The 2020 Iditarod Winner’s Long, Strange Trip

By Amy Fernandez

Like everything else last year, the Iditarod was weird. It has always been a test of endurance and you might say that the fact it happened at all proves that point. The race got a lot of attention, partly because there wasn’t much else going on in dog sports anywhere. But the 48^th annual 1000-mile dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome took off on schedule last March 7 with 58 teams running, including several former winners.

Now COVID-19 had started making the news by then, but Alaska was fairly outside the parameters of the danger zone on that date. The 2020 winner, Thomas Waerner, had arrived for the race in mid-February, and although it’s hard to believe now, COVID-19 wasn’t even major news then. It didn’t last. Alaska got its first confirmed case on March 13. Since the race was already underway, health precautions were implemented to minimize risk and the annual celebration at the finish line was, well, no fun.

Over the years, race times have been whittled down from weeks to days and Waerner brought it home in a neat 9.5 days on March 18. Here’s the thing. Waerner, along with his 16 dogs, had arrived from Norway to compete in this race. Mushing is big over there, which is no surprise. Likewise, shipping a whole dog team is normally complicated but it goes with the territory. However, by March 18 it was virtually impossible. Nobody was going anywhere after the race.

Waerner thought that he had already dealt with the big complications just getting himself and his team to Alaska, doing the race and actually winning this time. After that ordeal you might say he deserved to rest on his laurels. Little did he know that the real test of stamina was yet to commence–getting home. Yeah, by the time he was packing his bags everybody here and in Norway was in full-blown lockdown.

I will tell you that during the post-race interviews Waerner repeatedly stated how much he liked Alaska. And that was good because it looked like he might be here forever.  And as much as he loves the sport, he is 47 and actually has a real job in addition to a wife, five kids and 35 other dogs back home in Torpa. None of them were too pleased about how this situation was unfolding.

After lengthy, unsuccessful negotiations to line up flight arrangements for his return to Norway, it finally happened in grand style last June.  Actually, that trip probably rivaled the thrill of winning the Iditarod. By then, everybody in Alaska knew about this Norwegian guy stranded with 16 dogs. Take it from me, there’s not much to talk about up there. Word got around and by sheer luck he discovered that someone was actually flying a cargo plane from Fairbanks to Sola in June. Not just any cargo plane, it’s a 64-year-old DC-6, a model flown back in the 1950s, that was recently purchased by Norway’s aviation museum.  They hitched a ride.

Like I said, it was a very weird year.

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Posted by admin on Jan 6 2021. Filed under Current Articles, Featured, Health & Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.