Countdown to Iditarod 2023: Tributes, jokes and celebrations as mushers pick starting order

Mushers and Iditarod superfans gathered Thursday evening for the race’s first in-person banquet and bib drawing since March 2020, on the cusp of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a ballroom at the downtown Anchorage Dena’ina Center, more than a thousand people dined on big plates of steak and lingered over auction items laid out to raise money at the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race’s largest fundraiser.

“We have all the money we need,” joked race CEO Rob Urbach from the room’s mainstage. “It’s just still in your wallet or your purse.”

Outfits ran the gamut from wooly Norwegian sweaters and camo jackets to fur ruffs and kuspuks. There were a few high heels mixed in with the mukluks and many varieties of sturdy hiking boots. Mushers wore their finest puffy jackets, cleanest sweatshirts and least ruined ballcaps.

The occasional politician wandered around the ballroom, and there was a video address from Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who lauded the race’s importance to Alaska and vowed to be on hand in person for the ceremonial start, “Even if I have to mush there from Washington.”

One by one, mushers were called up from their tables to pick their starting positions, drawn at random from an old hat. That will determine the order racers embark on the trail, though it doesn’t take long for teams to leap-frog and rearrange themselves, and departure differentials are adjusted by tacking on minutes to mushers’ mandatory 24-hour rests.

[Meet the mushers of the 2023 Iditarod]

Reflections from Iditarod icons, and honoring Lance Mackey

On hand at Thursday’s banquet were four other past champions not set to compete this year, including five-time winner Dallas Seavey, who finished second in 2022 and said he’s taking time away from the race to focus on family.

Two of the sport’s giants, Jeff King and Martin Buser, with four wins apiece, were recognized. Both have been racing sled dogs for decades.

“He who is first will soon be last, and now I know what he means,” King said, referencing a lyric from Bob Dylan as he reflected on what the race has meant to him.

“I hope Iditarod ‘23 will not be remembered as the year the fewest mushers started, but as the year they did it the best,” said King, who ran his first Iditarod in 1981.

Buser has competed in 37 consecutive Iditarods. This year’s race is the first since the Reagan administration to get underway without Buser at the starting line.

“Sometimes we learn more coming in second or third or 33rd,” Buser said of the event’s lessons in humility and perseverance.

But it was 1978 winner Dick Mackey whose presence packed the biggest punch. Mackey’s son Lance, another four-time winner and one of the sport’s most beloved characters, died from cancer in September. A chunk of Thursday’s banquet was dedicated to memorializing Mackey, who is this year’s honorary musher.

“I’m gonna work hard to get through this without tearing up a bit,” said Mike Mills, chair of the Iditarod board of directors, remarking on Lance Mackey’s legacy.

“Why do we all love Lance Mackey? Why does his memory make us smile?” Mills asked. “He gives us all hope.”

Lance’s brother, Iditarod veteran Jason Mackey, is competing in the race after several years away.

“We’ll all be cheering for you, Jason, as you carry Lance’s ashes to Nome,” Mills said.

Organizers showed a short video highlighting Lance Mackey’s accomplishments and the relentlessly positive attitude that endeared him to fans both casual and committed to the sport. After it ended, the audience rose in a standing ovation.

[Iditarod 2023: Tracking dropped sled dogs, a trail conditions update and a rookie’s lifelong dream]

33 mushers set to launch from the starting line

This year, 33 teams are starting in the race, the smallest field in the event’s history. Two past champions, Brent Sass and Pete Kaiser, are running along with numerous top-10 finishers, which will make for a highly competitive race despite the field’s small size.

The ceremonial start will kick off on Fourth Avenue on Saturday morning in downtown Anchorage, with the first mushers set to depart on an 11-mile route beginning at 10 a.m. After that, teams will depart every two minutes.

On Sunday, teams will stage behind the Willow Community Center at Willow Lake and begin taking off at 2 p.m. Parking on-site is $20 cash, though organizers encourage visitors to make use of shuttles leaving from Anchorage and Wasilla to avoid traffic congestion.

The race this year will follow its southern route, sending mushers through the abandoned gold-rush town of Iditarod from which the historic freight-hauling trail takes its name. After that point, about midway through the race, teams will move on to the Yukon River communities of Shageluk, Anvik and Grayling before heading north past the Eagle Island checkpoint to the town of Kaltag, ahead of a long portage to the Bering Sea coast. The race hasn’t followed the southern route since 2019 due to pandemic considerations.

Based on past finish times, a winner is projected to arrive under the burled arch on Nome’s Front Street some nine days after mushers hit the trail, sometime late Monday, March 13, or early the morning of Tuesday, March 14.