In the Iditarod dog sled race – 1,509 kilometers across Alaska, one of the toughest sporting events in the world – participants are accustomed to all kinds of mishaps: losing their way, thawing rivers and lakes, fallen trees on the road, lack of food, dogs injured or exhausted by the effort, harnesses that break, loss of the geolocator, hypothermia, hallucinations... This year's people have encountered an unexpected enemy: an angry moose.
Sometimes it is enough to kick or punch the animal in the snout, or to brandish an ax that is part of the mandatory equipment, but in this case it was a brown beast weighing more than 700 kilos, and the veteran musher (like those who run the sleds are known) Dallas Seavey, who was going first, felt compelled to kill the moose with his rifle. The teams behind him had to get around him as best they could, even passing – literally – over his corpse.
The complex rules of the Iditarod – a symbol of Alaskan culture, designed to preserve its identity, lifestyle and respect for nature – stipulate that, in such a situation, the animal must be “properly gutted” before the musher resumes the route. Which means “removing the intestines and other internal organs so that it can be eaten”, following the native tradition of not hunting for fun but only for food. The judges determined that Seavey did not do so, and forced him as a penalty to add two hours to the mandatory rest of twenty-four in a row in the middle of a race in which he sleeps as little as possible.
The first edition of the Iditarod was held in 1973 in order to preserve the tradition of traveling with sleds through the frozen immensity of Alaska, in view of the growing threat of snowmobiles and small planes as a means of transportation, and to avoid the extinction of a breed of very strong and resistant dogs, equipped to withstand extreme temperatures. The original route from Seaward to Nome passes through the lands of the native Athabascan, Iñupiak and Yupik tribes, along trails (not always easy to find, especially in the dark) used during the gold rush to bring supplies to the mines. Among the obstacles to overcome are a huge slope called Suicide Hill, and the slopes of a mountain known as Sleeping Beauty.
Although this year the conditions have not been extreme, the rise in temperatures has even led to the suspension of some editions of the race due to lack of snow, and the weather has become very unpredictable due to climate change. The increasing cost of raising and feeding the dogs, the complicated rules, the price of registration and the lack of sponsors due to pressure from animal groups have meant that only 38 mushers compete in the current edition, when a couple of decades ago they used to compete. be almost a hundred.
Apart from physical resistance, the best mushers develop an extraordinary harmony with the sixteen dogs that pull the sled, and they know their character perfectly to know which ones should be the leaders, who should go in the middle and who should be in the rear. No matter what happens this year, Dallas Seavey has won the Iditarod five times for a reason. That's why when the rabid moose attacked his animals, he didn't hesitate to grab his rifle and shoot it. All for one, one for all. Although later the equivalent of the VAR said that he had not gutted it well, as if it were an offside or some hands in the area. Everywhere they boil beans.
