ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race ended in a predawn close finish on the snow-covered streets of Nome on Wednesday, with Alaskan Pete Kaiser and his dogs barely holding off defending champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway.

Pete Kaiser of of Bethel, Alaska crosses the finish line to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Nome, Alaska, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Diana Haecker/Nome Nugget

Kaiser, 31, reached the finish line just 12 minutes ahead of second-placed Leifseth Ulsom, 32, in one of the closest finishes in Iditarod history. It was Kaiser’s first Iditarod win.

Crowds of cheering fans packed the city of Nome’s Front Street to watch Kaiser and his team sprint under the wooden arch that marks the end of the 1,000-mile (1,609-km) Anchorage-to-Nome run.

His total elapsed time was nine days, 12 hours and 39:06 minutes. It was far from the record time of eight days, 3:40 hours, set two years ago by three-time champion Mitch Seavey.

Kaiser, who became the first Alaska Native musher since 2011 to win, pumped his arms into the air as he crossed the finish line, hugged his wife and small children and then reached into the crowd of well-wishers who had traveled from his southwestern Alaska hometown of Bethel.

He credited the victory to years of preparation, “every little detail coming into play, and having a pinch of luck.”

“I’m very, very fortunate to have the support system I have, the whole community of Bethel and the whole Kuskokwim River and all of western Alaska. It’s extremely humbling and motivates me every day to perform to my best,” he said at the finish line.

The finish line on Nome’s Front Street was lined by big crowds who had braved Kaiser’s early arrival at 3:39 a.m. local time (7:39 a.m. EDT) amid stiff winds and blowing snow.

Warm conditions, with heavy and wet snow, occasional rain and stretches of open water in areas that are usually frozen over at this time of year, hampered the 52 mushers in the race who were slowed to a soggy slog.

For his victory, Kaiser will get $50,000, part of a total $500,000 prize purse, and a new truck.

Until Monday, a different musher had been the frontrunner. French-born Nicolas Petit of Girdwood, Alaska, had a significant lead over his competitors until his dogs stopped on a section of the Bering Sea coastline about 200 miles (322 km) from Nome and refused to go on.

Petit dropped out of the race Monday night, sending his dogs off the trail by snowmobile.

Coming in third and fourth were the Iditarod’s top women, Jessie Royer of Fairbanks and Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers, Alaska. Paige Drobny of Fairbanks was in seventh place, making this year’s Iditarod likely to be the first with three women in the top 10.

Close finishes of less than an hour apart are unusual in ultra-endurance races like the Iditarod, but they have happened before. The closest was in 1978, when Dick Mackey came in one second ahead of Rick Swenson, with a winning time of 14 days, 18 hours, 52:24 minutes, his lead dog’s nose the first over the finish line, according to Iditarod records.

The Iditarod, run every year since 1973, commemorates a 1925 medical mission that has become part of Alaska legend. At the time, Nome was stricken by a deadly diphtheria outbreak, and the remote Gold Rush town could be reached only by dog sled. Officials used a dog-sled relay to ferry lifesaving medicine to the town. </s> A new Iditarod champion has been crowned. Bethel musher Pete Kaiser’s team of eight dogs crossed under the Burled Arch in Nome at 3:39 a.m.

A boisterous crowd of friends and family from the Bethel area traveled to Nome to celebrate Kaiser’s victory. The 31-year-old wins $50,000 and a new truck.

It’s a career highlight for Kaiser, who has raced the Iditarod each year since 2010. On three separate occasions he’s placed as high as fifth, but this is his first win. The team’s run took 9 days, 12 hours and 39 minutes.

Kaiser had to hold off Joar Leifseth Ulsom, the defending champion, who surged on the final run in from White Mountain to trim 30 minutes of Kaiser’s 42-minute edge. The 1,000-mile race came down to 12 minutes. Leifseth Ulsom arrived in Nome at 3:51 a.m.

It was a chaotic scene in the chute as the two dog teams parked side-by-side. Kaiser’s dad fed the team a snack of frozen meat and dragged the sled, quickly moving the team over to give Leifseth Ulsom space. After Leifseth Ulsom was checked in, the party continued with champagne bottles, songs and cheers.

Kaiser is the first competitor from Western Alaska to win the race since Kotzebue musher John Baker’s 2011 victory. He’s the only winner hailing from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, with the one exception of Dick Wilmarth, who came in first during the inaugural Iditarod in 1973 when he lived in Red Devil. Kaiser is the first Iditarod champion with Yupik roots. He hopes his win will help spark an interest in the Delta and beyond.

