Alaska
“A little scary:” Iditarod begins with smallest field ever
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The second half-century for the world’s most well-known sled canine race is getting off to a tough begin.
Solely 33 mushers will take part within the ceremonial begin of the Iditarod Path Sled Canine Race on Saturday, the smallest subject ever to take their canine groups almost 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) over Alaska’s unforgiving wilderness. This yr’s lineup is smaller even than that of the 34 mushers who lined up for the very first race in 1973.
The small pool of mushers is elevating issues about the way forward for an iconic race that has taken hits from the pandemic, local weather change, inflation and the lack of deep-pocketed sponsors, simply as a number of big-name mushing champions are retiring with few to take their place.
The most important subject ever was 96 mushers in 2008; the typical variety of mushers beginning the race during the last 50 years was 63.
“It’s somewhat scary if you have a look at it that manner,” stated four-time winner Martin Buser, 64, who retired after finishing his thirty ninth race final yr. “Hopefully it’s not a state of the occasion and … it’s only a non permanent lull.”
The Iditarod is essentially the most prestigious sled canine race on the earth, taking rivals over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and treacherous Bering Sea ice in frigid temperatures earlier than ending within the previous Gold Rush city of Nome. The roughly 10-day occasion begins with a “ceremonial begin” in Anchorage on Saturday, adopted by the aggressive begin in Willow, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the north, on Sunday.
And whereas the world-renowned race has the very best winner’s purse of any sled canine competitors, the winner solely pockets about $50,000 earlier than taxes — a payout that’s much less interesting amid inflation and the continued reverberations of the pandemic.
Many mushers complement their revenue by providing uniquely Alaska experiences to cruise ship passengers, however for a number of years the pandemic has meant fewer summer season guests to shell out cash for a sled canine trip on a glacier.
“There’s a whole lot of kennels and a whole lot of mushers that depend on that to maintain going,” stated Aaron Burmeister, a Nome native who’s sitting out this yr’s race to spend extra time with household. Burmeister, who works development, has had eight prime 10 finishes within the final decade.
“Having the ability to race the Iditarod and the expense of placing collectively a race workforce turned greater than they might bear to keep up themselves,” he stated of mushers.
Inflation has additionally taken a toll, and several other mushers stated they’d prefer to see a better prize purse to draw youthful rivals.
Defending champion Brent Sass, who dietary supplements his revenue as a wilderness information, isn’t stunned some mushers are taking a break to construct up financial institution accounts.
Sass, who has 58 canines, orders 500 baggage of high-quality pet food a yr. Every bag value $55 a number of years in the past, however that has swelled to $85 per bag — or about $42,500 whole a yr. That’s about how a lot cash Sass pocketed from his Iditarod win final yr.
“You bought to be completely ready to run Iditarod, and have the funds for within the financial institution to do it,” stated Sass, who lives in Eureka, a few four-hour drive north of Fairbanks.
With different race prices, Buser stated operating the Iditarod now can imply spending $250,000 to win a $40,000 championship.
The race itself has suffered beneath the elevated inflation, Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach stated. Provide prices have gone up about 30%, he stated, and final yr it value almost $30,000 to move specifically licensed straw from the decrease 48 for canines to sleep on at race checkpoints.
The Iditarod additionally continues to be dogged by Folks for the Moral Remedy of Animals, which has focused the race’s greatest sponsors. Over the previous decade, Alaska Airways, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo have ended race sponsorships after being focused by PETA.
PETA took out full-page newspaper adverts in Anchorage and Fairbanks in February with a husky — the predominate sled canine breed — prominently featured with the headline, “We don’t wish to go to the Iditarod. We simply need the Iditarod to go.”
However Urbach stated the race’s monetary well being is sweet, and payouts needs to be somewhat larger this yr. The highest 20 finishers obtain payouts on a sliding scale, and each different finisher will get $1,049, reflecting the acknowledged mileage of the race, although the precise mileage is decrease.
Urbach famous they’re paying “the healthiest prize cash” amongst aggressive sled canine races and known as the PETA marketing campaign “fairly offensive, I feel, to most Alaskans.”
There’s additionally fear about the way forward for the race due to local weather change.
