And with that Iditarod 53 comes to an end

Ebbe Pederson at the ReStart of Iditarod 53.
March 3, 2025. March 3, 2025.

The final musher crossed under the burled arch Monday morning at 1:40am AKDT. Ebbe Pederson running a second team out of Turning Heads Kennel didn't expect to be the Red Lantern as another team was resting in White Mountain when the musher from Norway pulled into Nome. Ebbe went to bed second to last in the wee morning hours.

Many were expecting the Red Lantern to come in Monday evening, however Jenney Roddewig pulled the plug on her race shortly before her scheduled leave time in the checkpoint. The musher's family took to the kennel's social media page to explain that the Sage Mountain Sled Dogs had had a rough run from Elim to White Mountain and Jenny rightfully did not want to ask them to do more than they should.

With the scratch around 6am, the race decided to let the new Red Lantern have a chance to rest before meeting under the burled arch to extinguish the Wildow's Lamp and receive his Red Lantern trophy. Ebbe Pederson was heard exclaiming "Oh, look at this! A big trophy!" as they handed him the Red Lantern award. Ebbe went to bed an Iditarod finisher and woke up a finisher with a trophy and cash prize.

Ebbe didn't travel alone to Nome, he took the last run together with fellow rookie Dane Baker of Alaskan Husky Adventures. Baker has worked with Matthew Failor for several years as a dog handler and was excited to finally take on the thousand mile race. Failor made sure to thank his handler during the Iditarod Finisher's Banquet, acknowledging Baker was still out on the trail "and probably climbing the Topkok Mountains as we speak." Baker came in ahead of Pederson by five minutes. He came in 21st place wearing bib number 21. 

It has been several years since the race ended after the Finisher's banquet. As is tradition, a smaller banquet was planned for the mushers not able to make Sunday's dinner. While not covered by media and typically has less pomp and circumstance, most that have attended in the past say it is far more fun.

Thirty-three teams started the journey from Fairbanks to Nome on March 3, 2025 - twenty-two teams completed the 1,128 mile trail. It's said that Iditarod 53 was the longest Iditarod race to date, as well as one of the toughest. Many of the mushers at the banquet recounted how difficult the endless miles of river they were on (especially the Yukon River) and how they were done with river running for a while. Every year is difficult in ways unexpected, and every rookie race is hard, but the class of 2025 should be exceptionally proud of what they and their teams accomplished.

With a third of the field unable to complete the course, Iditarod 53 had the lowest number of finishes since 1973 - the first ever Iditarod. Many of the finishers at the banquet said they planned to be in the 54th running of the race, while others remained silent or even suggested they were planning to take a year off. With the uncertainty of everything these days making a commitment that is a massive financial suck takes a little time to decide.

Iditarod 53 may be over and Nome may be getting back to normal, but fans will now be turning towards kennel websites and social media to read the stories from the trail. Iditarod Volunteers will gather on Wednesday for the volunteer potluck where even more stories will be told. There are still several mid-distance races to follow in the next few weeks - many of them qualifiers for the Quest and the Iditarod. The season is not quite over.

Musher sign-ups for 2026 and volunteer appreciation picnic will be held on June 28, 2025.

Kaiser takes the lead!

Saturday afternoon saw a new leader on the Kusko. Somewhere between Kalskag and Tuluksak on the inbound trail, eight-time Kusko Champion Peter Kaiser passed race leader Riley Dyche to take the lead. With just 18 miles to go until the last checkpoint, Kaiser should be tucking his team in for their final mandatory four hour rest around 5:30pm AKST.

Riley Dyche has spent most of the Kusko leading the race (the only time he wasn't first into a checkpoint was when Mike Williams Jr. was first to hit Aniak). Dyche pulled the hook in Kalskag about a minute before Pete came into the checkpoint. His team was coming off a three hour rest and looked strong as they took off down the trail. Still, fans noticed the energy of Kaiser's team and the musher's calm as he signed in and out and followed Dyche out of the checkpoint.

Riley managed to keep a mile or so between he and Pete for several miles before the champion musher managed to overtake him. Teams are required to yield trail to the faster moving team if the musher calls for it (normally with just a loud bellow of "TRAIL!"). Mushers must then allow several miles to pass before they can yell to retake the lead if the teams are still "on top of" one another. One mile from the finishline, however, is considered "No Man's Land" and all bets are off. Yielding trail is not required and can make for an exciting finish (still hoping for a skipole joust into the finish some day).

