Iditarod Sled Dog Race Officially Kicks Off from Fairbanks, Alaska

The 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race officially kicked off on Monday, with mushers beginning their journey from Fairbanks to Nome.

Crowds gathered outside Pike’s Waterfront Lodge for the start, with temperatures reaching above freezing in what a race announcer said was “by far the warmest Fairbanks start”. Spectators watched from along the chute outside the lodge and down on the frozen Chena River as sled dog teams raced by.

This year marked the fourth time the race has begun from Fairbanks, with organizers deciding in mid-February to move the race’s starting point north due to a lack of snow on part of the initially-planned route. The original route was set to begin in Willow, near Anchorage. The race restart, as the race’s official start is known (differentiating it from the ceremonial start in the city of Anchorage), was also held in Fairbanks in 2003, 2015 and 2017.

33 mushers took to the trail this year, hailing from four countries - the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway. The field is comprised of 17 race veterans and 16 rookies. Those that attempted but did not complete the full race trail previously are still considered rookies by race organizers, and this year’s Iditarod includes multiple mushers making another attempt at the race after previously scratching.

This is the 53rd annual Iditarod race, with the first race held in 1973. The race distance this year is 1,128 miles, the longest in Iditarod history. The race will once again conclude in Nome, a city of a few thousand on the southern Seward Peninsula coast in Alaska.

Watch video from the official race start here: