A century after the birth of long-distance sled dog racing, 16 mushers are set to retrace a historic run in western Alaska and compete for a $100,000 winner-take-all purse.
The All Alaska Sweepstakes begins Wednesday, launching a 408-mile round trip from Nome, an old gold rush town best known as the finish line of the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race held earlier this month.
In a departure from that famous race, however, the lucrative sweepstakes is allowing the participation of an Iditarod musher serving a two-year suspension for abusing his dogs. It also carries some rules left over from the past, including a ban on dropping tired or injured dogs along a route that crosses mountainous terrain marked by punishing wind and subzero temperatures.
"This is about who has the best team, not who is the best musher," said race director Phil Schobert. "There's intentionally a lot of challenge in it so the mushers have to take a lot of care for their dogs. This race is 100 percent about the dogs."
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