year.
The rest of the top five followed Sass into Ruby, with Hugh Neff arriving at 8:16 a.m., Dallas Seavey at 9:01 a.m., Jessie Holmes at 9:36 a.m. and Richie Diehl at 9:46 a.m. Of the top five, only Seavey has continued on in chase of Sass, spending only seven minutes in Ruby to take over the second-place spot.
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Most of the mushers are taking the mandatory 24-hour layover in McGrath, so the rankings haven't changed much since yesterday.
But the leaders are only days from Nome, depending on weather and trail conditions, so the racing goes from "spirited" to "hardcore" now. Minutes - and sometimes, even seconds, matter a great deal.
Don't think a second matters? Check this out:
In 1978, after mushing 1000 miles across the remote Alaska wilderness, Dick Mackey won the most exciting victory in the history of the Iditarod, defeating defending champion Rick Swenson by one second.
Talkeetna musher is first to scratch from race
Anja Radano is first musher to scratch from this year’s Iditarod. According to a Wednesday night press release, Radano, of Talkeetna, scratched at 9 p.m. at the Nikolai checkpoint.
“Radano made the decision to scratch in the best interest of her race team,” the release said.
She had 12 dogs with her at the time she decided to scratch.
Three mushers have checked in at Cripple, the official halfway point of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Brent Sass of Eureka was the first one there at 3:50 p.m. on Wednesday, followed by defending champion Dallas Seavey at 6:53 p.m.
Official race standings also show Hugh Neff checked in at Cripple at 8:41 p.m. Online GPS tracking showed Ryan Redington closing in to the checkpoint, just about 2 miles out on Wednesday evening.
The race’s top contenders have been leapfrogging over the last few legs, and several mushers have started opting to take their required 24-hour layover. Seavey told Iditarod Insider that he will take his 24-hour rest at the Cripple checkpoint.
Three mushers have already completed their mandatory 24-hour layover — Aaron Burmeister who took it at McGrath, as well as Matthew Failor and Ryne Olson.
Musher Brent Sass of Eureka was the first to reach the Cripple checkpoint of the 50th Iditarod on Wednesday afternoon, making his the first team to reach the halfway point of the race.
Official standings show Sass pulled into Cripple at 3:50 p.m., with five-time defending champion Dallas Seavey about 20 miles behind and the next closest musher. Cripple is the official halfway point for the northern route of the race, which is being used this year.
Sass was also the first to reach the checkpoint in 2020. He pulled in on Wednesday with 13 dogs in harness, making the run between checkpoints in 11 hours, 43 minutes. According to a press release, Sass has won the Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award. As a prize, he has the choice between either $3,000 in gold nuggets or a smartphone with a year of free GCI mobile service.
Sass and Seavey are pursued by a group of top contenders. GPS tracking of the race Wednesday afternoon showed Hugh Neff about 10 miles behind Seavey, while Ryan Redington and Mitch Seavey were also on the trail from Ophir to Cripple.
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Meanwhile, several teams have opted to take their 24-hour layover. Some of them, like Aaron Burmeister, are taking that layover in McGrath, while others are taking it in Ophir.
Seavey leads trio of mushers out of Ophir
Five-time and defending champion Dallas Seavey was first out of Ophir early Wednesday morning as he pursues a record-breaking sixth Iditarod title. Seavey left Ophir at 3:49 a.m. Wednesday after a quick stop and was followed by Brent Sass, who left the checkpoint just 18 minutes later. Sass was first to Ophir but spent over four hours resting his dogs, allowing Seavey to catch and pass him.
Sass is looking for his first win in the Last Great Race, after a career-best finish of third last year in his fifth Iditarod start.
GPS tracking of the race shows Seavey stopping Wednesday morning to break on the trail just past 5 a.m., allowing Sass to retake the lead. Keep in mind, however, that no musher has taken their two layovers, an eight-hour and a 24-hour break, so it remains to be seen who truly holds the keys to victory.
Dallas Seavey, Brent Sass, and Ryan Redington are the first three out of the checkpoint at Ophir in the wee hours, this morning. Richie Diehl, Mille Porsild, Jesse Holmes, Paige Drobny and Michelle Phillips are in Ophir, but haven't left yet.
This man has faced more adversity than most. Read his story here.
Excerpt:
After that 2001 throat cancer diagnosis, Mackey was known as a survivor. He beat cancer, and hit the sled dog trail. Winning four Yukon Quests and four Iditarods, back-to-back. In 2007 he was the first musher to win both 1,000-plus mile races in the same year. Then he did it again in 2008.
Then, Mackey’s trail got a little rocky.
Sass takes over leading spot out of Nikolai with both layovers still to come
Iditarod veteran Brent Sass was the first to leave Nikolai after Aaron Burmeister reached the checkpoint earlier Tuesday morning. Sass reached Nikolai about 1 1/2 hours after Burmeister but only spent eight minutes there before taking off at 9:20 a.m.
Sass is currently being pursued by five-time and defending champion Dallas Seavey, who left Nikolai eight minutes behind him.
