Iditapod: A Norwegian coasts up the coast

Thomas Waerner heating water in his stove in the Cripple checkpoint on Thursday, March 12, 2020. Cripple is about 425 miles into the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

As front-of-the-pack Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race mushers head up the Bering Sea coast from Unalakleet to Shaktoolik and Koyuk, Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner has put his sled dog team solidly out front. There’s still a group of competitive mushers behind him though, and as we like to say often, anything can still happen. We’ll hear a little from Waerner about what will likely be a difficult time getting his dog team home to Norway amid coronavirus-related travel restrictions, as well as from 2019 Iditarod champ Pete Kaiser about how a stomach-flu-like sickness hit him on the trail. Also, Quince Mountain introduces us to his goofball dog, Kiwi.

Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here

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