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Defending Iditarod champion Pete Kaiser was the first to arrive at Rainy Pass today, coming in at 11:35 a.m. on March 9. Travis Beals and Lance Mackey were about 12 minutes behind him. The fourth musher in was Richie Diehl, about an hour and a half later. Others straggled into the checkpoint throughout the afternoon. One of those, Aaron Burmeister, the musher who grew up in Nome and now lives in Fairbanks, left the Finger Lake checkpoint at around noon today. His was the 14th team into Rainy Pass this afternoon.

The slow pace and deep snow at the beginning of the 2020 Iditarod is not stopping last year’s champ. Richie Diehl from Aniak was the first musher into Finger Lake, arriving at 6:50 a.m. on March 9 to rest his team. He didn’t get much rest, though, as defending champion Pete Kaiser of Bethel blasted through the check point at 8:05 a.m., followed by teams driven by Travis Beals and Lance Mackey. 

Diehl left Finger Lake at 9:52 a.m., chasing the other three front runners. Kaiser's was the first team to Rainy Pass, making it there at 11:35 a.m. where he stopped to rest his dogs. 

Richie Diehl was the first 2020 Iditarod musher into the Finger Lake checkpoint, arriving around 7 a.m. on March 9. He is currently resting his team. Behind the Aniak musher are several teams, including Bethel’s Pete Kaiser, who is about 7 miles behind in position four. The front runners are in the heart of snow country, where the snow can be 10 feet deep just off the packed trail.

With Day 1 of LKSD’s District Basketball Tournament wrapped up, we know which teams are advancing to the semi-finals. For the girls, the Newtok Lady Jaegers will face the Chefornak Lady Shamans, and the Kipnuk Lady Falcons will play the Toksook Bay Lady Islanders. For the boys, the Nunapitchuk Wolves will match up against the Chefornak Shamans, and the Toksook Bay Islanders will square off against the Napaskiak Hawks. Semi-final games start at 3:45 p.m. on March 6.

Current Iditarod Champion Pete Kaiser is gearing up for another bid at winning the 1,000 mile sled dog race. 

While Pete's busy schedule didn’t allow him to sit down for an interview before he headed off to Anchorage, he did give a hint of how training was going for him just before the start of the Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race in January.

This year the conditions on the Iditarod trail are reminding old-timers of what it used to be like back in the last century. Mark Nordman, the Race Marshal for the Iditarod, has been in charge for breaking the trail for 30 years, and he says this time, there is plenty of snow.