Sled dogs at the ceremonial start of the 2018 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the last time teams were allowed to have 16 dogs each. (Alaska Public Media/KNOM photo)
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will once again allow up to 16 dogs per team in the thousand-mile race to Nome.
Race officials made the announcement in a media briefing Wednesday in Anchorage, where the race kicks off with a ceremonial start Saturday.
The Iditarod had set the limit at 14 dogs per team just five years ago after considering the expense of flying dogs back from the trail and to make it easier for smaller kennels to race in the Iditarod.
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The thought at the time was also that it would be easier for each musher to take care of two fewer dogs, said 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 said. “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 said, the Iditarod didn’t have a limit on the number of dogs in each team. Then the limit was 20 for a number of years until the more modern era, when it first went to 16, he said.
The decision to return to allowing 16 dogs per team came after a vote in Nome among 2023 Iditarod finishers that showed their support, Nordman said. The Iditarod’s Rules Committee took up the proposal and approved it, as did the Iditarod Trail Committee, which finalized the decision, he said.
Meantime, Iditarod teams competing in this year’s race are expecting bare ground on a section of trail north of the Alaska Range called the Farewell Burn, despite record-breaking snow in Southcentral Alaska this winter.
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That’s mostly a concern for the mushers and their sleds, not so much for the dogs, Nordman said.
“Their footing is great. It’s, ‘Hey, it’s summertime, let’s go for a run!’ and so they take off,” he said. “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 lack of snow in some sections to high winds and mid-winter warm-ups, but he said the rest of the trail is looking great until the teams reach the Bering Sea coast, where storms have broken up sea ice. He said the trail might need to be rerouted to go overland near Elim.
The 2024 Iditarod begins with the ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday and the restart in Willow on Sunday, when the race clock begins ticking. A winner is expected in Nome early the week of March 10.
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Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
A new home under construction in Potter Valley in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.
Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?
It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.
Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.
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A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.
Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.
Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.
That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.
Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.
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This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.
Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”
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