The sight of Bethel’s Pete Kaiser posing on stage at the Kuskokwim 300 (K300) Mushers Banquet with his championship trophy may feel like déjà vu. This is the fifth year in a row Kaiser has won the race, and his 10th overall, making him the winningest musher in K300 history.
At this year’s banquet, held Jan. 26 at the Yupiit Picaryarait Cultural Center in Bethel, race co-founder Myron Angstman said that Kaiser has managed to crack the code.
"He has figured out how to win the Kuskokwim 300 by going through, in detail, every little, tiny thing that you have to do to win this race. And he's figured it out in a very methodical, quiet, sort of scientific way," Angstman said.
The former high-water mark, mushing legend Jeff King's nine-win record, was established in 2013. Just two years later, Kaiser began chipping away at King’s record, nabbing his first championship. In the decade that followed, Kaiser has won all but two of his K300 races.
In his own speech, Kaiser was anything but boastful about becoming the new “King of the Kusko.”
"First of all, I just want to say that I’m really grateful that everybody hasn't acted too annoyed of me, because I feel like I'm starting to get a little annoying," Kaiser said to laughter.
After nearly 20 years running the race, the 38-year-old said that he’s running out of new people to thank. He said he didn’t want to leave out longtime Bethel business Stan’s Barber Shop.
"Every year I get a haircut before the [K300] or the Iditarod, and he gives me a free haircut. And, you know, I told him, if you wanna go fast, you gotta look fast," Kaiser said.
The banquet offers up numerous awards – for humanitarianism, for elapsed times, for volunteer contributions, and others.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Chingliak won Rookie of the Year, as well as this year’s Red Lantern award for being the last musher across the finish line. Wearing a bright-pink sport suit, race officials also tossed in an unofficial best dressed award for the Akiachak musher.
Chingliak thanked Kaiser for the encouragement it took to enter his first 300-mile race, and got some laughs of his own.
"When I was pulling up to Tuluksak, I received a text from Pete, and he said I was doing good and I was killing it. So I wanted to check how he was doing. And by the time I went on the maps, the tracker to check, he was already finishing," Chingliak said.
Akiak Dash
Alongside 23 mushers who completed the K300, the banquet recognized the 16 local mushers who completed this year’s roughly 65-mile Akiak Dash sprint race.
Younger mushers took the chance to thank family members who had shepherded them into the sport. Third-place Spyridon Chaney of Napaskiak got a laugh when he thanked his grandfather, local mushing fixture Fr. Alexander Larson.
"I'm glad he retired so I can run the dogs," Chaney said.
The youngest and only female musher in this year’s Akiak Dash, 15-year-old rookie Mia Pavila of Kwethluk, had just one word for the gathered crowd following her 10th place finish.
"Quyana," Pavila said.
First-place Akiak Dash musher Michael Larson of Kwethluk, who placed second as a rookie in the 2025 Akiak Dash, thanked the local Alexie Racing Kennel for giving him his start in mushing. He also gave a special shout-out to the K300 champion.
"We can probably call it the Kaiser 300, since he holds the record now of 10 wins," Larson said.
Worst weather, best luck
Among the many nods to Kaiser, there were also plenty of positive words for K300 Race Manager Paul Basile, now in his seventh year – making him the longest serving race manager. At the banquet, Basile mostly focused on commending the massive volunteer effort at race checkpoints and in Bethel, where individual host families took in around 20 mushers, handlers, and their dog teams this year.
"At one point this year, we had 30 people registered to do the race, and we had more than enough people willing to do that, which is remarkable," Basile said.
The weather was beautiful during this year’s race, but it was bookended by foggy conditions and freezing rain. The fog delayed the arrival of dogs, mushers, and fireworks into Bethel, where it also grounded small planes needed to drop bags, supplies, and volunteers at checkpoints.
Twenty-first place K300 musher Aaron Peck of Alberta, Canada made it into Bethel just three hours before race start. And 13th place Cantwell musher Cody Strathe’s dog team also arrived with only hours to spare.
Angstman said that weather has been a constant threat over the race’s 47-year history, nearly canceling more than a dozen of those races. Somehow, the K300 manages to sneak through.
"I guess you could say we have the world's worst weather for racing, but the best luck of all to get these races in," Angstman said.
Soon, mushers will have another chance to race on much of the same route in the Bogus Creek 150. An extreme cold snap postponed the race normally meant to tee up the larger K300. It is now scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 14.
