The mushers spent much of the last week delivering their drop bags to Iditarod. Mushers close to the South Central area drove their hundreds of pounds of food and gear to the warehouse where Iditarod Volunteers sorted and prepped the bags for shipping out to each checkpoint along the trail. Those further North drove them to Fairbanks to have them cargo flown to Anchorage, and Pete Kaiser who was a last minute entry shipped his directly from his home in Bethel.
All the norm for this time of year gearing up for The Last Great Race.
Iditarod did, however, announce several NEW things coming to this year's race. After many years of staging race headquarters in The Lakefront Hotel in Anchorage, the race has found a new partner with a more Downtown Location. The Lakefront has been a fantastic facility for a one stop shop of sorts for all the race needs, but about ten years ago it pulled it's official partnership due to increasing pressure from certain outside groups doing what they do best. The race continued to use the hotel, but it added to the increasing costs to put on the race. As of now it will still be where the race houses the return dog Anchorage team and where return dogs will be transported from off the trail as the hotel sits on Lake Hood where small float and ski planes land all year long.
The new Headquarters will be right where the action all takes place on that first Saturday in March, the newly remodeled and renamed Wildbirch Hotel. The Wildbirch was once the quirky Aviator Hotel that fans had booked for years to watch the Rondy and Iditarod races from their hotel room windows. Now, with the upgraded look, it's taking on a much more prominent and official role.
Also new this year is a new class of musher, the "expedition class." It's been long suggested by mushers and fans alike that the Iditarod could fix many of its "teams must be competitive" rule cutting off teams earlier and earlier in the race if they held two classes in the race, a professional race for the win type of class and the adventure (or expedition) class for those that are doing it as a bucketlist or just getting their feet wet. That isn't *exactly* what's going on here as this expedition class is more like those tours we see happening nearly every year by kennels that "follow" the trail but do not participate in the race with high paying clients.
Iditarod has jumped in on that and they have their first "Expedition Class" musher who will be guided by 2020 Iditarod Champion Thomas Waerner (who has done these types of tours previously). As part of his participation Rokke paid $2000 of each entry fee of mushers who signed up between June and November. To his credit, Rokke has been mushing dogs under the guidance of Waerner for several years and has run some races over in Europe, so it's not like they're handing some dude who's never seen a dog sled a team of dogs and wishing him the best of luck.
Also new this year is a new Race Marshal - now before you start asking where Nordman went, Mark's gone no where. Nordman for the last few years has stepped into the role of Race Director seeing to all of the logistics of the race where as the Race Marshal focuses on the race itself. Warren Palfrey took over when Nordman stepped into the director role, and now Dan Carter will Marshal the 2026 race. Carter is a veteran of the race, a long time race judge, and has run other races both as a musher and an official. Carter seems well liked by mushers and should be fair in his decisions. If you're fortunate enough to talk with him you'll hear some pretty amazing stories of the trail and his whole body lights up talking dogs.
Whew! That was a blog post in and of itself, but that's not what you're really here for. So let's talk the roster, shall we?
In a year that saw several legacy mushers pass, it comes as no surprise that the Iditarod would name one as their honorary musher for this year's race. Mary Shields is given this honor for 2026. Shields was one of two women to enter the second ever Iditarod, and was the first to cross the finish line solidifying her place in Iditarod and mushing history. Mary passed in July of 2025 and the Iditarod announced her as honorary musher earlier this month.
With Food Drops officially here, no new names can be added to the roster but there is still a chance a team or two will have to withdraw prior to March 6. Still, the roster is sitting at thirty-six names (including the expedition class musher and guide). There are four returning Iditarod Champions (though one is the guide for the expedition class). There are thirteen recorded rookies (counting expedition class); twelve women are in this year's race.
As always, once bib numbers are published by the race after Bib Draw on March 5 the roster will be edited to reflect start order. Bib numbers have been drawn!
