It’s been a tough winter for mushers and sled dogs in Western Alaska, training in starts and fits as conditions allow.
That didn’t stop Pete Kaiser at last weekend’s Kusko 300.
Kaiser, who is from Bethel, crossed the finish line early Sunday morning in his hometown to take his fourth straight victory in the race. It was his ninth overall win, tying mushing legend Jeff King for the most all-time victories.
With his dogs unable to train steadily through the winter, Kaiser said he was happy to just bring a team he thought could compete to the starting line.
“At a few points during the season, I was questioning whether or not we were even going to be able to get the team ready to start the race, so I was happy with that,” he said. “But of course, the historic aspect of tying Jeff is pretty sweet. That’s been some motivation behind our training — trying to get to that No. 9 and tie him."
Unseasonably warm conditions and a lack of trail snow and river ice pushed the race back from its original start date of Jan. 24.
But snowfall in the week before the race made for close to ideal conditions for the 17 mushers who finished the race.
“There was a lot of trail work to be done leading up to the race, but it ended up being one of the nicest trails I’ve raced on in the Kusko,” Kaiser said.
While mushers in Southcentral have faced similar conditions, many have headed north to train along the Denali Highway. That hasn’t been an option for Kaiser and others in Western Alaska.
“We don’t have a lot of alternatives out here,” he said. “You’re pretty much stuck. You can’t get in a truck and drive, and so everybody out here has just kind of toughed it out. And you know, we definitely have less miles on the dogs this year than ever.”
Kaiser has been dominant in the race over the past decade. He’s won nine of the last 11 races and finished second in 2019 and 2021.
On Sunday, he crossed the finish line at 1:57 a.m., finishing the race in 36 hours, 41 minutes.
The Kusko touts itself as the “world’s premier middle distance sled dog race.” It generally brings in a competitive field of mushers, who race from Bethel to Aniak and back along the Kuskokwim River.
“It’s really always been that way,” Kaiser said. “It always attracts some of the best mushers. The field isn’t always super huge, but we always get 15 really good teams out here, sometimes more. And it’s not easy to win.”
Riley Dyche, Cody Strathe, Mike Williams Jr. and Hunter Keefe rounded out the top five.
Finishing in sixth place was Nenana musher Emily Robinson. The 17-year-old is the three-time reigning Junior Iditarod champ and coming off a win at the Knik 200 last month.
Kaiser has known the Robinson family for almost a decade. He had a training property in Nenana and was a neighbor of theirs, becoming friends with fellow musher and family patriarch Wally Robinson.
After Kaiser sold the property, he stayed in touch with the family, even selling them a number of dogs as the Robinson kids started getting more seriously into mushing.
“It was neat to see her come out here and get in a real big competitive race,” he said. “It was a big step up from what she’s been doing, and she really knocked it out of the park. She ran a beautiful race and was composed the whole time. I can’t say enough good things about her, and she has a very bright future if she decides to stick with it.”
The Kusko 300 is also a qualifying race for the thousand-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which Robinson is eligible to compete in when she turns 18 next year.
Despite clearly having a competitive team, Kaiser is not running this year’s Iditarod. He won the Iditarod in 2019 but cited a lack of training and other obligations this spring as reasons he won’t run the race next month.
“We’ve done 15 Iditarods in a row now,” he said. “It felt like it was time to take a year off.”