Connect with us

Alaska

Jessie Holmes repeats as Iditarod champion

Published

on

Jessie Holmes repeats as Iditarod champion


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Jessie Holmes is back again as Iditarod champion.

Jesse Holmes wins second consecutive Iditarod(AKNS)

The field of mushers and the elements threw everything at Holmes, but he never flinched, crossing under the burled arch at 9:32 p.m. Tuesday to claim his second consecutive Iditarod victory.

Holmes led the race ever since he passed Cantwell veteran Paige Drobny on the trail between Cripple and Ruby, where he claimed the “First to the Yukon” prize, a gourmet five-course meal.

The Brushkana veteran maintained a strong presence at the front of the field throughout the roughly 1,000-mile endurance race that was inspired by the vaunted “Serum Run” of 1925.

Advertisement

Last year, Holmes emerged victorious in the wee hours of the night to claim his first Iditarod title in a finishing time of 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes, 44 seconds.

That was on a revised course that started in Fairbanks, due to bad snow conditions.

This year, he completed the full — true — course that winds its way from Willow to Nome.

With the victory, Holmes joins a short list of mushers who repeated as champion one year after winning their first — Susan Butcher and Lance Mackey are the only other ones to accomplish that feat.

As a regular on the reality TV show “Life Below Zero” — which follows subsistence hunters in rural Alaska — Holmes has now put himself into the record books of multi-time Iditarod champions.

Advertisement

Jesse Holmes Iditarod history

He’s now finished in the top 10 seven times out of nine attempts, including top-5 finishes in each of the past five years.

Year Place Time
2018 7th 9 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes
2019 27th 11 days, 22 hours, 41 minutes
2020 9th 9 days, 11 hours, 9 minutes
2021 15th 8 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes
2022 3rd 9 days, 4 hours, 39 minutes
2023 5th 9 days, 4 hours, 8 minutes
2024 3rd 9 days, 8 hours, 18 minutes
2025 1st 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes
2026 1st 9 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com



Source link

Advertisement

Alaska

Watch My Buddy Matt Not Get Eaten by Bears in Alaska

Published

on

Watch My Buddy Matt Not Get Eaten by Bears in Alaska


I’m typically pretty wordy. But just watch the video.

Disclaimer: Matt Addington is a professional. These bears grazed toward him from 100 yards away while he held tight. Do not try this ever, under any circumstances, or you will likely spend the rest of your time on this earth as bear poop.

Matt Addington is an incredible professional photographer, and I can say that from personal experience. He’s captured images of me in rough shape and somehow made them stunnin’. The Minnesota-based photographer and filmmaker has built a career telling outdoor stories, and his latest bear video proves he knows exactly where to point a camera.

Places like Katmai National Park in Alaska (where this video was taken) can offer unusually close encounters with brown bears, thanks in part to abundant food and tightly managed visitor access. That doesn’t make encounters like this casual or safe to imitate.

Advertisement

Addington is an extremely experienced outdoorsman, and he was photographing with professional guides Scott and Jackie Stone. For people hoping to photograph bears this way, a guided wildlife photography tour is one of the safest ways to do it. Do not try this in Yellowstone or your local national forest.

The bears were grazing nearly 100 yards away when the group set up. They stayed put as the animals continued feeding and gradually moved closer, resulting in some incredible footage and a once-in-a-lifetime photo.

I can only hope he wore his brown pants under his waders.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Alaska

Black bear breaks into Alaskan mall, eats a peach and relieves itself on floor before leaving: video

Published

on

Black bear breaks into Alaskan mall, eats a peach and relieves itself on floor before leaving: video


Can bearly believe it!

A black bear was caught on camera seemingly running errands at a local shopping mall in Anchorage, Alaska over the weekend.

A black bear in Alaska strolled through the automatic doors of the commissary mall on the military base on Sunday. Kory Godbout

The bear entered the commissary mall at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson around 9 a.m. Sunday, KTUU reported, citing a JBER spokesperson. 

Wild footage shows the young cub strolling through the commissary’s automatic doors and exploring all that the mall had to offer.

Advertisement
Barber shop employee, Kory Godbout, saw the black bear approach his store and ran to the break room. Joint Base Elmendorf Exchange

The hungry bear stole and ate a piece of fruit before emptying its bowels on the hallway floor on its way out of the building.

Kory Godbout, who works at the barber shop on the military base, was waiting for his first customer of the day when he spotted the furry intruder traveling through the automatic doors.

“My coworker, who is cutting hair in front of me, she yelled, ‘Bear!’” Godbout recalled. 

The grizzly bear decided to “use the restroom in the hallway” of the shopping mall. Kory Godbout

“And I looked up from my phone and the bear was walking into the barber shop right in front of me,” the barber said. “And we all ran into the break room and shut the door behind us.”

After a few minutes, Godbout and his coworkers emerged from the break room and followed the out-of-place bear into the commissary, where it took a peach from the grocery store and ate it. 

Advertisement

The barber recalled that a few onlookers were “going big to try and scare” the bear out of the grocery store.

The bear cub stole a peach and ate it while exploring all that the commissary had to offer. Joint Base Elmendorf Exchange

But all of a sudden, the black bear returned to the barber shop.

“By that time, we were able to run back to the shop and then lock the door,” Godbout said. 

The bear cleared its bowels on the floor before leaving the shopping mall. Facebook

“And then we were watching him from the window and then that’s when he decided to, you know, use the restroom in the hallway.”

Officers from Conservation Law Enforcement attended the peculiar grizzly scene and were able to direct the wild animal towards a river and into the woods, according to the JBER spokesperson.

Advertisement

JBER’s wildlife program manager Colette Brandt said in a press release that the bear had triggered the automatic doors and that Sunday’s events were entirely incidental, KTUU reported.

While there has been a decline in bear-related calls since the military base installed bear-resistant dumpsters, seven bears have been put down at JBER for public safety over the past year.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Alaska

Fatal crash closes Glenn Highway southbound lanes near Eagle River

Published

on

Fatal crash closes Glenn Highway southbound lanes near Eagle River


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The southbound lanes of the Glenn Highway were closed Thursday morning near the S-curves due to a fatal crash, according to the Anchorage Police Department.

Police confirmed shortly after 11 a.m. that at least one person was dead. As of 12:45 p.m., one southbound lane is now open to traffic.

The southbound lanes of the Glenn Highway were closed July 9, 2026 near the S-curves due to a fatal crash, according to the Anchorage Police Department.(Alaska’s News Source)

An Alaska’s News Source reporter on the scene said the crash took place near the Eagle River Loop Road. Video from the scene shows multiple vehicles took damage in the incident.

This is a developing story. It has been updated with new information.

Advertisement

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending