Editor’s note: This story will be updated as the mushers advance in the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Check back for more details.
Richard Arlin Walker
ICT
Reality TV star Jessie Holmes and his dog team won the 53rd Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Friday, March 14, crossing the finish line in Nome at 2:55 a.m. Alaska Time. He finished the 1,128-mile race in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds.
Inupiaq musher Ryan Redington, the only Alaska Native in the race, finished in eighth place, marking his fifth top 10 finish in the iconic race, which he won in 2023.
Read ICT’s full story on the race.
Day 11, March 13
Jessie Holmes and his dog team were the first to reach White Mountain on March 13 in the 53rd Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and barring the unexpected he could be the 2025 champion.
Holmes and his team arrived at White Mountain at 8:39 a.m. Alaska Time – a mere 71 miles from the finish line and his first Iditarod championship. Matt Hall and team arrived at 11:53 a.m. Paige Drobny was 24 miles behind Hall.
All mushers and teams must stop at White Mountain for an eight-hour rest. That means Holmes and team can leave White Mountain at 4:39 p.m., Hall at 7:53 p.m. From White Mountain, it’s 49 miles to Safety and from there 22 miles to the finish line in Nome at mile 1,128.
Shortly before noon, the remaining top 10 contenders were Michelle Phillips, three-time past champion Mitch Seavey, Bailey Vitello, past champion Ryan Redington, Mille Porsild, Riley Dyche and Matthew Failor.
“It’s Jessie’s to lose right now,” commentator Bruce Lee said on Iditarod Insider, who earlier had not counted out a close finish between Holmes and Hall. “They’re close enough that if one team falters and the other team really maintains, this could be decided between not only White Mountain and Nome but Safety and Nome.”
But that was before Holmes took a wide-enough lead to work in some additional rests and feedings for his dogs between Koyuk (mile 958) and Elim (mile 1,008) while Hall played catch up. By the time Holmes reached White Mountain, it seemed only the first part of Lee’s statement – that it was Holmes’s race to lose – held true.
However, anything can happen between White Mountain and Nome. Retired four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King (1993, 1996, 1998, 2006) was within 22 miles of his fifth Iditarod title in 2014 when he and his team lost the trail in a whiteout and were assisted back to the checkpoint at Safety, where he had to withdraw from the race.
Weather may not be a factor this year. The National Weather Service forecasts a high of 15 degrees and a low of 2 between Safety and Nome with north-northeast winds of 10 knots.
This Iditarod is the longest in its 53-year history because of a course change due to lack of snow. It also features what is believed to be one of the smallest number of starters and the smallest number of finishers in its history. Thirty-three mushers and teams left the starting line on March 3 in Fairbanks. Only 23 remained as of early March 13; 10 mushers withdrew out of concern for their dogs or were withdrawn by race officials because of lack of competitiveness.
From Fairbanks, mushers and teams raced southwest along the Yukon River to Kaltag, followed the river south to Shageluk then looped north on a return to Kaltag, headed west along an inland portion of the Iditarod National Historic Trail to Unalakleet on the Norton Sound coast, then traversed the sea ice north to Koyuk, mile 958. From Koyuk, mushers and teams are 170 miles from the finish line.
Redington, Inupiaq, the only Indigenous Alaskan in this year’s Iditarod, has remained consistently in the top 10. As he and his team passed other top 10 contenders resting in Koyuk, he looked to have a chance at a fifth-place finish. He has maintained an average moving speed of 7.9 mph and his team was filmed howling and pulling as they prepared to leave an earlier checkpoint.
“The team is doing good. They’re a little frisky yet,” Redington told Iditarod Insider on March 12. “They’re having fun and it’s an enjoyable team to mush. We’ve been resting a lot. I let ‘em have a nice long run here and we had a really nice run last night. It seemed like almost a full moon. The only thing that could have made it better would have been Northern Lights to go with it.”
Redington’s grandfather, Joe Redington Sr., who was non-Native, founded the race in 1973 to celebrate the heritage of the Alaska sled dog. The race was won by Alaska Natives in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011, 2019 and 2023. The top three finishers in 1974 and 2023 were Alaska Natives. And 2011 champion John Baker, Inupiaq, is the sixth-winningest Iditarod musher of all time, with a total of $602,658 in earnings in 22 races.
Another top 10 finish would be Redington’s fifth. He won the championship in 2023 and finished ninth, seventh and eighth the previous three years.
Holmes, who is known to fans of NatGeo’s “Life Below Zero,” finished third in 2024 and 2022 and fifth in 2023. Hall finished second in 2024 and fourth in 2023. Drobny finished fifth in 2024 and seventh in 2020 and 2019.
