Musher Jessie Holmes has won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
Bundled-up well wishers lined a street along the Bering Sea coastline in the early morning darkness Friday, cheering musher Jessie Holmes as he won Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Holmes pumped his fist as he ran alongside his sled with a headlamp beaming from his forehead, as he and his 10-dog team finished the 1,128-mile (1,815-kilometer) race across the Alaska wilderness in the Gold Rush town of Nome. The distance for this year’s running was the longest in the Iditarod’s 53-year history.
He said his win felt “magical” and he gave credit — and hugs — to his dogs, whom he described as family.
Holmes lives in the Interior Alaska community of Nenana, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of Anchorage, where he is a carpenter and lives a subsistence lifestyle. He found reality TV fame as a yearslong cast member of “Life Below Zero,” a National Geographic program that documents the struggles of people living in remote parts of Alaska.
Originally from Alabama, Holmes has lived since 2004 in Alaska, where he found a passion for the wilderness and competing in sled dog races.
This year was Holmes’ eighth Iditarod, and he has now finished in the top 10 six times, including third last year and in 2022.
