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The K 300 sled dog race in the Bethel region last weekend tested racers with frigid winds and deep cold.

Pete Kaiser met the challenge to win his eighth victory and is already focused on future runs.

Obviously, we have to come back next year with a lot of good training and a good dog team and that's not easy.

So every every one of these victories that I've had, I'm very thankful for knowing, you know, it could be the last.

You never know.

What might sled dog racing in Alaska look like in the next year...and in future decades?

We'll talk with racers about how they're planning and what they expect, right now, on Alaska Insight.

Good evening.

The Iditarod and the Yukon Quest may be the first races to come to mind when thinking about sled dog racing for many Alaskans.

But distance races like the K 300 and Bethel and the Kobuk 440 in Kotzebue are gaining in popularity as well.

This evening, we'll discuss the future of mushing as a sport.

But first, here are some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's collaborative Statewide News Network.

Governor Mike Dunleavy implored Alaskans and lawmakers to capitalize on the state's natural resources, touting it as the main path forward for Alaska's economic future, during his annual State of the State address on Tuesday.

Much of the speech, however, focused on education, a topic that has already dominated the early days of this year's legislative session.

During the speech, Dunleavy argued for shifting the focus away from an increase to the state's per student education funding formula, while also highlighting other education related changes.

The legislature is considering.

The governor told reporters last week he would veto any bill that solely raises the funding formula known as the BSA without any other education items included in it, such as his proposal to give bonuses to teachers that complete a year in the state.

More than 10,000 soldiers will converge on the Donnelly training area near Fort Greely next week in preparation for this year's joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center Exercise, the largest military training exercise of its kind from February 8th through the 22nd.

Most of the 11th Airborne Division, along with U.S. Marines, Alaska National Army, National Guard and Canadian military troops, will take part in the training exercise meant to increase the readiness of the United States Arctic fighting forces.

Many of the troops will be arriving by airplane or helicopter, but a spokesperson for the Division noted there will still be a number of vehicles coming up the Parks highway toward Donnelly.

Dimond high school STEM teacher Kat Walker has been named one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year award given out by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Walker was named Alaska Teacher of the Year last spring during a surprise assembly.

Walker currently teaches marine biology, oceanography and vocational education courses with lesson plans that often connect students with businesses in the community.

The winner of the national contest will be announced in April.

You can find the full versions of these and many more stories on our website-alaskapublic.org or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now, a topic that many Alaskans enjoy, certainly myself, sled dog racing and the future of this iconic Alaska sport.

Last weekend, the Kuskokwim 300 race in Bethel challenged drivers with brutal, cold and icy conditions.

Some mushers withdrew before the start because of the extreme cold.

Reporter Ben Matheson has this K 300 race recap.

Jim.

January 26th marked the start of the fourth annual Kuskowkwim 300 sled dog race after a January thaw.

The consequence went into a deep freeze just in time to set up a sled dog superhighway before the race even began.

Several mushers withdrew, fearing the toll that the cold, hard trail could take on their teams.

With temperatures at 15 degrees below and windchills threatening to plunge down to -65.

Alaska's fastest sled dog teams came to Bethel to test their luck on a rock hard, icy trail.

This year's contending teams found themselves in elite company.

Defending K-3 champion Pete Kaizer took off from Bethel, vying for his eighth victory.

But to win, his team had to outrun three previous K 300 champs.

Matt Feller, who narrowly beat Kiser in 2019.

2021 champion Richie Diehl of Aniak and Willow's Ramey Smith, who won the race in 1995.

Also in the mix, reigning Iditarod champion and mushing royalty Ryan Redington and rookie Raymond Alexie.

The rookie from Kwethluk has had a hot winning streak coming into this weekend.

He's won all ten races he's entered over the past two years as 23 teams raced into the frigid night.

Mushers kept the pace flaming hot.

First time K 300 competitor Ryan Redington was the first musher to make it to two looks back, completing the first leg of the race in just under 4 hours.