Day 10, March 12
Mushers Jessie Holmes and Matt Hall and their dog teams were within four miles of each other at 8:20 a.m. Alaska Time on Wednesday, March 12, as they approached within 200 miles of the finish line in the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Holmes and his team were at mile 928 on the Norton Sound coast and picking up their pace to 8.4 mph. Hall was at mile 924 and resting, but had maintained an average moving speed of 7.4 mph. Paige Drobny and her team were resting at mile 908 but had maintained an average moving speed of 8.0 mph.
Past Iditarod champion Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, had moved up to sixth at mile 864 and was racing at 9.7 mph with an average moving speed of 8.1 mph. Three-time past champion Mitch Seavey was behind him at mile 861.
The front three are heading to Koyuk (mile 958), then Elim (mile 1008) and White Mountain (mile 1,057), where all mushers and teams are required to take an eight-hour rest. Then, they move on to Safety (mile 1,106) and then the finish in Nome at mile 1,128.
“It’s really exciting we have three teams that are this close,” Iditarod Insider commentator Bruce Lee said March 11, adding that it could be close all the way to the finish line.
Lee and fellow commentator Greg Heiser were glad to get to the Norton Sound coast. Some 785 miles of the race were along the Yukon River, where mushers and dog teams encountered cold wind, mushy trail conditions and not much else. It was a lonely stretch – at one checkpoint, a cabin was the only dwelling – and Lee said the monotony of the race along the Yukon made the race feel like it was “2,500 miles, uphill both ways.”
Norton Sound and the Bering Sea coast “is one of the places in Alaska that I love the most, summer and winter,” Lee said on Iditarod Insider. “When I ran the Iditarod, I used to say that I ran all the other miles just to get to the Bering Sea coast – striking scenery, different Native culture. It feels like dog-mushing country.”
Holmes, Hall and Drobny are experienced, formidable competitors. Holmes has competed in seven Iditarods, finishing third in 2024, fifth in 2023, third in 2022, ninth in 2020, and seventh in 2018, his rookie year. Hall has competed in six Iditarods, finishing second in 2024, fourth in 2023, and sixth in 2019. Drobny has competed in nine Iditarods, placing fifth in 2024 and seventh in 2019 and 2020.
Holmes, Hall and Drobny’s teams were looking strong at 900 miles – well-fed and rested. They’ve camped off trail and stopped at checkpoints for three or four hours in addition to the required 24- and eight-hour rests all mushers and teams are required to take.
Holmes stopped in Unalakleet (mile 866) at 7:03 p.m. March 11 only to check in and receive the Ryan Air Gold Coast Award for being the first musher to arrive at that checkpoint: one ounce of gold nuggets valued at more than $1,500 and a wood-carved loon.
“We’re feeling good,” Holmes responded when asked how he and his dog team were doing. “It’s hard to not be energized with all this awesome energy around.”
Other first-musher-in awards Holmes has received in this race: in Kaltag, the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award of 25 pounds of Bristol Bay salmon filets, $2,000, and an art piece by artist Apay’uq Moore, Yup’ik; in Grayling southbound, GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award, $3,000 in gold nuggets and a perpetual trophy made of Alaskan birch and marble; and in Grayling northbound, the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award, beaver-fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle, Athabascan; and a beaver fur hat made by Rosalie Egrass, Athabascan.
Thirty-three mushers and teams left the starting line on March 3 in Fairbanks. Seven mushers – two Iditarod veterans and five rookies – have since scratched. Rookie Daniel Klein dropped out in Galena (mile 369) on March 7 after one of his dogs, Ventana, collapsed. Efforts to revive Ventana were unsuccessful and she died, the Iditarod Race Committee reported. Two board-certified veterinary pathologists in Anchorage conducted a necropsy.
“At this time, the only unexpected finding was that Ventana was pregnant,” Iditarod race marshal Warren Palfrey reported on March 8. “Further testing at the laboratory is being performed as per race protocol for thorough investigation to complete the necropsy study.”
Day 9, March 11
Matt Hall and his team pushed ahead of Jessie Holmes at Kaltag (mile 785) early March 11 as Holmes and team took one of the two eight-hour rests that are required in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Hall, who took his 24-hour rest in Galena (mile 369) and his eight-hour rest in Shageluk (mile 631), arrived at the Kaltag checkpoint at 4:45 a.m. Alaska time and departed at 4:57 a.m., turning west off the Yukon River onto the Iditarod National Historic Trail for the 81-mile trek to Unalakleet (mile 866) and the Norton Sound coast. Unalakleet is 262 miles from the finish line in Nome.
