The Iditarod

Colder winds have never blown than those that whip across the Alaskan tundra, beating the land into frozen submission on this storied arctic trail.

First officially held in 1973, the Iditarod begins on the first Saturday in March and can last as many as fifteen days, with the record time for the race clocking in at just over eight days and 22 hours.

Teams consist of mushers and typically sixteen sled dogs who make the 1,161 mile trek through white out, blizzard conditions and wind chills that have been known to dip down to 100-below Fahrenheit.

To put it mildly, the event is a harrowing, multiple-day competition reliant upon man and his animal’s will to persevere for day in the harshest imaginable, sub-zero conditions.

After starting in Willow, the trail winds through the Alaska range, then into the sparsely populated interior. Racers then descend to the shores of the Bearing Sea before finishing in Nome, giving spectators multiple opportunities to catch the action in more civilized, less frozen settings.