On Saturday teams of sled dogs and their drivers (known as “mushers”) will set off on the Iditarod, a race of about 1,000 km across the Alaskan wilderness.
Brent Sass was just miles from fulfilling his dream of winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska when vicious, 60-mph winds whipsawed in from the Bering Sea, taking visibility down to about 10 feet and forcing him off his sled as his dogs hunkered down in the snow.
Sass regrouped and led his team of 11 dogs off the Bering Sea ice and down Nome’s main street to the iconic burled arch finish line, winning the Iditarod, the world’s most famous sled dog race, in his seventh attempt. Things get serious Sunday with the competitive start of the race that will take mushers nearly 1,000 miles across Alaska. It begins in Willow, about 70 miles north of Anchorage.
Six mushers who account for 18 Iditarod championships are not racing this year. Last year, the sport lost another four-time winner when Lance Mackey died of cancer. Mackey was named honorary musher for this year’s race. Challenges to the globe’s foremost sled dog race are mounting, said Bob Dorfman, a sports branding expert with Pinnacle Advertising in San Francisco.
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