All but one of the top 10 mushers and teams have taken their required 24-hour and eight-hour rests. A second eight-hour rest is required at White Mountain (mile 1,057), so each musher’s run-rest-run strategy from here will be interesting to watch. Six-time champion Dallas Seavey, who is not competing in the Iditarod this year, liked to take a wide early lead to force other mushers to cut their rests short and catch up. In one Iditarod he rested his team out of view off-trail and other mushers pushed on, thinking he was still racing. They cut their rests short to chase a ghost.
Hall arrived in Kaltag roughly 7 hours 15 minutes after Holmes. Hall’s dogs last rested for two hours in Grayling (mile 659) but likely took rests in between checkpoints en route to Eagle Island and Kaltag, so he’ll be contending with a Holmes team that is freshly fed and rested. Holmes and his team left Kaltag at 5:28 a.m., a half-hour after Hall.
At 5:51 a.m., Hall and his team were at mile 790 and moving at 6.3 mph. Holmes was at mile 787 and closing in at 7.8 mph. Paige Drobny and her team were at mile 785 and taking a break.
Rounding out the top 10: Nic Petit at mile 751 (7.9 mph), Michelle Phillips at mile 748 (7.2 mph), Mille Porsild at mile 738 (9.2 mph), Bailey Vitello at mile 735 (7.8 mph), three-time Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey at mile 725 (7.6 mph), Travis Beals at mile 722 (8.7 mph), and Ryan Redington resting at mile 715. Redington’s average moving speed has been 8.2 mph.
Redington, Inupiaq, won the race in 2023. He is the only Alaska Native musher in the 2025 Iditarod.
Holmes was the first musher to arrive at Kaltag and received the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award – 25 pounds of Bristol Bay salmon filets, $2,000, and an art piece by artist Apay’uq Moore, Yup’ik.
Earlier, Holmes received the GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award for being the first musher to reach the Grayling checkpoint, at mile 582, the halfway point of the 2025 race. He received $3,000 in gold nuggets and a perpetual trophy made of Alaskan birch and marble.
He was also the first to reach Grayling the second time – on the return up the Yukon River – and won the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award: a pair of beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle, Athabascan, and a beaver fur hat made by Rosalie Egrass, Athabascan.
Day 8, March 10
Jessie Holmes had a 20-mile lead ahead of his closest competitor at 6 a.m. Alaska time on Monday, March 10, after passing the halfway mark in the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Holmes and his team have maintained an average moving speed of 8.3 mph and was resting his team at mile 699 on the Yukon River enroute to Eagle Island and Kaltag.
Matt Hall and his team passed Paige Drobny at mile 678 as she rested her team; Hall was running at 6.9 mph. Mitch Seavey, a three-time past champion, and his team were at mile 660 and running at 5.9 mph.
Past champion Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, and his team were at mile 634 and in ninth place. They were running at 8.2 mph. Redington is the only Alaska Native in the race.
This Iditarod, the 53rd running, is 1,128 miles, the longest in the race’s history. The race officially began March 3 in Fairbanks. Thirty-three mushers and teams left the starting line, and five have since dropped out.
From Fairbanks, mushers and dogs traveled 456 miles along the Yukon River to Kaltag, then turned south on a 329-mile loop to Shageluk and back. Upon returning to Kaltag, mushers and dogs will head west on an 81-mile run along Iditarod National Historic Trail to Unalakleet, and then traverse the Norton Sound coast on the 262 miles to the finish line in Nome.
Drobny received the Feast on the Yukon Award – a locally sourced gourmet dinner prepared by a chef – on March 6 for being the first musher to arrive at the Galena checkpoint on the Yukon River, roughly the one-third mark at mile 369.
Holmes received the GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award on March 8 for being the first musher to reach the Grayling checkpoint, at mile 582, the halfway point of the 2025 race. He received $3,000 in gold nuggets and a perpetual trophy made of Alaskan birch and marble.
Holmes also was the first to reach Grayling the second time – March 9 on the return up the Yukon River – and won the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award. He received a pair of beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle; and a beaver fur hat made by Rosalie Egrass. Maillelle, of Grayling, and Egrass, of McGrath, are Athabascan.
Day 7, March 9
Inupiaq musher Ryan Redington and his team remained in the top 10 in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Sunday, March 9, reaching the halfway point of Grayling (mile 582) at 5:08 a.m.
