2015 Iditarod restart moves from Willow to Fairbanks

For the second time in its history, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will begin in Fairbanks, though race officials still plan to hold the ceremonial start in Anchorage. On Tuesday, the Iditarod Trail Committee’s board of directors voted unanimously to move the start of the race from Willow, citing poor trail conditions.  Stan Hooley, CEO of the Iditarod Trail Committee, says the decision was made after board members observed potentially dangerous areas on the trail by helicopter.

“It was a pretty easy decision to make when the consensus was that the conditions were far worse than they were last year.”

Last year, poor snow conditions led to broken sleds and injured mushers.  Aaron Burmeister, who sits on the Iditarod Trail Committee board, was one of those injured in the 2014 race. Mike Jonrowe, husband of Deedee Jonrowe, also sits on the board.  Deedee Jonrowe scratched at the Rohn checkpoint last year.

Stan Hooley says that conditions this year are so bad that he thinks the decision to move from Willow to Fairbanks would have been the same had last year’s race gone without incident.

“I’d go as far as saying that,if we hadn’t had the experience last year, the same decisions would have been made, regardless.”

Stan Hooley says the overall length of the 2015 Iditarod will be about nineteen miles shorter than usual as a result of the changes, but that won’t necessarily make it easier on mushers and dogs.

“One notable difference is that there are some pretty long stretches.  In fact, in the first part of this race will see longer distances between checkpoints than the traditional route sees.”

According to Stan Hooley, while mushers would generally prefer to race on the traditional Iditarod Trail, those he has spoken to accept the fact that conditions dictated the change.