The Idaho Sled Dog Challenge is one of the premiere dog races in the lower 48, this year Jessie Royer and her team of Alaskan huskies crossed the finish line in first place.
The race is a grueling 300-miles that features a total of 36,000 feet with five checkpoints on trails groomed before the event.
"Mushers will tell you this is a very, very atypical race," said Dave Looney, one of the co-founders. "Our elevation change is 36,000 feet, which is greater than the Iditarod. They call it a 500-mile race packed into 300 miles."
"I came down from Montana and we definitely don’t train on anything that is as steep as this," said Royer. "The only thing flat is this lake, everything else is either up or down and it is some pretty steep climbs, so it is challenging."
I am up in Valley County checking out the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge. 300-mile course with a lot of elevation, plus it was pretty cold the last two days. pic.twitter.com/iQeXjrqocS
— Steve Dent (@idahodent) February 1, 2023
The race is a Yukon Quest and Iditarod qualifier and it's also part of the Rocky Mountain Triple Crown, in February, Royer will race in her 20th Iditarod.
"We are using this as training and then we are going to Race the Sky in ten days, that’s another training run and then we will head up to Alaska for the Iditarod," said Royer.
Josi Thyr, also out of Montana, finished second and Jed Stephensen of Sandpoint came in third. Stephensen will race in his first Iditarod this year.
Veterinarians conduct an exam for every dog before the race starts then they disperse to the five checkpoints and check every dog once they arrive.
The team had seven doctors and six vet techs with experience ranging from ER specialists to surgeons on site to make sure the dogs were healthy and there were no major issues.
"These guys are canine athletes so we look for a lot of similar injuries or concerns that people have that are athletes", said Dr. Sarah Keller. "These guys have to eat about 10,000 calories in a 24-hour period, which is an outrageous amount of food volume, and we just want to get them to the end and keep them feeling good."
Nicole Lombardi won the 100-mile race with Jesike Reimer finishing second and Wade Donaldson coming in third. (This was a correction we originally had the results wrong.)
The Idaho Sled Dog Challenge had a new 52-mile race this year to help up and coming mushers get into the sport. McCall's Kevin Daugherty won that race and he finished fifth in the 100-mile race.