“Not just Yupik people but all of the rural Native people from Western Alaska, or anywhere in the state, for that matter. It really doesn’t matter,” Kaiser said. “Anybody who can get a kick out of this, that’s awesome.”

Kaiser was raised around sled dogs in Bethel. His father raced dogs in local races before he was born. As a child, he got interested in dogs and began training with his family. By the time he was a senior in high school, he was winning local races like the Akiak Dash.

Kaiser’s racing style has tended to be conservative during the early parts of the race, in which he banks extra rest and ensures that his team will have speed when the opportunities arise. It was a variation of that style that positioned Kaiser for the victory in 2019.

“I generally have kind of an idea of what I’m gonna do, but it’s not set in stone,” Kaiser said. “A run can take five hours on a good trail and eight hours on a bad trail, just like this race played out. I mean, all these runs turned out to be two or three hours longer than they could have been on a long trail, so you gotta be able to adjust your race accordingly, I feel. If you just have something put pen to paper what you’re gonna do, no matter what, I don’t think it’s gonna work out so well.”

Kaiser raced a bit behind the leaders for the early and midsection of the race, preparing for the right time to show off his team’s speed. It was on the approach to the coast and the final few hundred miles of trail that he made his mark. Kaiser waited until Kaltag to take his mandatory eight-hour rest on the Yukon River. It was on that last push up the Yukon that his team hit a critical stride.

“We just got some trail that the team really likes, and we didn’t see much of that this race,” Kaiser said. “My team really likes hard, fast trails where they can go fast, and that was probably the best type of trail for that kind of race. So when they got on that (trail), they really wanted to roar. And actually (I) held ‘em back for most of that run.”

With fresh rest in his dogs, he was still three hours behind the race leader Nicolas Petit, but running fast at the right time.

He matched Petit for the fastest run time to Shaktoolik, and after that checkpoint is when the race broke open. Petit’s dogs stalled on the ice between Shaktoolik and Koyuk, costing Petit his race, but clearing the way for Kaiser and Leifseth Ulsom to battle for the win. Kaiser said as he passed Petit going up the coast he knew things weren’t going well for his competitor.

“I had an idea when I got there that something was going on,” Kaiser said. “I said, ‘Hi,’ and he said, “Hi,’ and that was it.”

On the windy push up to Koyuk, Kaiser again led the field. He gained an hour on Leifseth Ulsom into Koyuk. From there, Kaiser needed to maintain an edge on the athletic Leifseth Ulsom, which over the next few runs resulted in the first title for the Bethel musher.

As Kaiser rested after his win, Jessie Royer mushed in and out of Safety, the last checkpoint before Nome, running in third place. In fourth, Aliy Zirkle was between White Mountain at the time.

And if Royer, Zirkle and Fairbanks musher Paige Drobny — sitting in seventh in White Mountain — maintain their positions, it’ll be the first time ever that three women have finished in the top 10. It’ll also be an enormous leap up the standings for Drobny, who, in four previous Iditarod finishes has never placed higher than 25th. </s> Kaiser is the first musher of Yup’ik descent to win the race

Kaiser, from Bethel, Alaska, is the first musher of Yup’ik descent to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, according a press release from the race.

The nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-km) race took Kaiser nine days, 12 hours, 39 minutes and six seconds, ending when Kaiser reached the finish line in Nome, Alaska, at 3:39 a.m. local time on March 13.

Close behind in second place was 2018 winner Joar Leifseth Ulsom, finishing just 12 minutes behind Kaiser. Ulsom, from Mo i Rana, Norway, had a total race time of nine days, 12 hours, 51 minutes and 22 seconds.

As of 9 a.m. on March 13, rookie Ed Hopkins of 10 Mile is resting with his team at the Koyuk checkpoint. Hopkins is in 28th position and arrived at the checkpoint with 12 dogs.

The top Canadian is Alberta’s Aaron Peck, currently in 21st position, who left the Koyuk checkpoint bound for the Elim checkpoint early in the morning.

Jason Campeau, also from Alberta, is just two spots behind Hopkins in 30th. Campeau is at the Shaktoolik checkpoint.

Whitehorse’s Marcelle Fressineau scratched from the race on March 9 at 12:03 p.m. at the Iditarod checkpoint. A press release said Fressineau made the decision to scratch due to the welfare of her team. She had 11 dogs on the line at the time.

Alaskan Jessie Royer is in third place and currently on the trail from the Safety checkpoint to the finish in Nome.