Redington chose to take his mandatory eight-hour rest there. Ahead of him are past champion Mitch Seavey in seventh, Bailey Vitello in sixth, Nic Petit in fifth, Michelle Phillips in fourth, Matt Hall in third, Paige Drobny in second and Jessie Holmes in first.
By noon, Holmes and Drobny had reached Shageluk, the terminus of the southern spur in the route, and were heading north where they’ll revisit Grayling, Eagle Island and Kaltag and then turn west onto the Iditarod National Historic Trail to Unalakleet (mile 866) and the Norton Sound coast. Mushers and teams then travel the often frigid, windswept coastline to the finish line in Nome.
This Iditarod, the 53rd running, is 1,128 miles, the longest in the race’s history. The race began officially on Monday, March 3, in Fairbanks. Thirty-three mushers and teams left the starting line; five have since dropped out.
Redington is the 2023 Iditarod champion and the only Alaska Native in this year’s race. He has four top-10 Iditarod finishes and is also a two-time winner of the Kobuk 440 in Kotzebue and the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Northern Minnesota.
Redington and his team took their required 24-hour rest in Galena (mile 369), with additional rests and feedings as needed, and have maintained an average moving speed of 8.6 mph. Their speed slowed to 5.26 mph on the 70-mile run from Kaltag to Eagle Island, the previous checkpoint, and Redington was counting on fresh snow to make the trail easier on the return north along the Yukon River to Kaltag.
Grayling “is a good stop for my team,” he told Iditarod Insider as his team rested. “It was a tough trail to get into Eagle Island … You couldn’t fall asleep on the runners, you had to pay attention the whole time. It took a lot of effort by the dogs and the mushers. The snow we’re getting now will make it a lot better.”
Of the competition, he said, “I haven’t seen Jessie for a while. Mitch’s team is really impressive in how they eat and their attitude. There are a lot of really nice-looking teams. It’s exciting for me to watch that. It’s a pretty cool race.”
Day 6, March 8
Paige Drobny leapfrogged ahead of Jessie Holmes at mile 495 early on Saturday, March 8, in the 1,128-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as Inupiaq musher Ryan Redington remained in the top 10.
At 8:15 a.m. Alaska time, Drobny and her team were at mile 506 and Holmes was close by at mile 500. Rounding out the top 10 at that time: Matt Hall at mile 493; Michelle Phillips at mile 481; Mille Porsild at mile 477; past champion Mitch Seavey at mile 473; past champion Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, at mile 471; Riley Dyche at mile 464; and Nic Petit and rookie Emily Ford at mile 456.
Iditarod Insider commentator Bruce Lee, an Iditarod veteran, said in a livecast early March 8 that the top 5 teams were looking really strong and traveling faster than he expected. If he were a betting man, he said, he’d favor Drobny or Phillips to win – a finish that would add to the history of this race.
Commentator Greg Heiser said that would make this Iditarod one of the greatest in its 53-year running. The route is usually 975 to 998 miles; this year it’s 1,128 and the longest ever. And should Drobny or Phillips win, they would be the first female Iditarod champion since Susan Butcher in 1990.
Lee commented on the mental challenges of this year’s race. This race follows the Yukon River for 785 miles, then turns west onto the Iditarod National Historic Trail to Unalakleet (mile 866) and the Norton Sound coast.
Lee said the usual route – which lacked snow this year – has transitions that are lacking in this race: the Alaska Range, the interior Athabascan villages, the open tundra, and the coast. This race is river, river, river, and coast.
“It contributes to how long this race already feels,” Lee said.
Twenty-eight mushers were still in the race as of morning March 8. Five mushers – including 2024 fourth-place finisher Jeff Deeter – have dropped out in the interest of their dogs since the official start of the race on March 3 in Fairbanks, the Iditarod Trail Committee reported.
The top eight teams Saturday morning had taken their required 24-hour rests; Petit, Ford and their dog teams were taking their required 24s in Kaltag (mile 456). Ford’s team is energized; she has fed and rested them for least four hours at most checkpoints and when running has maintained an average moving speed of 7.6 mph to stay in contention.
All mushers are also required to take two eight-hour breaks at checkpoints – one of them at White Mountain (mile 1,057) – but mushers give their teams additional rests and feedings based on dog performance and trail conditions. As the teams approach the halfway point, each musher’s rest-and-run strategy becomes clearer.
Drobny moved ahead of Holmes as he gave his team an additional break at mile 495 and she and her team accelerated to 9 mph to take a nine-mile lead before Holmes and team again took up the race.
