Iron Dog 2025: Team 20 enters McGrath with a bang after near flawless day one run
MCGRATH, Alaska (KTUU) - Fireworks shot off the banks of the Kuskokwim River as Team 20 throttled into McGrath in first place Saturday evening after 339 miles trail.
30 teams of two took off from Big Lake at 10 a.m. for Iron Dog 2025 — “The World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race,” a 2,500-mile journey through some of Alaska’s toughest terrain.
It was the first few hundred miles that caused the most concern for the machines, but Team 20 powered through any trouble, arriving shortly after 7 p.m. with a comfortable lead.
“Coming out of Big Lake it is just all ice, you know its just flat,” said Robby Schachle of Team 20. “Once you get to about Shell Lake, it turns into 10 feet of snow and it’s rock hard. Then we went through the pass and it is blowing snow, I mean it was just a blizzard. Then getting to Rohn its perfect. From Rohn all the way to Nikolai, it’s no snow, just dirt.”
The five-member Ambassador Class left Big Lake on Thursday. They arrived in McGrath Saturday afternoon after staying the night in Nikolai after nearly 300 miles of some tough trail.
“We did a little water-crossing that I wasn’t super ready for, but you kind of get forced in, you do it and you figure it out,” said Jill Hetteen of the Ambassador Team. “Then entered the [Farewell] burn, which after we got through, I feel like I’ve earned my badge. You can’t understand it by pictures, videos, stories unless you’ve experienced it. There was really no snow, virtually no snow. Mark [McKenna] and A.J. [Bartel] who have done this 20+ times, said it’s the worst they’ve ever seen. We had some overheating problems on mine and Tyler’s [Bentow] sled so we had to stop a lot to let them cool down and we ended up towing quite a bit.”
McKenna, the 4-time Iron Dog champion, didn’t quite make it to McGrath, sustaining an injury on the way to Nikolai that will prevent him from making it to Nome.
More teams began trickling into the checkpoint just before 9 p.m. with Team 9, followed by Team 7 five minutes later and Team 14 just 16 seconds after that.
Teams will now have their choice of a 12-14 hour layover before departing from McGrath Sunday morning.
Shcachle and partner Brad George won the Iron Dog in 2021 and hope to stick to the same game plan that got them to McGrath in blazing fashion.
“Doing your homework and [communication], our radios work really good,” Schachle added.
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