Editor’s note: Richland Source is posting daily updates on Mansfield native Matthew Failor’s efforts at the 2025 Iditarod Sled Dog Race, which began March 3. Updates post daily at 7 a.m. and may be updated during the day. This exclusive coverage is made possible through the support of St. Peter’s School and is done with the cooperation of Iditarod.com Insider.
ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL, Alaska — Matthew Failor has likely never been so happy to see the village of Grayling become visible through his headlamp in the growing Alaskan darkness.
It was a long Monday on the Iditarod trail for the Mansfield native and Iditarod Trail Sled Dog musher, still mushing in 12th place in the race.
A day that began in Grayling at 4:07 a.m. (AKDT) ended 77 miles later and more than 17 hours later at 9:42 p.m. — right back in Grayling where it started, still 469 miles from the burled arch in Nome on Alaska’s west coast.
When the Iditarod Trail Committee decided in February to revise the 2025 race map due to low snow in southeast Alaska, it added a looping run south from Kaltag to Shageluk.
Included was a triangular shape from Grayling to Anvik to Shageluk and then back to Grayling, a trek that would position mushers and their dogs for the run back to Kaltag before finally heading west to complete the 1,128-mile run to Nome.
On paper, perhaps, it didn’t look too difficult for experienced mushers like Failor, racing his 14th Iditarod.
But in what is the longest race in the 53-year history of the event, trail conditions were not optimal for the sled dogs and their mushers, including Failor, who celebrated his 43rd birthday Monday on the trail.
By most accounts, conditions on the way down, from Kaltag toward a loop through the communities of Grayling, Anvik, and Shageluk, were abysmal, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
“I think it’s one of the top 10 worst trails I’ve ever been on, which is saying something: I’ve got a few thousand miles under my belt,” veteran musher Paige Drobny said in a brief interview with the Iditarod Insider at the Eagle Island checkpoint on Saturday evening.
“It’s 70 miles of crap. It’s like hard ice,” said Drobney, who was in second place on Tuesday morning in her 10th Iditarod, including a fifth-place finish in 2024.
Failor spent the day largely alone on the trail with his 11 canine friends still in harness, with no other mushers in his area.
After leaving Grayling at 4:07 a.m. (AKDT), he went the 21 miles to Anvik in three hours and two minutes, arriving at 7:10 a.m.
Stopping just for a minute to check in, Failor ran the 28 miles to Shageluk in four hours and one minute, pulling in at 11:12 a.m.
After resting his team for six hours and 19 minutes, the St. Peter’s High school graduate was back on the trail at 5:31 p.m. He and his Alaskan Husky Adventures 17th-Dog team covered the 28 miles back to Grayling, arriving at 9:42 p.m. for a well-deserved rest.
What’s next for Failor?
Failor still has to travel 126 miles north to return to Kaltag, the checkpoint he left late Saturday afternoon to begin the the looping trip south.
Along the way, he will hit the Eagle Island checkpoint again in 56 miles before traveling 70 miles to Kaltag.
At Kaltag, Failor and his team can finally turn west, following the traditional Iditarod route he first raced in 2012.
He will still have 343 miles to go from Kaltag, but it will be on a route he knows well, including checkpoints in villages such as Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, White Mountain, Safety and then into Nome.
Remembering an old friend on the Iditarod trail
Iditarod.com Insider posted a video on Monday with details of a story published earlier in Richland Source about Failor carrying ashes of his late friend, Jim Davis, an Iditarod musher and later a race judge who died in 2024 after a cardiac event.
Davis, 75, was a resident of Fishhook, Alaska. He died Aug. 2, 2024. Davis was a former Iditarod racer and later a race judge.
“Jim is a personal friend who I met through my connection with (four-time Iditarod champion) Martin Buser and his wife, Kathy Chapoton,” Failor said before the race began.
“They helped us out with dog mushing and Jim has always given me advice. When (Jim and Nancy) were getting out of dog mushing, they gave us some of their dog houses, some of their ganglines, as well as their training sleds,” Failor said.
“They are just good people,” he said.
During a celebration-of-life event after Davis was cremated, Failor had an idea and approached Nancy Davis with it.
“I told her if she wanted him to go on the Iditarod trail one last time, I would be happy to offer,” Failor said.
“I figured it was fitting.”
Alaskan Husky Adventures teammate in 20th place
Rookie musher Dane Baker, a handler who works for Failor’s kennel, was mushing along in 20th place on Tuesday morning.
Baker, racing a “puppy team” of younger dogs from the kennel, had 11 dogs in harness as he made his way through the triangular loop Failor went through on Monday.
Holmes receives Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award
Veteran musher Jessie Holmes of Odenville, Ala., was the first musher to arrive at the Kaltag 2 checkpoint on Monday at 9:28 p.m. (AKDT) with 13 dogs in harness.
In doing so, Holmes claimed the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award.
Iditarod race judge Greg Parvin and local resident Violet Burnham, wife of longtime Kaltag checker and Iditarod veteran, Richard Burnham, presented the award of 25 pounds of fresh Bristol Bay salmon filets, $2,000 and a wood-burned art piece by BBNC shareholder artist Apay’uq Moore.
“Bristol Bay Native Corporation congratulates Jessie and his team for being the first into Kaltag,” said Jason Metrokin, BBNC president and CEO. “Both dog mushing and fishing are long standing-traditions in Bristol Bay, and we’re excited to honor both with the Fish First Award. We wish Jessie the best of luck and hope they enjoy the taste of Bristol Bay this summer.”
Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery. BBNC has endorsed a “Fish First” value for land and resource management in Bristol Bay. In all land management and resource development decisions, adequate protections for fish and fish habitat will always be a priority. The Fish First Award will be re-presented to Holmes at the finishers banquet in Nome.
It’s third “first” award Holmes has picked up in the last few days, including the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award and the GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award, both for being the first to reach designated checkpoints along the trail.
As of Tuesday morning, Holmes continued to lead the race, followed by Drobney, Matt Hall, Michelle Phillips and Bailey Vitello rounding out the top five.
Our exclusive local coverage of Matthew Failor in the 2025 Iditarod is made possible with the cooperation of the Iditarod Trail Committee. To learn more about the non-profit organization, visit www.iditarod.com. You can also learn how to become an Iditarod Insider and access all of the live streams, GPS tracking system and video interviews with Failor and other mushers.