The route turns south at Kaltag and mushers and teams follow the Yukon River to Eagle Island (mile 526). “The musher finds his constant battle with cold winds on the Yukon River about half over, but it’s still a long 65 miles to the next checkpoint,” according to the Iditarod Trail Committee. “Ralph Conatser’s cabin, the only dwelling in Eagle Island, is the checkpoint.”
When mushers and dogs reach the next checkpoint, Grayling (mile 582), they’ve passed the halfway point in the race. The route continues south to Anvik and Shageluk, then loops north and returns to Grayling. The first musher to reach Grayling 2 (mile 659) will receive a pair of beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle, Athabascan.
Mushers and teams stop a second time in Eagle Island (mile 715) and Kaltag (mile 785) and then turn west onto the Iditarod National Historic Trail to Unalakleet (mile 866). This is part of the route used in the 1925 Serum Run, in which mushers and dog teams delivered a diphtheria antitoxin to rural communities to fend off an epidemic.
The first musher to Unalakleet receives $1,500 in gold nuggets and a carved ivory sculpture of a sled dog team.
In Unalakleet, mushers and dog teams enter the often frigid and windblown Norton Sound coastline and are 262 miles from the finish line in Nome. They’ll stop in Shaktoolik (mile 908), Koyuk (mile 958), Elim (mile 1,008), White Mountain (mile 1,057), and Safety (mile 1,106) before those final 22 miles to the finish line.
Redington is the only Indigenous Alaskan in this year’s Iditarod. His grandfather, Joe Redington Sr., who was non-Native, founded the race in 1973 to celebrate the heritage of the Alaska sled dog. The race was won by Alaska Natives in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011, 2019 and 2023. The top three finishers in 1974 and 2023 were Alaska Natives. And 2011 champion John Baker, Inupiaq, is the sixth-winningest Iditarod musher of all time, with a total of $602,658 in earnings in 22 races.
Day 5, March 7
The strategies are becoming clearer, the field is winnowing down, and the race is changing by the day.
Jessie Holmes and his dog team moved into the lead on Friday, March 7, in the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, opting to take their required 24-hour rest in Kaltag (mile 456). Holmes is hoping the lead he’s built will push other competitors to cut their rests short and play catch-up.
Holmes and his team arrived at 12:42 a.m. Alaska time, clocking 8.28 mph in the run from Nulato (mile 420). Nic Petit and his dogs arrived in Kaltag some 7.5 hours later and were resting late morning. Four mushers, among them three-time champion Mitch Seavey, were in Nulato feeding and resting their dogs.
2023 champion Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, was in ninth place and resting his team in Galena (mile 469). He told Iditarod Insider, the Iditarod’s online program, that he decided to rest his team in Galena for 24 hours so they could eat well and sleep out the warm daytime temperatures. He told Iditarod Insider he wanted to “let them bounce back and enjoy a good [rest].”
The temperature in Galena is expected to peak at 25 degrees Fahrenheit on March 7 with occasional snow showers, according to the National Weather Service.
The 53rd annual Iditarod got underway at 11 a.m. on March 3 in Fairbanks. Some 33 mushers and teams embarked on the 1,128-mile journey to Nome, which incorporates part of the route used in the 1925 Serum Run, in which mushers and dog teams delivered a diphtheria antitoxin to rural communities to fend off an epidemic.
Two mushers dropped out in Tanana (mile 202): rookies Brenda Mackey on March 5 amd Charmayne Morrison on March 6, both in the best interest of their teams, the Iditarod Trail Committee reported.
Mushers and their dog teams are required to take one 24-hour rest and two eight-hour rests during the race, but they take additional rests as needed off trail or at checkpoints. Timing and length of rests, as well as knowing when to pick up the pace or ease off based on dog performance and trail conditions, factor into strategy.
Grayling (mile 582) is the next checkpoint after Kaltag and Eagle Island. In Grayling, the route continues south to Anvik and Shageluk, then loops north and returns to Grayling. The first musher to reach Grayling 2 (mile 659) will receive a pair of beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle, Athabascan. The first musher to Unalakleet (mile 866) will receive $1,500 in gold nuggets and a carved ivory sculpture of a sled dog team.
In Unalakleet, mushers and dog teams enter the often frigid and windblown Norton Sound coastline and are 262 miles from the finish line in Nome.
Redington is the only Alaska Native in this year’s Iditarod. His grandfather, Joe Redington Sr., who was non-Native, founded the race in 1973 to celebrate the heritage of the Alaska sled dog.
The race was won by Alaska Natives in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011, 2019 and 2023. The top three finishers in 1974 and 2023 were Alaska Natives. And 2011 champion John Baker, Inupiaq, is the sixth-winningest Iditarod musher of all time, with a total of $602,658 in earnings in 22 races.
