Montana's Race to the Sky, a sled dog race winding from Lincoln to Condon and back in either 100 or 300 mile distances, has been canceled this year due to lack of snow and out of consideration for the safety of mushers and their dogs.
The race has only been canceled two other times in its 38-year history - once in 2021 because of the covid-19 pandemic and once in 2005 also because of lack of snow and icy conditions.
Pam Beckstrom, Race to the Sky board member and volunteer since 1986, said it's always a hard decision to cancel. The board weighed factors like current weather, potential precipitation and temperature over the next couple of weeks and took advice from a variety of individuals including local snowmobile groups, trail crews, mushers and volunteers that live near Lincoln and knew the status of the trails well.
Warmer temperatures and rain have been melting away snow, leading to unideal conditions.
"Rain is the worst enemy of snow because it just beats it down. It makes it into ice if you have enough snow and it melts it so quickly," Beckstrom said. "So, for all of those reasons we ended up feeling terrible but the dog mushers understand. They don't want to go out on trails that are not as safe as they should be and we don't want to injure any dogs, or have any accidents or anything."
Beckstrom said in order to hold a safe race mushers need to be able to use a snow hook to stop the dogs. The hook is a heavy metal or steel triangle, Beckstrom said, that mushers drop in the snow to stop their team. If there's nowhere to place that hook, the team can just run away, Beckstrom said.
Roy Etnire, Race to the Sky board member since 2014 and a musher who has completed the 100-mile race in the past, said in long-distance races like Race to the Sky, mushers often stop their dogs to feed them or let them go to the bathroom. Etnire said some dogs require this every couple of hours, and some every five or so.
"You have to be able to stop the dog team," Etnire said.
Not being able to set a snow hook was one of the reasons for cancellation in 2005, Beckstrom said.
The Race to the Sky is one of many qualifying races in the contiguous United States for the Iditarod, a 1,000-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. The Montana race is part of a series, the Rocky Mountain Triple Crown, that includes races in Oregon and Idaho, all also Iditarod qualifiers. The Race to the Sky and the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Minnesota are the oldest qualifiers in the lower 48, Etnire said.
All Rocky Mountain Triple Crown races and the John Beargrease have been canceled due to lack of snow.
Etnire said this year's Race to the Sky did have one Idadrod hopeful from Bozeman, who withdrew before the race cancellation because she wasn't able to train enough in Bozeman due to the quality of the snow there.
Both Beckstrom and Etnire are looking forward to next year's race, anticipated for the regular second weekend in February, and are grateful to race sponsors that have rolled over their contributions to 2025.
Perfectly competent at too many things
Keely's journalism career started with staff positions at the Lone Peak Lookout and The Madisonian in southwest Montana and freelancing for Dance Spirit Magazine.
In 2023, she completed a legislative reporting fellowship with KFF Health News during Montana's 68th legislative session and graduated with an MA in Environmental Journalism from the University of Montana. Keely completed a summer fire reporting internship with Montana Free Press in 2022.
Her bylines include Scientific American, Modern Farmer, U.S. News & World Report, CBS News, The New Republic, KFF Health News, Montana Free Press, Ars Technica, Mountain Journal and Outside Business Journal.
She also is a producer and editor for a Montana Public Radio podcast.
Keely received her undergraduate degrees in History and Religious Studies from Montana State University in 2017.
In her spare time, she's dancing, drinking processo and running around the mountains.
Reader Comments(0)