For the first 100 miles, it looked like it could be anyone's race.

As the teams began to space out their mandatory 6 hours of rest between checkpoints.

Kwethluk musher Jason Pavlov appeared to be saving up most of his rest for the latter part of the race.

Pavel was the first musher into the halfway checkpoint of Aniak after the stop in Aniak.

Teams braved the tussock and frozen lakes of the Whitefish Lake Loop before turning to Kalskag.

By the time the front of the race pack reached Kalskag, a clearer picture of the race had come into view.

Defending champion Pete Kaizer finished the run from an yak to cascade with the fastest time and was the first to leave.

But just behind him was Matt Failor chasing his second title after coming in second place to Kaizer the past two years.

Kaizer left the Cal State checkpoint Saturday evening, just 2 minutes in front of 2019 winner Matt Failor.

But by the time Kaizer reached to accept it, widening lead to 37 minutes after completing the mandatory for hours of rest at 2:00, Kaizer took off towards Bethel in pursuit of the win.

Sunday morning, Kaizer cruised through the race route with all 12 dogs at 925, securing his eighth K 300 title.

You're not.

You know, I don't think we're one of the fastest teams out there as far as where our foot speed goes.

But we're real consistent and we try to we try to put string together, you know, consistent runs from this from start all the way to finish.

Kaizer is the second winningest musher in K 300 history.

If he were to win another title, he would tie Jeff King's all time record of No.

I think the goal would just be to win another one.

But it happens to be.

It would happen to be, you know, the ninth one that would tie Jeff So that's kind of cool.

But obviously we have to come back next year with a lot of good training and a good dog team and put it all together.

And see if we could do it again.

And that's not easy.

So every, every one of these victories that I've had, I'm very thankful for knowing, you know, it could be the last.

You never know.

Matt Failor finished in second place.

He said that Pete's mastery of the Cusco terrain makes him almost impossible to pass when Team Kaizer is on.

I just know how to get second place.

We got five solid dogs right here that could win it, just a matter of getting a few more litters and keeping it going.

You know, it's it's a it's not a job.

It's it's a it's a farm.

It's a lifestyle.

It's a career.

So, you know.

Yeah.

All the credit to Pete.

He deserves another championship because he is the best.

Joining me tonight are two people who know the world of sled dog racing well.

Janet Clarke is a former racer herself and is the race marshal for the annual fur rendezvous, Open World Championship sled dog race.

Janet is also a board member of the Alaskan SLED Dog and Racing Association.

And Mark Nordman is also with us.

Mark is is the Iditarod race director.

Welcome, both of you.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, Thanks for being here in person.

Mark, so nice to have you here.

And I should note that veterinarian and musher Jessie Klejka was planning to join us, but Alaska Weather had other plans and she was delayed returning from the Kuskokwim 300.

So, Mark, starting with you, the Iditarod racers often encounter deep cold racers, as we saw in the K 300 experienced extreme cold and icy conditions.

High... You know, just extreme windchill as a restrictor.

What goes into deciding to race in those conditions and what does let's watch for in dogs to know if they're doing okay or if they're in trouble.

Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me.

It was on a short notice.

I'm sorry that Jessica couldn't be here.

She would have been a great addition to your show.

You know, I just I just came back from Bethel, and I was actually able to go up to Kalskag once again.

Rode up with Andy Engelmann, their race marshal.

I learned every time I go to event, I learned from from that event itself.

And of course, I spent the weekend with Will Peterson, who most of your people will know here for sure.

Why do you go to Bethel?

You know, we always say if you want to have a really good place and if not, win the Iditarod, go to the K 300, because all those conditions are there.

It can be warm.

We can have the cuts when we can have the cold weather they had here really demanding race this year, all about team management, great veterinary corps, that Delta is such a hotbed of mushing that everybody is learning from the K 300.

And like I said, I and other racers go there to learn and then put it into the you conquest.

You know, every race has a reason that they should be very proud of themselves.