Day 4, March 6
Inupiaq musher Ryan Redington and his sled dogs were among the five teams in front of the field on Thursday, March 6, in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Redington, the 2023 champion, and his well-rested team were moving at 8.4 mph at 8:30 a.m. Alaska Time, some 348 miles into the 1,128-mile race, according to an Iditarod GPS tracker.
Paige Drobny and her team were in the lead at mile 369, with an average moving speed of 8.7 mph, and had built up enough distance to afford her team a rest.
Matt Hall and his team were in second at mile 361, with an average moving speed of 7.6 mph. Jessie Holmes and his team were in third at mile 356, having picked up their pace to 8.7 mph in an attempt to close the gap. Michelle Phillips and her team were in fourth at mile 355 and looking to move up, with an average moving speed of 8.6 mph.
The front five is a formidable group.
Drobny placed fifth in 2024 and is a veteran of nine Iditarods with three top 10 finishes. Hall placed second in 2024 and is a veteran of six Iditarods with three top 10 finishes. Holmes, an ultramarathoner and outdoorsman known for his appearances in NatGeo’s “Life Below Zero,” placed third in 2024 and has five top 10 finishes in seven Iditarods. Phillips is a veteran of 12 Iditarods, her career-high finish being 11th in 2021.
Drobny was the first musher to reach Ruby, mile 319, the home of 1975 Iditarod Champion Emmitt “The Yukon Fox” Peters (1940-2020). The first musher into Ruby receives a gourmet dinner prepared by chefs from top locally sourced restaurants. Another honor awaits the first musher into Kaltag, the checkpoint at mile 456: a check for $2,000 and 25 pounds of Bristol Bay salmon.
Mushers and their dog teams are required to take one 24-hour rest and two eight-hour rests during the race, but they take additional rests as needed off trail or at checkpoints. Timing and length of rests, as well as nutrition and pace, are part of the strategy. Bruce Lee of Iditarod Insider reported a few mushers told him they expected to take their mandatory 24-hour rests on Kaltag or Grayling, roughly midway into the race.
In Grayling (mile 582), the route continues south to Anvik and Shageluk, then loops north and returns to Grayling. The first musher to reach Grayling 2 (mile 659) will receive a pair of beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle, Athabascan. The first musher to Unalakleet (mile 866) will receive $1,500 in gold nuggets and a carved ivory sculpture of a sled dog team.
In Unalakleet, mushers and dog teams enter the often frigid and windblown Norton Sound coastline and are 262 miles from the finish line in Nome.
Redington is the only Indigenous Alaskan in this year’s Iditarod. His grandfather, Joe Redington Sr., who was non-Native, founded the race in 1973 to celebrate the heritage of the Alaska sled dog.
The race was won by Alaska Natives in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011, 2019 and 2023. The top three finishers in 1974 and 2023 were Alaska Natives. And 2011 champion John Baker, Inupiaq, is the sixth-winningest Iditarod musher of all time, with a total of $602,658 in earnings in 22 races.
Day 3, March 5
Past Iditarod champion Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, and his sled dogs were the eighth team to leave the checkpoint in Tanana on Wednesday, March 5, departing at 3:12 a.m. after a six-hour rest.
Redington and his team averaged just under 6 mph into Tanana, but by 9:30 a.m. they had picked up their pace to 9.7 mph on the Yukon River ice and were at mile 245 and closing in on leader Paige Drobny, a three-time, top-10 finisher.
Mitch Seavey, the only other past Iditarod champion in the field, was at mile 230 and in 11th place.
The next checkpoint: Ruby, mile 319 in the 1,128-mile race. This town of 187 residents has special significance in the world of mushing. This was the home of 1975 Iditarod Champion Emmitt “The Yukon Fox” Peters (1940-2020). Ruby was also home “for many of the mushers who carried mail for the Northern Commercial Company from Tanana to Ruby,” according to information provided by the Iditarod Trail Committee. “Dog team mail ended here in 1931.”
The first musher to reach Ruby will receive a gourmet dinner prepared by chefs from top locally sourced restaurants. Other awards to be presented to the first musher to reach specific checkpoints: in Kaltag (mile 456), a check for $2,000 and 25 pounds of Bristol Bay salmon; and in Grayling (mile 582), a trophy and $3,000 in gold nuggets or a new smartphone with a year of free service.
In Grayling, the route continues south to Anvik and Shageluk, then loops north and returns to Grayling. The first musher to reach Grayling 2 — 659 miles into the race — will receive a pair of beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, handmade by Loretta Maillelle, Athabascan. The first musher to Unalakleet (mile 866) will receive $1,500 in gold nuggets and a carved ivory sculpture of a sled dog team.