The warming local weather pressured organizers to maneuver the beginning line 290 miles (467 kilometers) north from Willow to Fairbanks in 2003, 2015 and 2017 due to a scarcity of snow within the Alaska Vary. Poor winter situations and concrete development likewise led the Iditarod to formally transfer the beginning from Wasilla about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north to Willow in 2008, despite the fact that Wasilla final hosted the beginning in 2002.
Transferring the beginning of the race north will probably change into extra frequent as world warming advances, stated Rick Thoman, a local weather specialist on the Worldwide Arctic Analysis Heart on the College of Alaska Fairbanks. Ice on Alaska’s western coast may additionally get thinner and extra harmful, he stated.
“It doesn’t must be that there’s waves crashing on the seashore,” Thoman stated of the impacts of ice soften. “It simply needs to be on the level the place the ice is just not steady.”
As challenges stack up, a number of veteran mushers with a number of championships have stepped away this yr after many years of braving the frigid and windy situations to coach within the lifeless of the Alaska winter for the Iditarod. They’re discovering that few are prepared to take their place, no less than this yr.
“I simply obtained again from Cancun to see the Grateful Lifeless play on the seashores of Mexico,” stated four-time champion Jeff King, who’s now 67. “I first stated I used to be going to retire at 40, and I ran the race at 66, so I don’t really feel like I’m bailing on anyone.”
5-time champion Dallas Seavey stated final yr’s race could be his final, no less than for some time, to spend time together with his daughter. Different previous champions not racing embody Dallas’ father, three-time champion Mitch Seavey, and Joar Leifseth Ulsom and Thomas Waerner, who’ve one title every.
Waerner stated sponsors are holding again, and it’s too costly to pay $60,000 to get his workforce from Norway to Alaska.
Lance Mackey, one other four-time champion, died final yr from most cancers. He’s the honorary musher for this yr’s race, and his youngsters, Atigun and Lozen, will trip within the first sled to go away the ceremonial begin line in Anchorage and throughout the aggressive begin Sunday.
That leaves two former winners on this yr’s subject, Sass and Pete Kaiser.
Sass stated he’s assured the Iditarod will survive this downturn.
“If we will simply preserve the prepare rolling ahead, I feel it’s going to come back again, and hopefully our world can get issues beneath management and issues possibly get rather less costly,” Sass stated. “I feel that’s going to assist get our numbers again up.”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska Military Youth Academy cadets recently visited the Alaska’s News Source newsroom to learn more about careers in media.
Daylin Alston, 17, said he was surprised to see how many moving parts are involved in building a newscast.
“I learned about how news stations work, how they operate, all the buttons, all the cameras. I didn’t know it was this big,” he explained. “It’s a big process.”
Cadets had the opportunity to visit with on-air talent and get a closer look at what happens behind the scenes.
“At first, I just thought you had to be able to talk in front of a camera and all that stuff,” 16-year-old Qmia Taala said. “I feel like maybe if I wanted to be working in this kind of industry that I would have more of a chance because I could work somewhere in the background with helping out.”
These AMYA cadets are looking forward to their upcoming graduation ceremony on June 12.
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Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
Historians highlight Alaska’s historic properties during National Historic Preservation Month
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – May is National Historic Preservation Month, and historians across Alaska are asking for increased awareness of Alaska’s historic buildings.
According to Historic Preservation Architect Sam Combs, the art of historic preservation is important, not only for the significance of protecting local history, but it also draws tourists to the city.
“You come to a city not to see the new shiny skyscrapers and buildings, you come to see the history of the town,” Combs said.
One example Combs points to is the Oscar Anderson House near downtown Anchorage.
“This was reputedly the first frame house in Anchorage; there have been log cabins and other structures, but this was the first frame house,” Combs explained.
The property has been perfectly captured in time; there are period-appropriate items spread throughout the house for visitors to see, and the wallpaper has been renovated to be the original that was there when the house was first built.
“I took home layers of wallpaper and then put them in our bathtubs, separated them, and that’s how we determined which was the earliest wallpaper and freezes around the building,” Combs said, explaining the process he used to nail down the earliest wallpaper in the home.
There have been some upgrades to the home, but none that directly interfere with the effort to preserve the building in time.
“This floor was like a trampoline, it had, I think, 2×4’s spanning 17 feet, so it was a little bouncy, so we reinforced that,” Combs explained. “This fireplace was totally dismayed, demolished because it had been damaged in an earthquake earlier, and so I did restoration drawings from photographs.”