And there's nobody that's doing a better job than the folks on that on the Delta there.

So, you know, veterinary wise, if Jessica here, she would speak on it.

But just team management, just taking care of them, realizing the Iditarod is three course goes back to back.

So not at the speeds, of course, that they go.

But it it was a great event and they really have it together.

And veterinary care was great up there this year.

And what do vets look for?

Is it mainly worries over frostbite and feet or is it lung damage from running when you're exerting, you know, breathing hard and in very frigid?

It's definitely not lung damage.

It's amazing.

I've been very fortunate with my partner.

Denise sobered up in Denali to do some studies for a National Institute of Institute of Health.

Why are these dogs not freezing in their lungs where they're not developing this cold weather induced asthma that some of our supreme winter athletes are?

It's it's more the little things muscle pulls and going too fast on the you glare ice trying to get them to wear booties when it's super super icy.

Maybe you want to take them off.

It's all that management.

All the dogs look really good at the starting line.

When they came into Bethel.

And Pete Fields with all of his dogs.

And and there's a perfect example.

You know, it's kind of the the leader of the pack right now up there Richie deal of course, has been up front.

Matthew Failor has won the race.

We have a whole bunch of new people that came on board.

Hunter Keith did very well in Iditarod all the way down the line.

And and I keep going back to what they've done in Bethel, all those local teams.

What Myron Shankman and Paul and the race manager Paul and the whole crew, what they've been able to do.

They're teaching dog care throughout their whole event, in their whole region.

And it's been.

Really fun to see.

Fantastic.

Janet, I want to get you in here now.

Your thoughts about the chill during the K 300.

It was expected to be 65 below.

Have you raced or trained in similar conditions in the pas I have to say thank you so much and so fun to listen to you, Mark, as usual.

The things that are that Mark described in the distance races are very I it could have been, you know, in Pete and on the on the video footage that you had there, that could have been one of our sprint races as well.

In terms of all of the same concerns, the concerns about the little things that Mark described to you.

That aspect of the athlete, the athletic dog running at speed, which is what sprint racers do.

Running at speed and and cracking a little bit or cutting a little bit of a sport.

The same thing that happens in human athletes too.

But over the distance and at the speeds that our dogs go, that becomes actually a injury that can't be that can't be solved very quickly or or or completely.

And I and I feel like all of those same concerns happen in the cold weather like we just experienced this last weekend.

We held races on Saturday and Sunday of the weekend that we just finished and it was -22 to begin with.

There was a little breeze going and it was hard to race in those situations.

But like always in a sprint race, those dogs got to get back to their trucks and be put into their warm and cozy dog track and they got to get their feet all saved up and they were able to recover that rather quickly.

The distance drivers with their day after day kind of concerns are they have another level of dog care that has to happen differently than what our champion dog mushers have to do in the in the open races and in the limited races as well.

All of those require sled dog drivers that are cognizant about veterinary care and about just dog maintenance in general.

It was a first time in a long time this weekend that I have seen many of those sprint drivers putting on coats on their dogs to protect the areas that are susceptible to frost nipping.

And there were several teams that went ahead and booted all up.

They just it's too early in the season.

They have sweat problems.

And so all of those are stemming from an intense effort to maximize your dogs performance by taking outstanding care of them.

That really makes sense, especially early in the season.

You want to make sure that your dog can hang in there and have healthy feet and good muscles throughout the race.

Mark, how is this year's Iditarod shaping up?

It's actually shaping up really well.

You know, we had a smaller field last year.

We're up to 43 right now, which is for me is dealing with a lot of logistics with other people that I work with.

It's nice not to have, you know, when you're not too many years ago, we had 96 leaving the starting line.

And that's that's a really tough thing to deal with.

Lots of snow.

You know, there's all kinds of different issues.

We deal with.

I've got three trail breakers, four trail breakers up right now trying to put the trail in between Finger Lake and rainy paths.

Our other event, of course, in the state is the world famous Iron Dog.