Four more mushers, including 2017 Yukon Quest winner Matt Hall, are on the trail between the White Mountain checkpoint and the Safety checkpoint. A further four mushers are resting at the White Mountain checkpoint.

A total of 10 mushers have scratched from the field, leaving the number of mushers left racing or finished at 42. </s> ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 14 (Reuters) - A Norwegian musher won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early on Wednesday, notching the third victory ever for his home country in the 46-year history of the annual 1,000-mile (1609-km) trek across Alaska's wilderness.

Joar Leifseth Ulsom, the dogsled driver, arrived at the finish line shortly after 2:30 a.m. local time (1030 GMT) after nine days and 12 hours to become the second Norwegian to win the 1,000-mile Iditarod. Countryman Robert Sorlie won twice before - in 2003 and again in 2005.

Ulsom was greeted by Nome´s mayor and crowds of fans who lined Nome´s snow-covered Front Street, including one waving a Norwegian flag.

In the finish chute, Ulsom said he had dreamed of winning the Iditarod ever since Sorlie did.

"It´s pretty unreal that we pulled it off," he said.

Deep snow and warmer weather, with temperatures at times topping the freezing mark, slowed the pace of this year's race. Last year, three-time winner Mitch Seavey set a record of eight days, three hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds in hard-packed conditions.

Ulsom, driving a team of eight dogs, jumped into first place on Monday when he passed French native Nicolas Petit on the Bering Sea ice. Petit, who had held a comfortable lead, went astray as he ventured into blowing snow and lost the trail, forcing him to backtrack.

Petit told the Anchorage Daily News that he was led off-course by some markers left over from the Iron Dog snowmobile race.

By midday on Tuesday, Ulsom and Petit and their dogs had paused in the Inupiat Eskimo village of White Mountain, a mandatory eight-hour rest stop before the final dash to the finish line in Nome, a coastal Gold Rush town 77 miles (124 km)to the west.

The 31-year-old Ulsom, from the Norwegian town of Mo i Rana, just south of the Arctic Circle, has finished in the top seven in all of his past Iditarod races, and was the fastest-ever rookie in 2013.

Petit, 36, grew up in France's Normandy region and moved to Alaska in 1992. He lives in the ski town of Girdwood.

Sixty-seven mushers and their dogs started the Iditarod in Anchorage on March 3. As of Wednesday morning, eight had dropped out. Most Iditarod mushers are from Alaska, but each year several Norwegians compete in the race.

Ulsom and the other Iditarod mushers who follow him across the finish line over the next several hours and days will split a $500,000 prize purse. As first-place champion, Ulsom also will get a new pickup truck.

Four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey, Mitch Seavey's son, withdrew from this year's Iditarod following a dog-doping scandal. Four of his dogs tested positive for a banned opioid after last year's race. Seavey has said he is innocent, accused Iditarod officials of botching his case and suggested that he was the victim of sabotage.

Instead, the younger Seavey was in Norway during the Iditarod, where he was leading in the 1,100-kilometer (682-mile) Finnmarksløpet. (Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) </s> ANCHORAGE, Alaska: A Norwegian musher was poised on Tuesday to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and notch the third victory ever for his home country in 46 years of the annual 1,000-mile (1609-km) trek across Alaska's wilderness.

Joar Leifseth Ulsom jumped into first place of the world's most famous sled-dog race on Monday when he passed French native Nicolas Petit on the Bering Sea ice. Petit, who had held a comfortable lead, went astray as he ventured into blowing snow and lost the trail, forcing him to backtrack.

Petit told the Anchorage Daily News that he was led off-course by some markers left over from the Iron Dog snowmobile race.

By midday on Tuesday, Ulsom and Petit and their dogs had paused in the Inupiat Eskimo village of White Mountain, a mandatory eight-hour rest stop before the final dash to the finish line in Nome, a coastal Gold Rush town 77 miles (124 km)to the west.

Ulsom, who arrived 3-1/2 hours ahead of Petit, was expected to return to the trail in the afternoon and arrive at the finish line sometime after midnight, capping nine days of competition.

If he prevails, Ulsom will become the second Norwegian to win the 1,000-mile Iditarod. Countryman Robert Sorlie won twice before - in 2003 and again in 2005.

From the Norwegian town of Mo i Rana, just south of the Arctic Circle, the 31-year-old Ulsom has built an impressive international mushing record.