The biggest change to the property is the location itself.
“It was originally across the road here where those that apartment building is right now, and then it got moved because they wanted to build out there,” Combs said.
Because it is National Historic Preservation Month, Combs says there is an easy way for you to get involved in preserving Alaska’s great history.
“If you’ve got a historic house in town, let us know, we can help out. We do, you know, grant small amounts of grants to help with planning and to preserve the building or structure,” Combs said.
If you don’t have a historic property, then Combs suggested the next best way you can support historic preservation is by visiting historic properties around the state.
If you have a historic property, you can reach out to the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation through its website.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
Alaska Airlines plans new long-haul experience, retrofits for Hawaiian's Airbus A330s – The Points Guy
Fresh off its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines last year, Alaska Airlines is gearing up to announce a “beautiful new international experience” — likely on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliners Hawaiian ordered before the two carriers merged.
The reveal is expected later this year, executives said Monday, moments before Alaska and Hawaiian jointly launched their first long-haul flight to Asia.
The new flagship international Dreamliner experience would presumably include an all-new business-class product and serve as the linchpin of the carrier’s future international growth plans out of its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) home base — plans that include flights to Europe starting next year.
“What you’ll see is all the flights — international flights — out of Seattle, on 787s … and it’ll be operated by Alaska,” CEO Ben Minicucci told TPG in an interview Monday. “It’ll be a fantastic new international look.”
That’s noteworthy not just because of the prospects of a flashy new international cabin experience on a major U.S. airline, but also because it would be Alaska’s first true wide-body service. After all, it’s Hawaiian Airlines that’s operating the just-launched service from Seattle to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT), as Alaska and Hawaiian maintain separate brands under one corporate structure postmerger.
But gaining access to Hawaiian’s larger twin-aisle jets — and the Dreamliners it’s had on order for several years — was one of the factors that proved enticing for Alaska when it first sought to acquire the Aloha State’s home carrier starting in 2023.
Now, to be clear: It’ll be a little while before passengers see this new international Dreamliner product hit the skies. These planned 787 shifts are contingent on the completion of labor deals, Minicucci said, which could take a year or two.
Hawaiian had plans to receive a total of a dozen Dreamliners. It debuted its first 787 last spring, with a stunning new interior and serious upgrade over its legacy long-haul fleet.
A330 retrofits coming
Alaska Air Group is also planning an eventual face-lift for the older jets in Hawaiian’s fleet, Minicucci told TPG on Monday.
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The company sees Hawaiian’s Airbus A330s as a continued “niche” in its fleet on Honolulu routes for years to come. But, as I saw on board the Hawaiian-operated inaugural from Seattle to Tokyo, the cabins could use some tender loving care, aside from the free, high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi on board.
Indeed, retrofits for those jets are on Minicucci’s to-do list: “Those interiors,” he said, “will get a makeover in the next few years.” Snarled industry supply chains for seats could throw that timeline into jeopardy, though, he noted.
New loyalty program set for August debut
Alaska also revealed one additional bit of news about the future of its new, joint loyalty program that will encompass both Alaska and Hawaiian. That program will launch in August, Minicucci told TPG.
That figures to be a closely watched reveal, considering Mileage Plan currently offers some of the best sweet spot redemptions of any U.S. airline loyalty program.
“We’re not going to take anything away,” Minicucci told me — though he couldn’t get into specifics.
I did have to ask: Will the program be called Mileage Plan, or get some sort of new name, a la “Flying Blue” for Air France and KLM, or “Bonvoy” for Marriott’s portfolio of hotels? Minicucci only offered this: “It’ll be uniquely branded with a whole bunch of new features on it.”
A far more significant development worth watching: what immediate decision, if any, the company makes on its relationship with American Express. At the moment, Amex members can transfer Membership Rewards points to HawaiianMiles, and then shift those miles seamlessly over to Mileage Plan. Earlier this month, I used that tactic to redeem 4,500 Alaska miles for what would have been a pricey last-minute flight.
Alaska executives have previously expressed hesitancy about allowing flexible currency transfers from credit card programs as they dreamed up this new joint loyalty program.
Bilt Rewards Points do currently transfer directly to Alaska at a 1:1 ratio.
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