They're going a little bit different route.

We have beetle kill.

You know, we're always talking about climate change and what we're having to deal with and that we could do a whole nother segment on what we're facing with the changes we've had in our climate.

The village relations is going well.

I may at this point, I think I have a new race marshal.

This will be the first time in since 89 that I haven't been carrying both roles, and it'll give me a chance to spend more time in the communities to get that really good feeling that much like Janet's people, when they go out to the villages and I look at it and who's Lee and who is for Spring Carnival?

It's we want to make sure that this state it is our state sport doesn't matter if it's speed, mushing or distance.

We want to make sure that everybody is really excited about what we do.

Good quality field battle, A serious battle, of course.

Pete just showed his how well he can do in races.

And Ryan Redington, our champ, is back again and we're there's probably ten people right now that I can't tell you who's going to win this race.

Well, that's exciting.

Yeah, it is.

What do you think the future looks like for, you know, you mentioned climate change and we know that there are people who don't like that long distance race because they think it's cruel to dogs.

What do you think the future looks like this year?

You mentioned 96, signed up a few years ago, only 43 this year.

How is it looking?

Well, I think I think I think it's the last couple of years I was a little bit concerned.

But all the qualifying races, the copper base and the Kinect 200, you know, the Yukon Quest, both the Canadian quest and the Alaskan quest that they're doing out of Fairbanks and Whitehorse.

That used to be if I didn't know who they were and I made a couple phone calls and I called my friend Tim White in Minnesota, they didn't exist.

There's a lot of people getting into the sport of mushing.

You don't have to run the Iditarod.

You don't have to go to the world championship in Anchorage.

I think people are really enjoying getting out.

You know, we're also, myself included, connected to our phones.

And we're seeing a lot of the junior races, The junior I did the junior Willow race, you know, Emily Robinson, who, of course, won the Kinect 200 and she's looking for four time champ at the Junior race.

There is a real upswell of maybe not the bigger kennels we used to see, but somebody that wants to have ten, 12 dogs and make it a family addition.

So it's I'm really happy.

Yes, we have people that still don't like what we do, but I think you're going to find that in anything you get into.

A my main thing is that do you believe in what we do as far as in the sled dog sports and I know Janet does then go forward.

Well, Janet, let's turn to you.

You're Mark may not be a race marshal this year, but he certainly has been for many years.

You're also a race marshal.

Describe the duties and how they differ in this more urban setting, especially when you're running during for a rendezvous.

Right.

You know, that is so true.

And I, I you know, Mark, I'm hopeful for you that you are able to re to bring on that position for race marshal.

But I'm not holding my breath.

It's hard to replace not Mark Norman in that position, but our roles are a bit different, there's no doubt about it.

But that logistics of a race and the aspect of pulling together the entire thing, not only making sure the trails are in place, not making sure that volunteers are in place, etc.. Mark, you know, commands a small army throughout the state of Alaska in the Iditarod, but relatively speaking, we have huge numbers of people out on the trail because of something that is unique to us, and that is our entire trail system is in the middle of Anchorage.

Our entire system winds around a very urban city.

There's no doubt about it that I don't know of another place where, you know, seven miles of trail going out is streets and bike trail that is usually filled with either vehicles or other multi-use trail users.

And then even as we're on our own Alaskan sled Dog and Racing Association trails, those are intersected by hundreds and I do mean hundreds of trails by other users, skiers and bikers and joggers and dog walkers.

And this is a different kind of pressure than what Mark four faces with his Iditarod teams who have different kinds of of challenges along their trail.

Ours is about the pressure of doing our race in the city.

It's also the most exciting thing about our race.

And we are so unique in this, and it's one that makes the Open World championship, I think, one of the most prestigious races in the world there.

If if you have a dog team that can run at that speed and also navigate running down streets between cars and people, as well as all of the steeplechase nature of our culverts and overpasses and the like.

That is a remarkable dog.