He has finished in the top seven in all seven of his past Iditarod races, and was the fastest-ever rookie in 2013. He is a two-time winner of the long-distance Nadezhda Hope race in Russia's Chukotka region, and won a 2012 sprint championship in Chukotka.

Petit also brings some international flair to the Iditarod. The 36-year-old contestant grew up in France's Normandy region and moved to Alaska in 1992. He lives in the ski town of Girdwood.

Sixty-seven mushers and their dogs started the Iditarod in Anchorage on March 3. As of Tuesday afternoon, six had dropped out of contention. Most Iditarod mushers are from Alaska, but each year there are several Norwegians in the race.

The Iditarod finishers will split a total US$500,000 prize purse, and the first-place champion also gets a new pickup truck.

As Ulsom and Petit waited out their last Iditarod rest, four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey was in Norway, where he was leading in the 1,100-kilometer (682-mile) Finnmarksløpet.

Seavey, at the centre of a dog-doping scandal, withdrew from this year's Iditarod. Four of his dogs tested positive for a banned opioid after last year's race, but he has proclaimed his innocence and has accused Iditarod managers of botching his case. He has also suggested that he was the victim of sabotage. </s> NOME, Alaska (CN) – A Norwegian flag waved in the background in the wee hours Wednesday, as Norway’s Joar Leifseth Ulsom crossed under the burled arch that marks the finish of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Leifseth Ulsom, 31, from Mo i Rana, Norway, is the second Norwegian in the 46-year history of the 1,000-mile race to claim the top spot. Robert Sorlie of Hurdal won the race in 2003 and 2005, and Leifseth Ulsom credits Sorlie for inspiring him as a youth.

“It’s pretty unreal that we pulled it off,” Leifseth Ulsom said at the finish. “It’s out of this world.”

Eight dogs in harness, out of 16 starters, brought Leifseth Ulsom down the snow covered Front Street after 9 days, 12 hours on the trail of what is dubbed the “last great race on earth.”

As friends and spectators gathered in 4-degree weather to cheer the 2018 champion, lead dog Olive licked Leifseth Ulsom’s forehead as they posed for pictures. “She has done an awesome job,” Leifseth Ulsom said of Olive.

In a bit of weather-induced drama on Monday, Leifseth Ulsom was running in second place and hours behind Nicolas Petit, who seemed poised to win after having been in the lead for most of the race until about 777-mile mark.

Leaving the checkpoint of Shaktoolik, a somewhat desolate spot on the Norton Sound coast, Petit lost sight of the trail markers in the blowing snow while crossing the ice heading to the next checkpoint of Koyuk. This part of the trail is known for ground blizzards and monotonous stretches of nothing but white ice where teams have stalled in past races

While the French-born Petit, 38, was backtracking to regain the trail, Leifseth Ulsom unknowingly took the lead. He found out he had passed Petit as he pulled in as the first team to Koyuk. Petit was unable to make up the lost time and finished second.

The deep snow and blowing whiteout conditions slowed this year’s race considerably from 2017 record time of 8 days, 3 hours when Mitch Seavey won. By early Wednesday, Seavey was nearing the finish in third place.

Leifseth Ulsom ran his first Iditarod in 2013, decisively claiming rookie of the year honors by not only being the fastest rookie that year but also the fastest rookie to have ever run Iditarod with a seventh-place finish. He has also placed among the top seven in all six of his Iditarod starts.

As a kid in Norway, Leifseth Ulsom got his start by borrowing his neighbor’s two house dogs to pull him around on skis. Watching Iditarod movies fueled his dreams and led him to build his own dog team.

In 2011, he moved to Alaska to begin training full-time with his small kennel of dogs – many brought directly from Norway to Alaska – and joined with Russian teammates as part of Team Racing Beringia.

Racing Beringia is an online education program for students in K-12 classrooms around the world to explore the region of Beringia, which spans from the Yukon in Canada across Alaska to Chukotka, Russia.

Leifseth Ulsom and his team have raced throughout the Beringia region including the Iditarod, the Yukon Quest, that runs between Alaska and Canada, and the Nadezhda Hope race in Chukotka, Russia. Leifseth Ulsom is a two-time winner of the later race.

This year 67 teams started the race on March 4. So far eight have “scratched,” calling an early end to their race due to their own personal injuries on the trail, dog illness or lack of enthusiasm. Racers will trickle in over the course of this week until the finisher’s banquet Sunday and the red lantern is doused to signify the last musher is off the trail. </s> Norwegian musher Joar Leifseth Ulsom has won Iditarod XLVI, pulling into Nome a little after 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.

