Iditarod Insights: Up and over the Alaska Range

Iditarod Insights: Up and over the Alaska Range
The trail from the foothills of the Alaska Range around Finger Lake up and over the Alaska Range at Rainy Pass and down to Rohn is some of the most spectacular landscape one can imagine.
To think of going through this stretch with 16 hard-charging sled dogs doesn’t seem possible. That’s how challenging and technical this section of trail is.
First up are “the steps”, several sharp drop-offs through a dense forest down to the Happy River. The trail is carved out of the side of a hill. In the early days of Iditarod teams would hand-line their teams down to the Happy River. The Iditarod has improved this section to where it’s possible to do this by dog team, but it is still a big obstacle on the way to Nome.
Once on the Happy River teams immediately take a right hand turn off the river and climb a steep section to get back into the woods on the way to the checkpoint and the lodge at what is called Rainy Pass.
This isn’t the actual pass but the checkpoint. After leaving Rainy Pass teams travel a wide and open mountain valley for an hour or so before taking a turn up a small and steep side valley to the top of the actual location of Rainy Pass, elevation 3,160 feet. Once at the top the trail descents and follows Dalzell Gorge, dropping around 2,000 feet of elevation in maybe 10 miles. This section of the trail is very steep and hazardous. The trail is windy and either follows the creek or crosses it on man-made ice and snow bridges, built each year by the Iditarod trail breakers.
While the south side of the Alaska Range usually has a huge snow pack, the snow situation changes as soon as one crests the top of the pass with a thinning snowpack and often bare dirt and rocks on the north side of the Alaska Range as the teams go down this steep trail.
In order to slow a dog team down one needs a snowpack for the claws of the break to grab a hold of. The dogs do fine on dirt and get even better purchase without soft snow. But for the musher it is hard to control their speed. The dogs are loving to go down this very exciting and fun trail. The musher has to hang on for dear life and make split-second decisions in order to keep the dogs pointing the right direction while keeping an eye out for tree stumps, rocks, open water, the narrow ice bridges and anything else there is.
One doesn’t want to stop on this 10-mile downhill as the dogs get animated anytime they stop. Once at the bottom of Dalzell Gorge, teams hit the Tatina River for the last few miles to the checkpoint at the historic Rohn roadhouse cabin. 
The Tatina River is usually covered in sloping ice and overflow and has a pretty steep gradient. Navigating the slick ice on this river is very challenging, especially since the trail leaves the river in a few places and goes overland to avoid treacherous sections. It’s important that the lead dogs listen here and see and find these exit points and don’t stay on the slick and sloped river ice.
Finally, teams will hit the little Rohn roadhouse airstrip followed by the little cabin and an opening in the forest. After having traveled here from Rainy Pass the checkpoint of Rohn is an oasis and one of the prettiest places along the entire route.
Leaving Rohn, teams will have to continue navigating a frozen glacial and mountainous area for another 30 or 40 miles before they finally get into gentler terrain of what is called “The Burn” where the landscape is dominated by small trees and rolling hills all the way to the checkpoint of Nikolai. Most years see very little snow on the north side of the Alaska Range, where even finding enough snow to melt and give to the dogs for hydration can be a challenge.
Onwards.