Iditarod ends as last musher crosses the finish line in Nome

By The Associated Press

Updated: March 21, 2022 Published: March 21, 2022

Veteran Iditarod musher Apayauq Reitan of Kaktovik, Alaska, drives her dog team down Corral Hill after the restart in Willow on Sunday, March 6, 2022. Reitan was the final musher to cross under the burled arch in Nome at 11:39 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, with seven dogs in harness earning the Red Lantern Award. (Bill Roth / ADN)

The last musher has arrived in Nome, ending the 50th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race across Alaska.

Musher Apayauq Reitan of Kaktovik, Alaska, crossed the finish late Saturday night, winning the Red Lantern award and $1,000 for being the final sled dog team to reach the Bering Sea coastal community on Alaska’s western coast.

Reitan also extinguished the widow’s lamp on the burled arch that towers over the finish line, a tradition that means there are no other mushers on the trail.

The world’s most famous sled dog race started for 49 mushers March 6 north of Anchorage. The nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) trail took them over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and then along the Bering Sea ice on Alaska’s western coast.

Twelve mushers scratched, half of them on Friday during a vicious storm that hammered mushers with high winds as they attempted to make the final 77 miles (124 kilometers) to Nome.

Brent Sass, a Minnesota native now living in Eureka, Alaska, won the race Tuesday.

[Full standings]