After years of hard work, Ulsom arrived under the burled arch in 9 days and 12 hours with eight dogs. "Awesome, fantastic, unreal," he said to a Channel 2 crew about winning.

The new truck that comes with a first-place finish for Iditarod couldn't come soon enough for Ulsom. Both tires and his rear axle fell off his truck while driving on a highway before the race start and three tow trucks were needed to bring it to a mechanic.For the estimated $50,000 in prize money, Ulsom said all of it would be going back to the dogs.

In lead for Ulsom were three-year-old Olive and four-year-old Russeren. A veterinarian told Ulsom that Russeren had parvo as a puppy, a much-feared virus for mushers that regularly proves fatal, and that the dog would not survive.

Nicolas Petit came in second to Nome and three-time Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey is set to come third. Congratulations and messages of support came in for Ulsom from across the mushing world, including from four-time Iditarod champions Dallas Seavey and Jeff King.

Seavey’s Facebook page lit up with the hashtag #roarforjoar while King told a Channel 2 crew in Unalakleet that he was “rooting for Joar.” "[He] has shown an air of caution that is serving him well,” said King.

2018 is the first time a member of the Seavey family has not won Iditarod since John Baker took first in 2011. King said he was "ready for a new champion, as much as I love the Seavey dynasty."

Ulsom, 31, is also the second musher from Norway to come first in Iditarod after Robert Sørlie pulled off victories in 2003 and 2005. Ulsom spoke about the influence Sørlie had on him growing up. “I’ve been watching Iditarod ever since Robert won it, that was huge. I was a kid dreaming about one day maybe winning this race."

His victory is the first for his kennel Team Beringia and adds to his enviable record at the Last Great Race: He has started six times, finished six times and always placed seventh or higher. His first race in 2013 saw him place fourth, finish as the fastest rookie in the race’s history and win the coveted rookie of the year award.

The 2018 race for first place had been hotly contested by Ulsom, Petit and Seavey but it had not been entirely smooth sailing for the first three: The race leader got lost on the Bering Sea coast, a checkpoint was closed for layovers on the Yukon River and Ulsom enacted a risky strategy pushing on to the Iditarod checkpoint through soft snow for his 24-hour layover.

On Monday morning, Petit was comfortably leading when he took the wrong trail between Shaktoolik and Koyuk, costing him hours backtracking to the right trail. Ulsom was able to leapfrog Petit and pull into Koyuk a full hour in front of the French musher.

"He is going to be thinking about that for a long time," said Ulsom. The Norwegian had some words of encouragement for Petit, saying "he has an amazing team, he'll be back and do good."

Race director Mark Nordman said trailbreakers had put out lath to mark the trail but whiteout conditions on the Bering Sea coast are typical for the race. “That’s Iditarod,” said Nordman.

A second decisive moment occurred a few hours later: Ulsom left the Koyuk checkpoint only a few miles in front of Petit. He chose to blow through the Elim checkpoint telling the Iditarod insider crew that he “decided to keep going because [the team] looked so good.”

Petit rested for over two hours in Elim and arrived in White Mountain over three hours behind Ulsom.

After their mandatory 8-hour layovers in White Mountain, Ulsom set off with 12 dogs in harness for the final 77 mile push to Nome. Petit left White Mountain three hours later with 10 dogs, seemingly resigned to second place.

Earlier in the race, Ulsom didn’t seem quite so confident about his decision to push ahead from Ophir to Iditarod. "I was thinking like it was a really stupid move breaking trail and going so slow."

In a press conference after the race, Ulsom described that he had planned to stop for a long break in Ophir but pushed on regardless. He left so quickly that he forgot to pack food for himself. "I was like, wow, I am going to be a hungry guy."

He described the torturous conditions driving his team over a trail that had blown over with fresh snow. "I've been standing on one runner, kicking the whole freaking way. You know, it's a lot of pressure on one foot and it's like three million squats."

As Ulsom waited to complete his 24-hour layover, Petit and Seavey overtook him, allowing Petit to be the first musher into Anvik, the first checkpoint on the Yukon River.

A long push from Grayling to Kaltag saw Petit look to be in control of Iditarod XLVI.

Ulsom spoke to a Channel 2 crew in Grayling and seemed less confident about his position in the race. "I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a lot more mushers competing in this race because I think the teams with more rest are going to catch up pretty soon."

