Iditarod dogs get visibility harnesses after 5 were fatally hit while training
The Iditarod, the annual sled dog race celebrating Alaska's official state sport, got underway Saturday with a new focus on safety after five dogs died and eight were injured in collisions with snowmobiles while training on shared, multiuse trails.
For the first time, mushers who line up for the competitive start today will have the chance to snag light-up, neon harnesses or necklaces for their dogs before they begin the dayslong race that takes the dog-and-human sled teams about 1,000 miles over Alaska's unforgiving terrain. The original plan was to hand them out Saturday at the race's ceremonial start in Anchorage, but organizers did not receive approval from competition officials.
The 38 mushers will trace a course across two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and along the ice-covered Bering Sea. In about 10 days, they will come off the ice and onto Main Street in the old Gold Rush town of Nome for the last push to the finish line.
Mushers always have contended with Alaska's deep winter darkness and whiteout conditions. But the recent dog deaths even while training have put a focus on making the fourlegged athletes easier to see at all times. Mushers typically wear a bright headlamp for visibility, but that doesn't protect lead dogs running about 60 feet in front of the sled.
“I can't make snowmachiners act responsibly; it's just not going to happen,” said Dutch Johnson, manager of the August Foundation kennel, which finds homes for retired racing sled dogs. “But I can help make dogs more visible.”
Two dogs were killed and seven injured in November on a team belonging to five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey on a remote Alaska highway used as a training trail in the winter. It has recently become more popular with snowmobilers, bikers and other users, making it more dangerous for dogs.
Seavey said in a social media post that the snowmobile was heading in the opposite direction at about 65 mph when it slammed into the lead dogs on the team. The snowmobile driver was cited for negligent driving.
In December, musher Mike Parker was running dogs for veteran Iditarod competitor Jim Lanier on the Denali Highway when a snowmobile driven by a professional rider struck the dog team. Three dogs died and another was injured.
The harnesses burn with bright neon-like colors that help illuminate the dogs in the darkness of the Alaska winter and pierce the clouds of snow sometimes kicked up by snowmachines, what Alaskans call snowmobiles.