Story by Alaska Public Media's Ava White
Jessie Holmes raced into Nome early Friday, winning his first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on the longest trail ever.
The 43-year-old musher and his team of 10 dogs were escorted by a convoy of police cars down Front Street in Nome. The team, led by Polar and Hercules, ran under the arch at 2:55 a.m. in temperatures hovering around zero degrees, to hundreds of cheering fans.
“It’s hard to put into words, but it’s a magical feeling,” Holmes said.
He’s been waiting for this moment for years.
“I have nothing to stop smiling about,” he said. “I have everything going for me. And, you know, I shouldn’t ever feel a down moment in my life. If I died tomorrow, I'd just die the happiest man.”
Holmes walked down his line of dogs, petting them and giving them steaks. He jumped into the crowd to hug fans and shake hands. He praised his team.
“I’m really proud of these dogs. I love them,” he said. “And they did it. They deserve all the credit.”
Race officials presented Holmes with a check for $57,200.
Longest Iditarod trail ever
Holmes, who’s originally from Alabama, lives in Interior Alaska, where he says he works as a carpenter. He starred on the reality TV show “Life Below Zero.”
This is Holmes’ eighth Iditarod race. He has placed in the top 10 nearly every year, as high as third, and won Rookie of the Year in 2018.
He notched his first Iditarod victory in 10 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes — the longest time it’s taken a winner to finish the race in over two decades.
“Those are 10 quality days, I got my money's worth,” Holmes said at the finish, laughing.
This year’s mushers were racing on the longest Iditarod trail in history, at an estimated 1,128 miles. The route is normally closer to a thousand miles, but scarce snow in Southcentral Alaska forced race officials to move the trail north at the last minute. It’s the fourth time the race has started in Fairbanks, and it’s a change that climate specialist Rick Thoman expects will likely have to happen more often in a warming climate.
Holmes said he soaked in every minute of this year’s race — “the lows, the highs, the in-betweens.”
“It's not about this moment now,” he said at the finish line, “it's about all those moments along the trail, you know, being up in the Blueberry Hills, and the most amazing sunset you could ever imagine, moon shimmering on the glazed snow and the northern lights.”
He said he also thought about prior Iditarod champions as his team traveled across Alaska, including the late four-time winner Lance Mackey.
“Just wanted to join that club with them,” he said. “And, you know, I've wanted that for a long time. It’s unreal.”
A game of leapfrog
This year’s race was a game of leapfrog between Holmes, Matt Hall and Paige Drobny, who were all chasing their first Iditarod win.
“They’re awesome competitors,” Holmes said. “And, you know, I never once thought I had this thing until we made it over Cape Nome.”
All three mushers live not too far from one another in the Interior. Holmes said he and Hall have been friends for decades. When they saw each other on the trail, he yelled out to Hall.
“I go, ‘Man, 16 years ago, in Eagle. Can you believe this?’ Like, here we are, we're leading the Iditarod and, like, it was a real cool moment between us,” Holmes said at a news conference following his finish.
Hall was also runner-up last year and Drobny has placed as high as fifth in her prior Iditarods.
Drobny commanded the lead of the race early on, dashing into Galena, near race mile 369, in first place. As the race went on, she, Holmes and Hall passed each other on the trail, trading the first-place spot.
In the race’s final quarter, Hall briefly held the lead over Holmes out of Koyuk, but Holmes stole it back. When he checked into White Mountain, 77 miles from the finish line, he was hours ahead of both Hall and Drobny.
Tough trail conditions
It was not only the longer trail that led to this year’s slower race, but also tough trail conditions.
Mushers slogged through sections of soft snow and were even hit by a sandstorm early on. Further up the trail, between Kaltag and Eagle Island, frozen snowmachine tracks made for some of the worst trail conditions Drobny had ever seen, describing it as “70 miles of crap.” Mushers then faced strong headwinds heading up the coast.
Also notable about this year’s Iditarod: It was not only the longest trail, but the starting race field was also tied with the smallest ever with just 33 mushers.
Eight mushers have dropped out of the race, including one musher because his dog died. Two rookies were withdrawn Wednesday because officials said they were going to slow.
