The 2025 Yukon Quest Alaska’s (YQA) initial sign-up deadline has already come and gone, but a few teams may still join the pack.
With warm weather possibly putting other races in jeopardy, YQA announced Tuesday that they will bump their application deadline 10 days – from Jan. 10 to Jan. 20.
“We conversed with our board, rules committee, and everyone, and decided that it would be in our best interest to get as many mushers as possible, and to leave it open for those that had maybe planned to mush certain races and might not be able to or whatever, to sign up for ours,” said Lisa Nilson, the YQA executive director.
Nilson said she’d heard from some mushers who wished to apply for the YQA in the event that other races they’d signed up for changed or cancelled, but she said she could not speak for other organization’s plans for dealing with the warmer weather.
On Thursday, the Kuskowkim 300 announced that its board of directors voted unanimously to postpone their race by two weeks, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7. The statement said there’s been limited snowfall in the area this year and that forecasts for numerous race checkpoints were showing temperatures above 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the days leading up to the original start date.
“The Race Committee has been in touch with registered mushers in the days leading up to the decision to postpone and at this time, no racers have indicated an intent to withdraw as a result of the change,” the K300 statement said.
As for the Quest, Nilson said the trail is in good shape, and the latest reports indicate it’s all things go.
“We got a trail report on Monday basically saying that everything is looking really good,” she said.
She said portions of the Chena River always raise some level of concern, with overflow there challenging mushers last year, even when temperatures were hitting -50 degrees Fahrenheit.
“We’ll accommodate as much as possible so that people are not having to go through it, or whatever we need to do to ensure the safety of the mushers and the dogs,” she said.
As of Thursday, 26 mushers had been accepted to compete in the Quest’s 2025 events: five for 550-mile race, seven for the 200-mile race and the remainder for the 80-mile fun run.
That currently makes for a smaller field than the last time the Yukon Quest Alaska ran a 550-mile course, in 2023. That year saw 40 mushers in total head through the start chute for the long-, middle-, and short-distance races, with nine of them competing in the 550.
Tuesday’s announcement marks organizers’ latest move to attract more competitors for the 42nd running of the Quest. In November, the organization reduced the entry fee for the 550 race from $1,000 to $700. That reduction came a week after the Quest said they were offering a handful of prizes to incentivize early sign ups.
And Nilson said she thinks the application deadline extension will have an impact on the final lineup for each of the 2025 events.
“We’re kind of expecting to get one or two [more mushers] for all three races,” she said.
The new, Jan. 20 deadline was selected carefully, according to Nilson, in an attempt to find a sweet spot that accommodates both prospective mushers and race preparations, and she said that date will not be pushed back again this year.
“We felt that this was plenty of time for more mushers to sign up and make those last minute decisions, but plenty of time for us to still get some of those last-minute things done for any additional mushers,” she said.