Badass women, the Anchorage Daily News called the first two ladies to win the Iditarod. Libby Riddles did it first—in 1985. Her victory inspired a famous tee shirt that read “Alaska: Where Men are Men and Women Win the Iditarod”.
In 1986 the other badass woman, Susan Butcher won, and Susan kept winning for three more years.
Every March fifty or so mushers with sleds and dog teams gather in Anchorage, Alaska and race 938 miles to Nome. Each musher starts with a team of fourteen dogs and the rules say he or she must have a minimum of five still on the tow line in Nome.
The start in Anchorage is strictly ceremonial. The teams make their way through the city then they stop, load up and drive to Willow where the real race starts the next morning.
The first hundred miles or so offer relatively easy going—except for the moose. The moose want to use the same trail as the race teams, and they can be a hazard to navigation. Susan Butcher raced in 1985; had a chance at being the first woman to win. But in “moose alley” her team made a turn and encountered a pregnant and very ornery moose. The moose killed two of her dogs and injured five more.
After moose alley the route climbs into and over the Alaska Range into the vast and nearly empty interior, runs many miles through tiny check point communities until it reaches the final dash along the Norton Sound of the Bering Sea to the finish line in Nome.
The long race always features snow, ice, and bitter cold. The year Libby became a legend featured especially bad weather so much so that at one village checkpoint the racers stopped to wait it out—except for Libby.
Going on alone, she of course took the lead. And she held it all the way to victory.
Wow tough women too…!!!
Everybody was tough.