Kotzebue’s Chuck Schaeffer is embarking on his first Iditarod in twenty-five years.
He’s excited about the team he’s built to run this race, and looking forward to the new trail facing the mushers. Schaeffer remembers watching Huslia’s George Attla as a young man, and shares how their friendship developed over recent years.
Aniak’s Richie Diehl is excited about the maturity and health of his team.
Coming from a training season on open tundra all winter long, he feels he’ll be prepared for any kind of conditions the race throws their way. He’s happy to see more race support and more mushers cropping up from western Alaska.
Pete Kaiser is coming to this year’s Iditarod with the championship team from Bethel’s Kuskokwim 300. Even with seeing many of the other teams at the K300, Kaiser says it’s really anyone’s race.
It’s hard to predict how the training will pay off. He says strategy will be a big part of the race, but you have to base your strategy on what your dogs can do. “In the end I bet you there’s going to be teams very close together, all those strategies coming together at the end.”
Iditarod 2014 landed Aaron Burmeister with an injured ACL. This year, as a result, he’s running a new sled custom built by a Norwegian sled builder.
He’s impressed with his veteran team this year, who have all finished in the top 10 in previous Iditarods. Running on familiar turf from their home in Nenana to Nome, Burmeister’s team is very familiar with this year’s trail.
