‘We're just trying to do everything we can to encourage them’ with entry-fee half-refund, dog food, warm mittens
Organizers of the 2025 Yukon Quest sled dog race are offering gifts to motivate mushers to sign up early for the race, which begins Feb. 1 in Fairbanks.
Quest Executive Director Lisa Nilson says mushers who sign up before Dec. 10, and those who’ve already signed-up, will be eligible for a drawing to get an entry-fee half-refund, or two bags of Cold Spot dog food, or a pair of warm mittens from Fairbanks-based Apocalypse Design.
“The incentives are just there to try to encourage more mushers to sign up sooner rather than later, Nilson said. “We know like a lot of mushers are very interested in signing up for our race. And we're just trying to do everything we can to encourage them.”
This year’s Quest features three different races: an 80-mile Fun Run; an intermediate 200-mile event; and the big one, a 550-mile endurance race that takes a circuitous route from Fairbanks to Tok. Nilson says the two shorter races will use portions of the 550-mile course. The Fun Run, for mushers 14 years of age and older, involves a round-trip to the Two Rivers area.
“It's 40 miles out and 40 miles back,” she said, “and they finish up the next day.
The mid-distance race also involves a round trip -- from checkpoint to checkpoint.
“The 200 follows that same route out to Central and then they do a small loop and then finish back in Central.”
Nilson says the 550 runs over the same course as last year’s 300-mile event, and then some. The trail parallels the Steese Highway up to milepost 101, then east to nearly the Canadian border. And after passing through a couple checkpoints in that area, the mushers head south.
“So again, starting in Fairbanks on February 1st -- Two Rivers, Mile 101, Central, Circle, Eagle, Chicken, and finishing in Tok.”
Portions of that route are along or near the original Yukon Quest trail blazed in 1984 – a grueling 1,000-mile journey from Fairbanks into the Yukon Territory and on to Whitehorse. Every other year, the race was run in reverse from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. All that ended in 2020, mainly because of the pandemic. But Nilson says Quest die-hards hope to someday resurrect the route.
“Potentially in the future,” she said, “It's definitely not out of the picture, but yeah, it definitely takes a few years of planning in order to get back to that, and coordinating with the Canadian side as well.”
If the original international version of the Quest is ever restored, it likely would include a younger generation of mushers. Like those that will be racing in this year’s Fun Run.
“I'm very big into hockey. And so I totally understand getting mushers involved and getting them some experience and having like a fun way to do that and still race on the Quest trail.”
Meanwhile, organizers are focused on running a great race this year that’ll be about half as long as the original Quest.
