Pete Kaiser is the champion of Iditarod 2019.
The Bethel musher arrived at the Nome finish line in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, March 13, with 8 dogs in his team.
It’s Kaiser’s first Iditarod victory and his tenth run overall; he’s run every Iditarod since 2010 and placed among the top 10 finishers five times, including fifth-place finishes in 2012, 2016, and 2018.
The 2019 win is also a first for the Iditarod itself: Kaiser is the first Yup’ik person to win the Last Great Race. The previous Alaska Native to win the race was in 2011, when Kotzebue musher John Baker took the championship.
Kaiser won four consecutive runnings of the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race: 2015 through 2018. He’s also the only musher to have won the Kuskokwim 300, Akiak Dash, and Bogus Creek 150 — what’s often called the “Triple Crown” of mushing in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region.
Closer to Nome, Kaiser is also a two-time champion of both runnings of the Norton Sound 450 (2012 and 2013).
Stay tuned to KNOM for more details on Pete Kaiser’s championship and all finishes in Iditarod 2019. This is a developing story.
Ben Matheson contributed to this story.
Image at top: Bethel musher enters the finish chute along Front Street in Nome, moments before winning Iditarod 2019. Photo: David Dodman, KNOM.
Gallery below: a few photos from Pete Kaiser’s arrival into Nome early Wednesday morning, as well as of Joar Leifseth Ulsom’s second-place finish. All photos: David Dodman, KNOM.
