WILLOW, ALASKA — Matthew Failor is headed back across Alaska in 2025.
The Mansfield native will launch his 14th Iditarod effort when what’s been dubbed “The Last Great American Race” begins its 53rd campaign with a ceremonial start in Anchorage on March 1.
The 42-year-old Failor made it official on Monday when he entered the annual 1,000-mile race from Anchorage to Nome with his 17th-Dog Iditarod team based in Willow, Alaska, about an hour’s drive from Anchorage.
That decision means his company, Alaskan Husky Adventures, will have two teams competing in the 2025 race. Dane Baker, who works for Failor, will also compete in March, making his first run across the snow and ice.
There are 34 teams entered in the race, including 27-time Iditarod veteran and three-time champion Mitch Seavey.
Defending champion Dallas Seavey, who has won the event six times, had not entered as of Monday, which was the final day mushers could enter without incurring a higher entry fee.
During an “Evening with Matthew Failor” hosted by Richland Source after the 2024 race, the 2000 St. Peter’s High School graduate said he was considering taking a year away from the grueling race.
“We’re pretty sure I’m probably gonna sit it out. But that’s not set in stone. I have done 13 now,” he said in announcing Baker would race for the first time in 2025.
(Above is video from “An Evening with Matthew Failor” hosted by Richland Source in 2024.)
After the ceremonial start on March 2, the race officially begins on March 3 in Willow.
Failor finished last year’s race in 13th place clocking in at 10 days, 2 hours and 35 minutes.
He was in position to chase another Top 10 (or perhaps Top 5) finish during the race when he stopped to help and spend time with a young musher who had a dog perish on the trail.
After the race, Failor reflected on his decision to stop and help 23-year-old musher Hunter Keefe.
“It’s the worst thing in the world when one of your best friends passes away like that. You feel horrible. It’s never happened to me, although I have been around other mushers that it’s happened to.
“It’s something that nobody wants to have happen, but unfortunately, death is a part of life. There’s all kinds of grieving that needs to take place and you’re in the middle of nowhere.
“He was very lonely and I wasn’t going to leave him. So we loaded the dog in the sled and I told him, ‘We’ll just go straight to Old Woman (Cabin). We can gather our thoughts and kind of process this and I will stay with you.’ ”
The selfless act earned him his second Donlin Gold Sportsmanship Award in the last four years, voted on by Iditarod finishers.
Failor, who received the Most Inspirational Musher in 2022 and Most Improved Musher in 2018 and 2023, also received the 2024 Northern Air Cargo Herbie Nayokpuk Memorial Award, chosen by race staff and checkers at the check points.
The award is given to the musher who best emulates “Herbie: The Shishmaref CannonBall” in his or her attitude on the trail.
Failor will help prepare for the Iditarod by racing in the Kuskokwim 300 in late January, an event he has won in the past and finished second in during the 2024 race.
