Late Wednesday Morning (Pacific Time) the Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race announced that the race scheduled for January 22 is canceled. Citing lack of snow to be able to put in safe trails, the race took to Facebook to deliver the news. "We held off making this decision for a few days because of the current storm cycle approaching the area," the race wrote.
"I spoke with a forecaster at the National Weather Service yesterday to get a better idea as to the storm track and timing," the missive continued. "It turns out the forecast was pretty accurate and the storm has tracked well north of us leaving us with rain and a very light dusting of snow. This morning saw lots of blue sky in Wallowa County. Going into next week, we are seeing a warming trend with no additional significant moisture."
The Eagle Cap is the only Iditarod and Quest Qualifier run in Oregon and while the rosters are smaller than what Canadian and Alaska races see, it's a healthy one with many loyal kennels. Comments from mushers and fans alike flooded the Facebook announcement Wednesday with most being grateful for the early announcement so they could make arrangements to run other races outside of Oregon. Others asked if for future years an optional second site for the race could be chosen.
Wednesday afternoon saw the second cancelation announcement, this one coming from Canada. From an article on the CBC website, the mushing community learned that there will not be a Yukon Quest run in Canada in 2026. The race was scheduled to run on January 31, but little had been released about the race. The Quest in 2025 chose to lock its Facepook posts down not allowing anyone to comment on what they shared. It had many side-eying the race and wondering just what was going on with the beloved event.
While the official reason for the race seems to be something of "volunteer burnout" with the board of directors, there seems to be a little more to it. In the CBC article former board members chimed in with their thoughts and disappointments on the organization. Citing challenges like climate change, trail changes, and community support - it seems the race has no shortage of excuses for why things couldn't come together in 2026.
Pointedly one musher who was a former board member made note that the way the organization handled this year's race information was "disrespectful to mushers."
This year's race was planned to only be a one hundred mile race, about 350 miles shorter than last year's Quest, and 900miles shorter than its original structure of a cross border race into Alaska. The 1000mile race ended in 2022 when the two boards that ran the International race decided to divorce each other over organizational disagreements (the most public one being about rest schedules and how to track rest). Some also argue that the dwindling roster numbers made it continually difficult to run a successful race with a purse participants came to expect from the race.
This year the Alaskan version of the Quest is set to take place February 7 and has a 750mile loop trail starting and ending in Fairbanks planned with a decent number of mushers signed up to run.
Are you surprised by today's cancelations? Thoughts on the Yukon Quest issues? Comment below with your thoughts!
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