John Beargrease 40th run canceled due to lack of snow

As the Midwest continues to experience a historically whacky winter of no snow nor freezing temperatures, the mushing community has anxiously watched their season disappear. Most teams were still training teams with ATVs instead of the traditional sleds over the Christmas holiday. Races preparing for late January and Early February starts made statements warning that decisions would be announced after the new year.

Gunflint was first to announce a postponement of their race. With a race date of January 6, they had to announce a change of date as soon as possible. December 23 they announced that they would postpone the race until February 10, saying they took into account dates of other races so as not to take from anyone. Race officials say they need at least two feet of snow and frozen lakes to be able to pull off a race and will be watching weather reports obsessively.

Then today, January 2, the news broke with the release of the statement by the John Beargrease board that there would be no Beargrease in 2024. They could not find a future date that would not interfere with other races and so they've chosen to postpone the 40th running for a year citing the new date as January 26, 2025.

"For Immediate Press Release:

RE: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon 2024 Race

January 2, 2024

After months of waiting for the weather to cooperate, the Board of Directors for the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon has made the decision to postpone the 40th running to January 26, 2025. This was not an easy decision. But, with concerns over the weather, safety of the dogs, mushers and volunteers it was the only decision that we felt comfortable with.

There have been many discussions about postponing to a later date this winter but the weather is unpredictable. Likewise, in the effort to find a postponement date and in the spirit of sportsmanship, there was not another date that didn’t impede on another established race.

The Beargrease will continue to have several fundraising events so stay tuned to our socials and website for how you can continue to support this amazing race that we all love so much."

Mushers in the region had already made alternate plans seeing the writing on the wall that their winter season was in jeopardy. Ryan Redington and Wade Marrs posted over the weekend that they were on the road with a full dog truck headed for Knik Alaska to run the Knik 200. Redington also announced he was on the roster for the Kusko 300 - replacing Brent Sass who has chosen to focus on training for bigger races this season. Any team from the Midwest facing no snow for the season who plan to run the Iditarod will no doubt have to make similar decisions to head north earlier than originally planned - with no Beargrease to run in January those moves could happen at any time.

With no winter weather in the forecast for the foreseeable future, races are now asking everyone to "think snow!"

2024 Knik 200 Roster

After a month of smaller races and several sad stories of dog teams tangling with snow machines, the race season is in full swing for 2024's first weekend. As always, the new year kicks off with the beloved Knik 200. Put on by the Knik Trail Blazers, the Knik 200 saw its roster fill up very quickly. The wait list, too, had several teams waiting and hoping for someone to drop out to be able to fill the spot. The race boasts a full roster for Saturday.

While the Lower 48 is still waiting for winter like temperatures and any sort of real snow, Alaska - especially South Central Alaska - has seen an abundance. The week between Christmas and New Year saw below zero temps before warming up to ring in the New Year. This winter has already thrown a little bit of everything at the teams.

Speaking of teams, you're probably just here for the roster list with links to the musher's websites and socials. As has been the norm for the last several years on the blog, we've got you covered. The addition of kennel names (when known) are back as well as that was a popular new feature last year.

As always, this roster will look slightly different come race day once Musher Bibs are drawn the night before. For now the list is in order of how the race shared it earlier this week. If anything needs changing, shoot me a message and we'll get it fixed!

BIB NUMBER 1 BELONGS TO JOE MAY.