The chase pack has seen a bit of shake up as some have slingshot ahead of others out of Kalskag. Junior musher Emily Robinson was running around near 8th or 9th Saturday morning coming into Kalskag and has now picked off a few teams and shows on the tracker as currently running with Lev Shvarts bringing her to 5th or 6th place. The teenager is a rooke in this race in more ways than one, it's not just her first Kusko - it's her first 300 mile race. For the Kusko it's the fact that a team hasn't done 300 miles that qualifies them as a rookie, and Emily is the only one who qualifies for that honor this year.

The back of the pack remains unchanged. Current red lantern Ebbe Pederson is into the checkpoint of Aniak at 3:30pm AKST and is currently resting. The musher has planned to take his time in the race, but it's unknown how long he plans to enjoy the hospitality of Aniak.

Kaiser Racing has been giving its usual fantasic updates on the race again this year and put out a quick but informative breakdown of the purse payout. This year everyone's in the money. Highly recommend you give them a read.

If Kaiser and Dyche make it in at the estimated 5:30pm mark they will be able to head for the finish at 9:30pm giving us a potential 2am finish for the winner. Gear up, fans, consider this good training for next month's Iditarod (less than a month away now!)

Who do you have coming into Tuluksak first? Think Emily will make a move and start picking off the leaders? Comment below with your thoughts on the race!

Riley Dyche leads the Kusko

The Dark Horse has dark horsed quite well so far on the Kuskokwim. Riley Dyche and his team blazed up the trail Friday night and into Saturday morning. Dyche currently sits in the checkpoint of Kalskag on the return/inbound trail. He is required to take three hours of rest here to complete his mandatory 6 hour rest for the loop. Dyche isn't alone as Cody Strathe of Squid Acres is also sitting in Kalskag finishing up his mandatory rest, but Dyche has about a half hour lead on Cody.

Dyche took an early lead Friday being the first into the first checkpoint of Tuluksak blowing through that checkpoint and on down the trail. He was then first into the Kalskag outbound checkpoint where he elected to take a three hour rest as part of his mandatory six hour. Dyche was not first out of Kalskag nor was he first into the halfway point of Aniak, but he took the lead when he elected to not stay in Aniak on his arrival and continued on the trail loop back to Kalskag.

Dyche's race plan is similar to the one Strathe chose to run. This is the first Kusko for Strathe, it's Dyche's second. As the two leaders rest, a wave of teams who are fully rested are on their way to the checkpoint. The chase pack include Pete Kaiser, Matt Failor, Hunter Keefe, Mike Williams Jr., Lev Shvarts, and Emily Robinson. Yes, that's right, the junior musher running her first 300 miler is comfortably in the top ten and is fully rested. The teen has done a fantastic job of maintaining her team and sticking with the big dogs.

Also in the chase pack are Cim Smyth and Nicolas Petit both of whom still need to complete their six hour mandatory rest. Smyth looks to need two hours of rest having elected to rest for two hours in Kalskag Outbound and Aniak - Petit looks to have one hour. They are currently running in third and fourth position with about a nine mile (one hour-ish) cushion of the chase pack. Well, at least Cim does. Nic's tracker isn't behaving.

Current red lantern is Ebbe Pederson who planned to run a slower race with a lot of extra rest according to a post by Turning Heads Kennel - who Pederson is running dogs from. He is the only team still on the outbound trail on his way to Aniak. Issac Underwood is the only team currently resting in Aniak.

Judging by the tracker, it looks like Pete Kaiser will hit Kalskag right around the time Riley Dyche should be able to pull the hook and take off from his rest (if the math is correct and we all know how often that happens for this blogger). Kaiser has taken all of his mandatory rest on the loop so he could continue on down the trail, but Dyche's team will have had a three hour break and it could be that Dyche has just timed everything perfectly to keep control of this race.

Don't count any of the chase pack out yet, and especially not Kaiser as these are his home trails. It's going to be an epic race to the finish.

What do you think will happen when the chase pack makes it to Kalskag? Can Dyche and Strathe hold them off? Comment below with your thoughts!