Kuskokwim 300 announces postponement

Late Wednesday night the Board of Directors released a statement on their website stating that through a unanimous decision the 2025 Kusko would be postponed by two weeks. Citing a warm and wet winter creating a lack of snow pack for a safe trail and concerns that temperatures were projected to continue to rise throughout the week, officials had no choice.

This announcement did not surprise most fans and locals as most of Alaska has had a serious lack of winter. Fans had an inkling this announcement was coming after another one of the Delta Championship Series, the Holiday Opener, was once again postponed due to rising temps just days before. 

Ironically, the Holiday Opener was able to take place on Thursday just hours after the news broke about the Kusko.

This is the first major race in Alaska to have to postpone. Smaller races have had to postpone or cancel, but races like the Knik 200 and Copper Basin 300 were able to make it work even with lack of snow pack, threats of rain, and overflow. But those races had an abundance of trails to choose from that did not rely on mostly travel by river. The Kuskokwim 300 runs mostly on, well, the Kuskokwim River while visiting several of the KuskoDelta villages. 

"Organizers felt that in light of the bleak forecast, a decision should be made to postpone before teams begin making the costly trip to Bethel early next week," the press release stated. "The Race Committee has been in touch with registered mushers in the days leading up to the decision to postpone and at this time, no racers have indicated an intent to withdraw as a result of the change."

Currently there are twentyfive teams signed up for this year's Kusko. Most notibly affected by this change of date will be junior musher Emily Robinson. Robinson, most fans know, has become something of a legend. The teen wins just about every race she enters and the Kusko is set to be her first three hundred mile race. Not every junior musher is allowed to run this race, their entry is up to race officials and committee to allow. Sure, all teams are under that scrutiny, but junior mushers must show that they are capable of handling a 300 mile race by themselves and care for their team by themselves. Robinson has shown this not just on the junior circut, but by also running (and winning) "adult" races like the Knik 200 the past two seasons. 

The problem for Robinson is that this date change puts the Kusko start on the same day as the Willow Jr 100, a race that Robinson is signed up for. The question will be whether the seventeen year old chooses to forgo a race in her division and race in the more "pro circut-esque" Kuskokiwm 300 which will be her hardest race to date (on paper).

This is not the first time the race has had to move its race dates "last minute". There have been several times in race history that changes had to be made, most notibly in 2021 during the Covid-19 Pandemic when they postponed the race so they could figure out a way to run the race safely while also letting mushers from outside the region attend (they limited the number of teams traveling into Bethel to ten). In the 46 years of Kusko history there has never been an all out cancellation of the race.

To view the full press release you can visit the race's website.

Thoughts on last night's news? Do you believe Emily Robinson will (or should) choose to run the Kusko? Comment below with your thoughts!

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