Sass hustles through Unalakleet to hold Iditarod lead, but Seavey likes his chances as the race hits the coast

UNALAKLEET — Brent Sass carried his lead in the 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from the Yukon River to the Bering Sea coast late Saturday. Under starry skies, Sass reached Unalakleet with 12 dogs at 11:32 p.m.

Sass expressed confidence he could maintain his lead.

“I’m gonna try,” Sass said during his brief stop at the checkpoint. “I mean, the dogs are doing good, and I feel good about it.”

Sass, whose face was hardly visible under the wind-whipped fur ruff of his orange parka, hustled through his duties during his six-minute stop in Unalakleet. After his mandatory gear was checked, he stuffed supplies from his drop bags and armfuls of straw into his sled pockets.

He took just a moment to receive the Ryan Air Gold Coast Award — a pouch containing an ounce of gold. Then he called for his team to carry on.

“OK, boys! You guys ready?” he said before veering back onto the icy trail to head north.

“All right! Gee, gee, gee,” he shouted as a few dozen people cheered on a blustery night.

Less than two hours later, at 1:22 a.m., Dallas Seavey parked his team by the coastal community at Mile 714 of the Iditarod Trail. Seavey, cagey about how long he planned to stay, said he was sticking to his plan about where to rest. Long runs are common among mushers toward the end of the Iditarod, he said, but they aren’t always well planned.

“You see people do big pushes and it puts them ahead, but ahead at the wrong time,” said Seavey after he bedded his team in straw. “There’s only one place that you really need to be in front.”

He speaks from experience. Four of Seavey’s five Iditarod wins have passed through Unalakleet, but in none of them was he the first to reach the coast.

[As Iditarod mushers head toward the Norton Sound coast, expect a race to the finish]

Sass started this Iditarod with a few reasons for optimism. In the months prior, he won three mid-distance races, including the Copper Basin 300 in January, the Yukon Quest 300 and the Yukon Quest 350 in February.

Sass has had the best of his five Iditarod races in recent years, placing fourth in 2020 and third last year. Experience has helped him improve, he said back in Anchorage before the start of the race, but some things have remained the same throughout his career.

“The core of what I do is still camping and still blowing through checkpoints and that stuff,” Sass said. “I’ve been doing that since day one and that continues to be my strategy.”

By late Sunday morning, both Sass and Seavey had passed through the next checkpoint, at Shaktoolik.

This Iditarod is Sass’ 21st 1,000-mile race. If the Eureka musher can maintain his lead for Iditarod’s final 250 miles, it would satisfy a long-held goal.

“When I set out to do this, started dog mushing …18 years ago, the goal was to win the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod. I’ve won the Yukon Quest three times now, and so the Iditarod is the next one on the list,” Sass said before the race got underway.

“It would mean the world to me,” he said.

To earn that accomplishment, he’ll have to fend off Seavey, who is tied for most Iditarod wins, and perhaps other mushers in the race’s fourth quarter. Before leaving his team to warm up inside, Seavey said he considers himself a good tactician when it comes to racing on the coast.

“We’re balancing a number of factors,” the Talkeetna musher said. “One is closing the gap, but the other one is to make sure that if and when we do catch up, we have the stronger team.”

“Are you ready for that footrace? That’s a bigger question,” Seavey said.

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