The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will as soon as once more enable as much as 16 dogs per staff within the thousand-mile race to Nome.
Race officers made the announcement in a media briefing Wednesday in Anchorage, the place the race kicks off with a ceremonial begin Saturday.
The Iditarod had set the restrict at 14 dogs per team just five years ago after contemplating the expense of flying dogs again from the path and to make it simpler for smaller kennels to race within the Iditarod.
The thought on the time was additionally that it might be simpler for every musher to maintain two fewer dogs, mentioned longtime Iditarod Race Director Mark Nordman.
“Yeah, definitely, there was some talk that, you know, with 14, people can control them a little better,” Nordman mentioned. “But really, and it’s always in the figures of how many dogs were dropped, the percentages just didn’t change.”
In the early days, Nordman mentioned, the Iditarod didn’t have a restrict on the variety of dogs in every staff. Then the restrict was 20 for various years till the extra fashionable period, when it first went to 16, he mentioned.
The choice to return to permitting 16 dogs per staff got here after a vote in Nome amongst 2023 Iditarod finishers that confirmed their assist, Nordman mentioned. The Iditarod’s Rules Committee took up the proposal and authorised it, as did the Iditarod Trail Committee, which finalized the choice, he mentioned.
Meantime, Iditarod groups competing on this 12 months’s race predict naked floor on a bit of path north of the Alaska Range referred to as the Farewell Burn, regardless of record-breaking snow in Southcentral Alaska this winter.
That’s principally a priority for the mushers and their sleds, not a lot for the dogs, Nordman mentioned.
“Their footing is great. It’s, ‘Hey, it’s summertime, let’s go for a run!’ and so they take off,” he mentioned. “The dogs are fine. I don’t worry about the dogs going across there. It’s the mushers that can get flipped and turned and have to be very awake.”
Nordman attributed the shortage of snow in some sections to excessive winds and mid-winter warm-ups, however he mentioned the remainder of the path is wanting nice till the groups attain the Bering Sea coast, the place storms have damaged up sea ice. He mentioned the path may must be rerouted to go overland close to Elim.
The 2024 Iditarod begins with the ceremonial begin in Anchorage on Saturday and the restart in Willow on Sunday, when the race clock begins ticking. A winner is anticipated in Nome early the week of March 10.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a common project reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at [email protected]. Read extra about Casey here.