It's a it's a dog that is like no other.

Right.

And I feel like this is something that's very exciting about the Open World Championship.

It's entirely in the city.

And though the name of Iditarod and you can question some of the middle distance races are very top in the minds of people.

In reality, I think more people have actually been on the side of the Open World championship sled dog race to see dogs running then than they might ever hope to see them running through a long distance race.

And that makes Anchorage very special.

I feel like we have the Olympics of sled dog sports right in our city.

I love that.

That's great.

Yeah.

I will say this about it is that I. I know Mark just said that for a little bit.

He was concerned with some some of the dropping, you know, participation levels.

And I still don't understand how many how there are that many teams that will put themselves out on the Iditarod.

In my mind, when I look at the Open World championship, there are only so many dogs in the world that can do that.

And similarly, there are only so many dogs that can be competitive in the Iditarod.

There is enough supports in the Iditarod that those people who want the experience of such a long distance race can take part in it.

I don't think that's true in the Open World Championship.

If you are not at that elite level, at that professional level of open class racing, you're not going to actually make it around.

And I think it's almost the equivalent of saying of a person saying, Well, I love watching, watching Olympic ski jumping, so I think I'll sign up for that.

You just you're not going to make it off the jump without without serious injury.

And so same thing in terms of the Open World championship in the middle of Anchorage.

Those are the top teams in the world.

And they have something that no one else across the sport of sled dog racing have.

They have those most elite athletes that you can find, and there's just only so many that can do that.

So participation levels is not something I look at.

I do look at that recruitment like Mark was talking about, and I'm so excited by the amount of juniors who are participating, families who are doing that kind of work at the at the youngest levels with with, you know, rising stars.

And I'm also looking at the very, very dramatic increase in use of sled dogs in terms of other sled dog sports, maybe in skijoring, maybe an open I mean, and limited class racing.

In other words, I see it as being kind of an every person sport at this time.

And Mark is right.

You don't have to go to the Open World Championship or the Iditarod to fully enjoy sled dog racing.

And I think that's the positive aspect of what I'm seeing right now.

Well, thank you.

It's wonderful to hear the enthusiasm from both of you.

That sounds like the future looks pretty bright.

How can people who really do want to see the sport succeed and continue and flourish?

What can the average person do to help Mark?

Is there anything they can do?

Be a part of it.

Come volunteer for the rendezvous.

I am listening to Janet nodding my head through the whole time.

I wouldn't trade places with you, Janet, for anything.

I'm always honored when I get to come down on Fourth Avenue and watch the race.

I've been doing it for watching for 30 years.

It is.

And remember, that's where all our dogs came from.

You know, we at the Yukon River, of course, we have Europeans coming over, maybe more so when they're coming over now for the rendezvous.

But how can they get involved?

You can always offer to help on the weekends.

You can.

There's children's races that go on.

I know they have a really good program within Astro down here, the club here that works with the same in Fairbanks, Of course, your statewide.

So and all these villages I brought up the spring carnivals.

People can just get involved.

Yes.

Every monster's always looking for a little help with a tank of gas or sponsorship, but just being a part of it.

Go to the opening ceremonies, go to the banquet, just try to learn more about it and you'll get hooked like we have.

Well, thank you so much, Janet and Mark, for being here this evening with me.

It's been great to have you on and I appreciate the enthusiasm.

I know how much I love to, although I've only been at the ceremonial start, I have to admit.

But it's always so much fun to be at the start of the race and be on the trails around the city in this amazing, iconic race and all of the other ones that take place.

Thank you both so much.

There's a lot of love for dogs in Alaska, and sled dog racing is part of a centuries long tradition of traveling across the Alaskan wilderness behind a team eager to please their driver.

The future will be challenged by climate change and public sentiment.

But for the mushers, the training, runs and races are all part of a lifestyle that centers around a love of Alaska, Winter and Alaska sled dogs.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Visit our website, Alaska Public Forum for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free daily Digest.

So you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.