Thirty-three teams are competing in this year’s Iditarod, which is taking place during the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Serum Run, when mushers and dog teams delivered diphtheria antitoxin to remote Alaskan villages to ward off an epidemic. This year’s mushers and dog teams will retrace much of the route used in 1925. They’ll travel the Yukon River to Unalakleet on Norton Sound, and will travel along an often windy, frigid coastline for 262 miles to the finish line in Nome.
Redington, a veteran of 10 Iditarods with one championship and four top-10 finishes, told Iditarod Insider in Tanana that he was focused on keeping his team happy and not running them too far without a break — 55 miles or less at 9.6 to 9.7 mph.
As for how he’s staying in the zone: “I’m just listening to music and enjoying the race,” he told Iditarod Insider, the race’s online channel. “I’m enjoying the beauty of the race and the country that we’re in here. It’s never boring.”
Day 2, March 4
Eight-time Iditarod veteran Jason Mackey held a narrow lead Tuesday, March 4, in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
But past champion Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, was within six miles of Mackey and closing at 8 a.m. Alaska Time. The 1,128-mile race officially began March 3 in Fairbanks.
Mackey — whose father and two brothers were Iditarod champions — and his dog team were resting in Manley Hot Springs, 137 miles into the race, according to the Iditarod GPS tracker.
Redington and his dog team were fresh off a rest 107 miles into the race, near the confluence of the Tenana and Tolovana rivers, and had resumed racing at an average speed of 9.7 mph.
Matt Hall, who finished second in 2024 and fourth in 2023, was at mile 123 and in sixth place; he and his dog team were racing at 8.4 mph. Jessie Holmes of “Life Below Zero,” who finished third in 2024 and fifth in 2023, was at mile 120 and in 10th place; he and his team had picked up their pace to 10.4 mph.
Mitch Seavey, the only other past champion in the race, was at mile 115 and in 12th place; he and his dog team were racing at 10.2 mph.
Thirty-three teams are competing in this year’s Iditarod, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Serum Run of 1925, when mushers and dog teams delivered diphtheria antitoxin to remote Alaskan villages to ward off an epidemic.
This year’s mushers and dog teams will retrace much of the route used in 1925. They’ll follow the winding Yukon River for 785 miles, head west on the Iditarod National Historic Trail to Unalakleet on Norton Sounds, and then traverse an often windy, frigid coastline on their final stretch to Nome.
Day 1, March 3
Thirty-three mushers and dog teams set off from Fairbanks to Nome on Monday, March 3, in the 53rd Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. This year’s race is unique in many ways. Here are some highlights.
Serum Run: The 2025 Iditarod takes place during the 100th anniversary of the Serum Run of 1925, a relay of mushers and dog teams that fended off a diphtheria epidemic by delivering antitoxin to remote Alaska communities. The sled dog had been part of Alaska Native life for centuries, but – thanks to coverage in newspapers and on radio – the Serum Run of 1925 cemented the Alaska sled dog in the world’s eyes as a symbol of grit and tenacity.
Family ties: The Iditarod was founded in 1973 to keep alive the heritage of the Alaska sled dog, which was being supplanted by snow machines (snowmobiles, to you lower 48ers). This year’s race features several mushers with family ties to the first Iditarod: past champion Ryan Redington, grandson of race founder Joe Redington Sr.; three-time champion Mitch Seavey, whose father Dan competed in the first and 40th Iditarods, and several other in between; Jason Mackey, whose father Dick raced in the first Iditarod and won the race in 1978; and Brenda Mackey, Dick’s granddaughter and Jason’s niece. All told, six Mackeys, six Redingtons and six Seaveys have raced in the Iditarod. The Mackeys have produced three champions, the Seaveys two, and the Redingtons one.
Climate change: This year’s race casts the spotlight, as it has in past years, on a changing climate in Alaska. An estimated 114 Alaska Native communities “face some degree of infrastructure damage from erosion, flooding or permafrost melt,” the Associated Press reported, quoting a January 2024 report from the Alaska Native Health Tribal Consortium. Thawing permafrost is causing riverbank loss along the Kuskokwim and the Yukon rivers.
Several pre-Iditarod mid-distance races were canceled or rescheduled this year because of unusually warm weather and lack of snow; the Iditarod was also affected. The race usually starts in Willow and ends in Nome, a distance of 975 or 998 miles, depending on a route that alternates between odd and even years. But because of hazardous trail conditions resulting from lack of snow, this year’s race start was moved to Fairbanks. The race distance increased by about 130 miles.
