Travelmaniac Iditarod Photos

The Organizers

The Iditarod Trail Committee is a nonprofit corporation that relies on volunteers and donations to put together the race every year. The permanent staff, based in Wasilla, consists of a handful of people, including the full-time race director and part-time race manager. Annual budget for the race is roughly $2 million dollars, which covers the purse, operating expenses, overhead, and shipping food and supplies to checkpoints.

The staff is supplemented by several thousand volunteers.

A race marshall is the top race official and is assisted by a staff of race judges.

At each checkpoint, race personnel include the checker, who records the official time, number of dogs in the team, and checks required gear. Others may assist the checker, especially if the teams are closely spaced as they arrive. Other race personnel at each checkpoint handle communications and logistics.

Sponsors are critical to the survival of dog mushing and sled dog racing. Corporations, businesses, and individuals sponsor individual mushers as well as particular races.

The Volunteers

Working with the staff of the Iditarod Trail Committee are hundreds of volunteers who labor behind the scenes. As many as 1,500 in any given year. In 2000, more than three hundred volunteers came from other states and countries to help.

The trail is marked every year by Iditarod trail breakers on snowmachines, as well as local volunteers working on sections near their villages. Volunteer trail breakers ride snowmachines about six hours ahead of the mushers, breaking the trail and where necessary marking it with four-foot wooden stakes with colored reflecting tape. The Iditarod Trail Committee pays their expenses.

Others help with the 60 to 100 tons of trail supplies, straw for the dogs, tents, fuel, and food for the checkpoints. Every item is handled many times, from initial pickup to final delivery to some of the most remote places in Alaska.

The volunteer pilots, known as the Iditarod Air Force, fly through some of the worst winter weather to transport food, supplies, people, and dogs along the trail. These experienced Alaskan pilots use their own planes, and the Iditarod Trail Committee pays for gas, oil, and insurance.

It takes more than two hundred volunteers in Anchorage to get the start off on Saturday, and about the same number of volunteers for the restart on Sunday.

During the race, two hundred to three hundred volunteers at race headquarters answer phones and e-mail, input race statistics into computers, manage race communications, sell merchandise, handle arrangements for dropped dogs, organize the pre-race banquet, work with sponsors, and a myriad of other tasks.

In Nome for the finish, in addition to local residents, at least 50 people pay their own way there to volunteer at headquarters, sell merchandise, help in the dog lot, organize the post-race banquet, and more.

The Veterinarians

About thirty-five volunteer veterinarians monitor the health and welfare of dogs racing in the Iditarod. At least three veterinarians are at each checkpoint, and they examine each dog. Several thousand dog exams are performed, from the pre-race at headquarters, to team checks along the trail, to the final health exam after the finish line.

Just as the dogs and mushers must meet certain qualifications, so must the vets, including five years in practice and previous experience working with racing sled dogs. Veterinarians are selected in August.

The chief vet makes optional kennel visits before the race. Pre-race veterinary work includes vaccinations, deworming, EKG's, blood work, and making sure each musher has completed Dog Care Agreement Forms.

During the race, the vets examine the dogs at checkpoints. Mushers are required to carry dog-care diaries which serve as written medical records for the dogs and are read and updated by the vets at each checkpoint. Vets also conduct random drug testing as a precaution, monitor dropped dogs, and determine cause of death for any dogs that die during the race.

In addition to looking out for the dogs before and during the race, many vets conduct medical studies, including research on gastro-intestinal disorders and vitamin deficiency.

Dog handlers - Willow Lake 2001	Dog handler - Willow Lake 2001
Veterinarian examining a dog - McGrath 2001	Veterinarians examining dogs - McGrath 2001