Bib	Musher	Kennel	Link	Link	Link
2	Josh McNeal	Crooked Creek Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
3	Ashley Dove	Crooked Creek Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
4	Ed Hopkins	Tagish Lake	Website	Facebook	Instagram
5	Ryan Redington	Redington Mushing	Website	Facebook
6	Mary Boniface	Tailwind Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
7	Ibi Wemark	Turning Heads Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
8	Wade Marrs	Stump Jumpin Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
9	Adam Lindenmuth	Sojourn Expeditions	Website	Facebook	Instagram
10	Brianna Blomgren	Team Bailey		Facebook
11	Travis Beals	Turning Heads Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
12	Dane Baker	Alaskan Husky Adventures	Website	Facebook	Instagram
13	Dave Turner	Racing Chaos		Facebook	Instagram
14	Anna Hennessy	Shameless Huskies	Website	Facebook	Instagram
15	Sarah Giles	Nic Petit Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
16	Bridgett Watkins	Kennel on a Hill	Website	Facebook	Instagram
17	Juliah DeLoach	Oil Well Kennel		Facebook
18	Travis Vanderhoof	Dream Team Kennels		Facebook	Instagram
19	Amanda Otto	Husky Homestead	Website	Facebook	Instagram
20	Jessi Downey	Aimaagvik Kennel		Facebook	Instagram
21	Dakota Schlosser	Sled Dog Systems	Website	Facebook	Instagram
22	Anna Berington	Seeing Double Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
23	Sadie Lindquist	Seavey's Ididaride	Website	Facebook	Instagram
24	Brent Sass	Wild & Free Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
25	Ashley Franklin	Orange Blossom Kennel		Facebook	Instagram
26	Eddie Burke Jr.	Off the Rails Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
27	Lara Kittelson	Seavey's Ididaride	Website	Facebook	Instagram
28	Josiah Liebe	Dallas Seavey Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
29	Isaac Teaford	Dallas Seavey Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
30	Michelle Phillips	Tagish Lake	Website	Facebook	Instagram
31	Bailey Cross Vitello	Team Bailey	Website	Facebook	Instagram
32	Joshua Robbins	Outreach 22	Website	Facebook	Instagram
33	Emily Robinson	Robinson Racing Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
34	Nic Petit	Nic Petit Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
35	Hunter Keefe	Redington Mush Alaska	Website	Facebook	Instagram
36	Gabe Dunham	Evermore Adventures	Website	Facebook	Instagram
37	Isaac Redington	Redington Racing		Facebook
38	Matt Randall	Rock On Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
39	Matthew Failor	17th Dog/Alaskan Husky Adventures	Website	Facebook	Instagram
40	Robert Redington	Alaska X		Facebook	Instagram

*Roster updated January 5, 2024.

Who are you excited to see on this list? Have a favorite you're cheering for? Who do you expect to take the top prize? Comment with your thoughts below.

And, as always, you can Buy me a slice of pizza to help keep the blog up and running. It's always appreciated but never expected.  

Kale Casey live at Knik 100

 

Dallas Seavey: "Please do not drink and drive this weekend"

Note: This story has details of massive injuries to dogs, dog death, and human trauma. 

Dallas Seavey at the restart of Iditarod 51. Seavey
released a statement today about a fatal incident
involving one of his dog teams and a snow machine
allegedly driven by a drunk driver on Saturday.

A trooper report spotted on Sunday morning reported a snowmachine accident involving a sled dog team outside of Cantwell, Alaska around 8:30pm on November 18. The dispatch gave little detail as to the event or the condition of those involved. All that was known was that no charges had been filed and the investigation was ongoing. Many within the mushing community and fandom alike wondered who it could be, and those in the know remained silent waiting for an official statement.

Wednesday morning, Dallas Seavey made a statement via his social media page indicating that a team from his kennel was the one involved. Handler Josiah and a team of nine Dallas Seavey Racing Kennel dogs were hit head on by a snow machine driven by someone who appeared heavily intoxicated. One dog died instantly, another succumbed to injuries an hour or so later. Three remain in critical condition. Seavey reported that four of the dogs as well as the musher, handler Josiah, had minor injuries.

"Josiah’s team was hit by a snowmachine traveling ~65mph in the opposite direction," Seavey wrote. "Of the nine dogs in the team one was killed instantly, one had several broken legs and died within an hour, three had compound fractures or limbs nearly amputated by the impact, and the remaining four had minor injuries (by comparison)."

Seavey detailed the injuries of the three dogs in critical condition. Two have already had surgery, one to amputate a leg, the other dog to hopefully save a leg. The third dog is so critical due to fluid on the lungs that they cannot operate on this time, but the dog needs to have its leg amputated as well. Seavey believes all three dogs will never run in harness again - even if the one's leg can be saved. 

Dallas Seavey closed his statement with a plea ahead of a holiday many over imbibe during - "Please do not drink and drive this weekend," he wrote. "And remember, there are other users on the trails."

This could have had an even more tragic story as not just dogs but humans were hit by a snow machine going 65-70 miles per hour. Josiah was thrown from the dogsled but still managed to tend to dogs as they bled. Had it not been for the fact that he was traveling with two other experienced dog mushers (Dallas ahead of him by at least half an hour, Isaac behind him) we may have had a very different outcome for most of the dog team. 

This evening Dallas Seavey was interviewed by Anchorage Television station and NBC affiliate, KTUU's Mike Ross. While the broadcasts shared snippets from that interview, Ross shared the interview in its entirety on his Facebook page after the broadcasts. WARNING: Dallas goes into great detail of the incident as he knows it, as well as the sometimes graphic detail of the carnage he found when he came to Josiah's aid. He mentions the help of fellow musher Paige Drobny (Squid Acres) to get him to the crash site. It's about 20 minutes long and it is a HEAVY listen.