Josi Shelley and 10 sled dogs cruised across the finish line at Pike’s Landing in Fairbanks at 8:12 Monday night to claim the crown in the first ever Yukon Quest Alaska 750. The new Quest champion’s performance was so dominant that she was able to take extra rest at the last checkpoint in Nenana, before covering the final 50 miles and completing the race with a total time of nine days, nine hours and 11 minutes.
As KUAC’s Patrick Gilchrist reports, the Fairbanks musher’s victory is not only a milestone in her personal career, but its also the longest Yukon Quest a woman has won in more than a quarter century.
Shelley’s team of bootied canine champions powered up from the Chena River and across the Fairbanks finish line. They came to a stop as a chorus of whoops and the occasional glove-muffled clap erupts from the awaiting crowd.
Whatever exhaustion Shelley built up during the race seemed to melt away as she crossed under the banner that designates the end of the trail. She alighted from her sled, pet each member of her frost-bearded team, and hugged loved ones and fellow mushers one after another.
“We trained really hard. We knew this was gonna be a tough race. And all the training and the miles paid off.”
Even with her name on the lips of fans, Shelley immediately directed the accolades to her team.
“I feel like it’s celebrating the dogs, and mushing, and how tough these dogs are.”
Shelley, formerly Josi Thyr, operates a kennel in Fairbanks called There and Back Again Sleddogs with her husband, JJ Shelley. She was the 2024 Iditarod Rookie of the Year and came in second in last year’s Quest 550. She’s won 200- and 300-mile races in the Lower 48, but this is her first top place finish in Alaska.
"With the trail conditions and things, it will definitely be something that is a highlight, for sure. You know, as a musher, you like the challenge, even if it’s type two fun, it’s still an accomplishment."
Shelley fronted the historically small field of six mushers most of the race, with little pressure from other teams during the last few hundred miles.
Fairbanks musher Keaton Loebrich jumped out in the lead this year, but dropped after about 100 miles after repeated struggles on the windy 3,700-foot Eagle Summit.
Shelley’s closest challenger after that, reigning champ Jeff Deeter, scratched at the Yukon River Bridge checkpoint Friday, about 450 miles into the race. By the time Shelley finished, the three other mushers on the trail were running roughly one to two days behind her pace.
Her victory marks the longest Yukon Quest won by a woman since Aliy Zirkle finished first in the bygone 1,000-mile international race in the year 2000. Shelley says she hopes that can inspire anyone interested in the sport to put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
“The nice thing about mushing: It’s one of those sports where gender doesn’t matter. It’s really just how you manage your dogs – you know, obviously having that kind of fortitude and grit to get through.”
Winning this year’s race meant conquering grueling conditions that slowed, frightened, frustrated and foiled other experienced Fairbanks mushers.
Jason Mackey described the snow-sparse descent of Rosebud Summit on day 2 of the race as the worst conditions he’d ever seen on the mountain. Jonah Bacon snowshoed his team into the Rampart checkpoint, trudging through deep snow for miles on a frostbitten toe sustained days earlier when temperatures dipped to 60-below zero. Scarce trail markers across hundreds of Yukon River miles at times delayed Shelley and others, and contributed to Deeter’s decision to scratch.
Shelley says, in the end, her team had energy to spare.
“In fact, my problem on this race is that they’d pull my snow hook out when I was ready to stop. I can’t tell you how many times that happened, and it was kind of annoying, but that’s a good problem to have – because they just want to go.”
The literal path Shelley traveled to victory was something no one predicted. Dangerous weather and river conditions forced race officials into a last-minute reroute that bypassed the Tanana checkpoint, slicing off dozens of miles by directly connecting Rampart to Manley. Shelley says she wanted to go to Tanana, and that deep snow on the overland detour made that section of trail a slog. But it wasn’t all bad.
“It’s fun to run those narrow trails, like that. It’s just like, ‘What’s around the bend?’ You know, and you’re in and out of the trees, so it was fun, but very slow.”
With the challenges of this race in the rearview and a win to boot, Shelley says her focus now shifts to the Iditarod next month. But she says, for this team, the training is done – and it’s now time for a nice, long rest, before they give that storied race their all.
Three mushers remain on the Quest trail: Jonah Bacon in second place, and together in 3rd, the father-son duo of Jason and Patrick Mackey, who have run the entire race together. (Patrick Gilchrist)