Petit arrived in Unalakleet almost four hours ahead of Seavey and Ulsom and prepared for a push up the coast. He told a Channel 2 crew in the coastal checkpoint that he had passed Seavey and Ulsom and got a boost in confidence. "I already know we have a fast dog team, we don't get passed too much."

Up the coast and Petit and Ulsom were pulling ahead of Seavey, turning a three-way fight into more of a duel. Seavey told an Iditarod insider crew in Elim that he "trained for a whole different kind of race."

Petit then had his disastrous run to Koyuk which was a full five hours longer than Ulsom's.

Arriving in White Mountain, Petit was reflective as he spoke to the Iditarod insider crew. He said the race would be a good preparation for next year and offered his congratulations to Ulsom. </s> ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Joar Ulsom said a few words in English but used his native Norwegian to heap praise on his dog team Tuesday as he arrived at the second-to-last checkpoint in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Ulsom held a commanding lead in the world's most famous sled dog race, and after a mandatory eight-hour rest, he was hours from the finish line in Nome.

He arrived in White Mountain just before 8 a.m., and left shortly before 4 p.m. For being first to the checkpoint, he picked up a $2,500 check.

"Wow, that's fantastic," he told sponsors in a video posted on the Iditarod website.

Then he switched to his native tongue to speak to each of his dogs before laying out straw over the snow for them to bed down for a snooze.

Ulsom arrived in the checkpoint with a nearly three-hour lead on the second place musher, Nic Petit, a native of France living south of Anchorage.

Barring any catastrophes, Ulsom, a native of Norway who has been living in Willow, Alaska, the dog mushing capital of the United States, is on track to reach the finish line sometime early Wednesday. The winner will be awarded about $50,000 and a new pickup.

If Ulsom wins, he will become the third Iditarod winner born outside the United States. Martin Buser, a Swiss native who has lived in Alaska more than three decades, became a U.S. citizen after winning his fourth Iditarod in 2002. Another Norwegian, Robert Sorlie, won the race in 2003 and 2005.

Defending champion Mitch Seavey is in third place. If he doesn't win, it will be the first time since 2011 that Seavey or his son, Dallas, hasn't won the race. In a video on the Iditarod website, Seavey cited slow trail conditions.

"I trained for a whole different kind of race," he said.

Dallas Seavey, a four-time champion, withdrew from this year's Iditarod in protest after race organizers said his dog team tested positive for an opioid painkiller after last year's race, when he finished second. Seavey denied giving his drugs tramadol, and decided to run a race in Norway instead of the Iditarod.

Sixty-seven mushers began the nearly 1,000 mile (1,609 kilometer) race across the Alaska wilderness March 4 in Willow. Since then, eight mushers have scratched.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The Iditarod Trail Committee board of directors made the decision to relocate the race to Interior Alaska in a quick, unanimous vote Friday after a two-hour-long executive session.

The ceremonial start for the 45th annual race will remain in Anchorage on March 4 when mushers and their sled dog teams snake 11 miles through the city. They will then travel about 350 miles north to Fairbanks for the official race start two days later, at 10 a.m. March 6. The race will cover about 980 miles to Nome.

"It's a different event, but it's still the Iditarod," said Race Marshal Mark Nordman at a news conference after the vote. "It's still a world-class dog race with the best mushers in the world."

Two Northland mushers are slated to take part in the race this year: three-time and 2017 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon champion Ryan Anderson of Ray will be running his first Iditarod, and four-time Beargrease champion Nathan Schroeder of Warba will be returning for the fourth year in a row. Another 2017 Beargrease musher, Ryan Redington of Wasilla, Alaska, also is in the Iditarod field this year.

Nordman said that while feet of snow dumped on Anchorage this winter, stretches of the Iditarod trail in the Alaska Range didn't fare as well, and were marked by sparse snow and dense brush.

"We're just not feeling that it's safe enough to run a competitive dog race over," he said.

The Iditarod Trail Committee had warned in a statement earlier this month that the perilous Dalzell Gorge portion of the trail had received inadequate snow, and Nordman said Friday that the notorious stretch also included too many spots of open water and unsafe snow-and-ice bridges.

While Nordman said he could possibly get a sled dog team through an alternate route, he said the mountainous weather conditions change quickly, and the board did not want to take chances.

The Iditarod restart has taken place twice before in Fairbanks, in 2003 and 2015. The change delivers a flatter trail to Nome, though the last time mushers started in Fairbanks, the weather turned brutally cold.
Peter Kaiser wins the 2019, 1000-mile Iditarod, arriving in Nome in 9 days, 12 hours and 39 minutes.