Ultimate Iditarod NEWS FLASH
Iditarod Race Route Has Again Been Modified
February 21, 2003

By Ultimate Iditarod's Jim Gallea

    Well, it's official...we think.  As of today, the race managers and Board of Directors of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have decided on the race trail of the 2003 Iditarod.  However, the route has again been changed from the course that was announced nearly two weeks ago.

    Here's what we know:  As reported earlier, the ceremonial start will take place on Saturday, March 1, in downtown Anchorage.  Rather than running the 25 miles from Anchorage to Eagle River, a shorter, 11-mile trail to Campbell Airstrip will be run.

    The re-start of the race will take place at 10 AM on Monday, March 3, on the Chena River near Pike's Landing in Fairbanks.  From Fairbanks, the trail will run to Nenana, then Manley, and then Tanana.  From Tanana, the trail will meet the traditional Iditarod race trail at Ruby.  

    Rather than running the traditional race trail backwards from Ruby to Ophir as planned earlier, the racers will follow the Yukon River from Ruby to Galena and then on to Kaltag.  From Kaltag, teams will continue downriver on the Yukon to Shageluk, then turn around at Shageluk and head back up river to Kaltag.  While running this loop, the checkpoint of Eagle Island will be used by teams going both up river and down river.  However, the checkpoint of Anvik will only be used on the downriver run, and Grayling will only be used on the up river run.  After stopping a second time at Kaltag, teams will follow the normal Iditarod race trail to Unalakleet and then up the Bering Sea Coast to Nome.  (See map at bottom of page)

    The reason for this new race course is that the trail between the Iditarod checkpoints of Ophir and Iditarod is full of frozen hummocks and tussocks with very little snow covering.  According to Iditarod Trail Committee Board Member Dan Seavey, Iditarod trailbreakers on snowmobiles recently traveled the 90 miles between Ophir and Iditarod, but their trip took nearly three days--six times what most of the top Iditarod teams would take to do the same run under good conditions.  

    Seavey told Ultimate Iditarod that the new race trail will be approximately 1,200 miles in length.  He also said that the race organizers felt that adding the loop between Kaltag and Shageluk was a better option than making the race much shorter than the usual 1,100 or so miles.  "In this way, we will still have a good race with a safe trail, which is amazing when you consider the weather this year and the number of other races that have been cancelled," Seavey said.

    Ultimate Iditarod has also learned that race organizers have opted to run a trail known as the Commissioner Trail as a part of the run between Nenana and Manley rather than the more historic Serum Run trail.    

    Stay tuned to Ultimate Iditarod for more on these developments as we continue our countdown to the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

© 2003 Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
Reproduction or distribution in any way or by any means prohibited without permission.
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