Aaron Burmeister, veteran musher at the top of his game, plans to step back from Iditarod racing after this year

UNALAKLEET — Don’t mistake Aaron Burmeister’s tears for disappointment.

Though leaders Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey were long gone by the time Burmeister reached the Bering Sea coastal community, Burmeister cheerfully greeted friends and fans on a calm and sunny Sunday morning.

“There’s a lot this year. I’m trying to just soak it all in,” Burmeister said. “It’s been an emotional trip.”

Burmeister, 46, said he plans to take a break from racing after this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, his 21st. The veteran musher, who calls both Nome and Nenana home, said he intends to spend more time with his family.

“The kids are at that age now where they’re growing fast, and they’re into events and sports and Dad needs to be there. And I miss that,” he said ahead of the 2022 race. “The hardest thing in the world for me is to tell them ‘no’ when they want Dad to be there for a certain event or at the school, or there’s something that’s going on.”

At the ceremonial start of this year’s Iditarod, Burmeister said he wants to watch his 13-year-old son’s band concert, cheer on his 9-year-old daughter at her ski meets, and be there for his wife, Mandy, the way she supported him while he pursued sled dog racing.

He steps back from the sport while he’s at the top of his game. Burmeister took second in the 2021 Iditarod. He’s placed in the top 10 seven times in the last nine races.

Though he entered the race feeling like he had his best shot yet to claim a championship, he said Sunday that it would probably take a storm to slow Sass and Seavey down. But he said he had no regrets about choosing not to try to keep up with the front-runners. He opted instead to hold back, a strategy that would serve him well in event of a coastal storm, he said.

“That was the gamble that I took, to be in the background keeping the team fresh ready to take advantage of some weather,” he said.

On Sunday, Burmeister has found only fast conditions near the coast.

“There’s nothing that’s gonna slow them down. Those guys will be duking it out up there, and I’ll be behind them to pick up the pieces if something goes wrong, but I’m just enjoying this ride with the dogs,” he said.

Sled dog racing has consumed much of Burmeister’s life. He entered his first Iditarod in 1994 and has finished 20 times without scratching. Last year, he took runner-up to Dallas Seavey.

“It’s been a very patient growth, building this dog team without driving them too hard,” he said at the ceremonial start in Anchorage.

This year has been tough sledding, he said, and it has taken a toll on his feet, knees and back.

“I was laughing to myself out there. Ol’ Mother Nature had to throw a little bit of everything at us for the 50th anniversary of the Iditarod,” Burmeister said.

“There were places where for 50-60 miles, we should’ve been in snowshoes walking in front of the dogs, because the snow was so deep,” he said. “And the wind and the storm going through the Interior. And before that, no snow and bare ground and tundra … Rain too.”

It was a hard call to press pause on racing when he’s doing so well, Burmeister said. But he said it’s the right thing to do.

“When you’re committed to competing at the level we are in Iditarod, it’s 150% commitment,” he said. “And your wife and your kids and your family and all your friends have to revolve around your schedule if they want to see you or do something with you.”

[Ahead of the Iditarod front-runners, trailbreakers cut a path to Nome]

“And it’s very selfish, because that’s what you have to do to compete at this level. That commitment is something that I can’t give to my dog team forever,” he said.

Burmeister said sled dog racing will remain a part of his life. He expects his dogs will run in next year’s Iditarod with another musher. He makes a point to clarify that his break from the sport doesn’t equate to retirement.

“I’ll never say it’s my last race …” he said. “You don’t retire from dog mushing — you quit. You retire from a career. And I’m definitely taking some time for my family after this year’s race and spending time to be a father and a husband and live life a little bit. But we’ll always have dogs.”

Burmeister said he typically races each year with the following year in mind, always looking for ways to improve and adjust. This year, greeting friends at the checkpoints and enjoying each moment occupies more of his headspace than long-term competitive planning.

After feeding and bedding his team down Sunday, he joined friends for a pancake breakfast inside the checkpoint. This year, he’s also spending more time camped along the trail than he has in many years.

“Curling up in the straw with the dogs, that’s kind of a high point too,” he said.