Seventeen mushers and hundreds of dogs are set to compete in what’s expected to be a warm, and potentially wet, 2025 Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race (K300) this weekend.
The race from Bethel to Aniak and back will have a couple of deviations from the traditional route. Mushers are competing for a share of $200,000 in prize money. Here’s what to know about the 2025 K300:
Where and when does the K300 start?
The 2025 K300 starts at 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7 on the Kuskokwim River ice near Front Street. It’s seven hours earlier than previously scheduled – a move made with the hope that mushers will finish the race before a forecasted warm-up on Sunday, Feb. 9.
Teams will take off in pairs every two minutes, in an order determined at the mushers meeting on Feb. 6. Second-time K300 competitor Ryan Redington, wearing Bib 1, and eight-time K300 champion Pete Kaiser, wearing Bib 2, will be the first teams to race out of Bethel.
While the race start has been rescheduled for the afternoon, K300 Race Manager Paul Basile said that there will still be fireworks at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 7.
Spectators are welcome at the start of the race, but because of ice and snow conditions on the river, Basile said that the K300 Race Committee is asking people not to drive trucks down to watch the start or fireworks.
“Obviously, if you've been watching or seeing heavy equipment out there, we feel like it's safe,” Basile said. “But we don't want to test that with 300 trucks.”
Basile said that pedestrian access at Joe Lomack beach is looking good, and that spectators could ride snowmachines to watch the festivities.
What are the trail conditions like?
Basile said that they’ve got a “really nice trail” for this year’s K300, with more snow than is typical for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. It’s a relief, considering the race was delayed two weeks and is now coming just as the weather shoots above freezing again.
“I'm as optimistic as we can be about having a great race,” Basile said.
Racers can expect a steadily warming and mostly cloudy weekend, with daytime highs between 23 and 37 degrees Fahrenheit and nighttime lows of 18 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service. Winds are forecast to come from the east at between 10 and 30 miles per hour.
Although Basile said that there’s a good trail for the race, there are some changes to the route. This year, mushers won’t be taking on the iconic Whitefish Lake loop portion of the trail.
“We determined that the Whitefish Lake loop, while mostly in excellent shape, was not viable just because of a couple stream crossings,” Basile said.
Instead, mushers will head up Aniak Slough, which will net roughly the same mileage as the Whitefish Lake loop. Other trail changes include sticking to the Kuskokwim River for much of the early race rather than going to Bogus Creek, and mushing into the town of Tuluksak on the way back to Bethel.
Who’s racing this year?
In the weeks before the K300, as weather warmed and froze, 11 registered mushers dropped out. Basile said that considering the winter the region has had, it’s still looking like a competitive field.
“I think, you know, considering the circumstances, I'm delighted that we have 17 mushers here ready to race,” Basile said.
The lineup includes three former champions of the Kuskokwim 300: the race’s winningest musher, Jeff King; Bethel musher Pete Kaiser, who could tie that winning record this year; and Matt Failor, who placed first in 2019 and second all but one year since. Twelve of the 17 mushers in the field have completed the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and all but one of this years racers have competed in a comparable-distance race before.
Seventeen-year-old mushing phenom Emily Robinson is set to take on the K300; she’s received an exception to the K300 rule that dictates mushers have to be 18 years old to compete. She’s the only true rookie in the race, having never competed in a 300-mile race before.
With a deep and experienced field, it could be anyone’s game, Basile said. “The stories always present themselves, and we don't know what they're going to be. Maybe on [Feb. 8] or [Feb. 9] we'll know what this race is remembered for,” he said.
Read about the mushers here.
How many dogs will each musher have?
Race rules dictate that mushers must start with at least seven and no more than 12 dogs. Mushers are not allowed to run fewer than five dogs in the harness at any point during the race, and have to finish with five dogs.
When are mandatory breaks?
Mushers are required to take six hours of rest throughout the race, split as they see fit between the outbound Kalskag checkpoint, Aniak checkpoint, and coming back through Kalskag. All mushers also must take a four-hour rest in Tuluksak before the final 50-mile push back to Bethel.
When might a winner cross the finish line?
It’s hard to say before the race starts when a potential winner could finish, but with the start bumped up by seven hours, Basile said that the finish could be in the middle of the night between Feb. 8 and Feb. 9.
What are teams competing for?
Mushers are competing for a cut of $200,000 in prize money, an increase of $15,000 from last year. The winner will take home at least $30,000, but with the smaller field it will likely be more. It’s the largest purse in the world for this race distance.
There are also a number of smaller trail prizes, as well as prizes for Rookie of the Year and Red Lantern, an award given to the last musher to finish the race.
What about the Akiak Dash and the Bogus Creek 150?
The Akiak Dash mass start is scheduled for noon on Saturday, Feb. 8.
For the past few years, the Bogus Creek 150 has run on a separate weekend from the K300. That’s the case again this year. The Bogus Creek 150 is scheduled for Feb. 22.
How can I follow the races?
Keep up with the race action by tuning in to KYUK 640AM. We’ll have reporters doing commentary and interviews at the start and finish, as well as reporters covering the race from Kalskag and Aniak. We’ll also be live streaming the start and finish and posting updates regularly to our website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
The K300 will regularly be posting updates on its website and Facebook page. You can follow teams on the race’s online GPS tracker, which will also be pinned to the top of KYUK’s web page.