Mushers and dog teams will check in at Nenana, Manley, Tanana, Ruby, Galena, Nulato, Kaltag, Eagle Island, Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, White Mountain and Safety before reaching Nome. Total distance: 1,128 miles, according to the Iditarod Race Committee.
Strategy and endurance: Mushers and dog teams are required to take one 24-hour rest and two eight-hour rests, although mushers generally feed and rest their teams as needed off-trail or at checkpoints.
Training, nutrition, pace and timing of rests are all part of a team’s strategy. But that was upended with the move of the race start to Fairbanks. The route from Fairbanks to Nome is flatter than Willow to Nome, and mushers may decide to travel farther before taking their required 24-hour rest. But they’ll have to contend with conditions along the Yukon River.
“If you’ve been on the lower Yukon River, where that river is a mile wide, if there’s a wind it’s just like being on the Bering Sea coast,” Iditarod veteran Bruce Lee said on Iditarod Insider. “The trail blows in and it can be very challenging, physically and mentally, for both mushers and dogs.”
Representing the underrepresented: Ryan Redington, Inupiaq, is one of six Alaska Natives to win the Iditarod but is the only Indigenous Alaskan in this year’s race. A retired Iditarod veteran, Mike Williams Sr., Yup’ik, said in earlier interviews that the cost of flying in food and supplies and taking time off from work to travel to good training grounds is expensive for rural Alaska Native mushers. Another musher, 2019 champion Peter Kaiser, Yup’ik, said he’s taking a break after a tough training season made tougher by lack of snow.
Alaska Native mushers were once a dominant force in the Iditarod. The race was won by Alaska Natives in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011, 2019 and 2023. The top three finishers in 1974 and 2023 were Alaska Natives. And 2011 champion John Baker, Inupiaq, is the sixth-winningest Iditarod musher of all time, with a total of $602,658 in earnings in 22 races. Williams said he hopes the Alaska Native presence in the Iditarod will rebuild. For him, it’s a culturally significant event: sled dogs have been part of Alaska Native life for centuries, he said, and in the Iditarod mushers travel ancestral routes the way their ancestors did.
Iditarod rookie Emily Ford is African-American, an Alaska transplant from Duluth, Minnesota, and a veteran of several challenging mid-distance races. She’s mushing in the Iditarod because “I want to continue to represent Black people in cold places.”
She noted in her Iditarod biography the influence of Black cold-weather pioneers, among them North Pole expeditioner Matthew Henson, and Iditarod finishers Becca Moore and Newton Marshall.
“With an understanding and drive to show that anyone can adventure and everyone deserves to discover the outdoors, regardless of race, gender identity or upbringing, I continue to seek adventure and represent the underrepresented in outdoor spaces,” Ford said in her bio.
A look at the competition: The field of 33 mushers includes 17 veterans and 16 rookies from four countries (Canada, Denmark, Norway, U.S.) and seven U.S. states (Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin). Three mushers are well-known from reality TV: Lauro Eklund, “Mountain Men”; Jessie Holmes, “Life Below Zero”; and Quince Mountain, “Naked and Afraid”.
Two mushers are past Iditarod champions: Ryan Redington, 2023; and Mitch Seavey, 2017, 2013, 2004. Nine have finished in the top 10, three are past second-place finishers.
Seavey is by far the most seasoned musher, having competed in 27 Iditarods with 18 top 10 finishes. Redington has completed 10 Iditarods and has four top 10 finishes.
Several 2025 Iditarod competitors tested their mettle in respected mid-distance races in January and February. Redington finished second in the Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race, an annual 200-mile race that starts in Knik. Holmes won the Copper Basin 300, an annual 300-mile race that starts in Glennallen. Michelle Phillips won the 450-mile Yukon Quest, an annual race that starts in Teslin.
No small task: Competing in the Iditarod is a logistical feat. Mushers drop food bags and bales of straw for dog beds at each checkpoint before the race. Volunteers staff checkpoints, make coffee, log musher and dog team’s arrival and departure times, and do veterinary health checks.
BY THE NUMBERS
Here’s a look at some of the numbers, from the Iditarod Trail Committee.
*Pounds of dog food: 180,000
*Dog booties: 100,000
*Bales of straw: 1,200
*Cups of coffee: 25,000
*Number of volunteers: 1,500
*Clarification: The story has been changed to clarify some directional references along the trail that had been included in earlier updates, and to note that Greg Heiser is a commentator for Iditarod Insider. His name was incorrect in an earlier version of the story.
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