Iditarod Trivia
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57 free Iditarod trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Iditarod trivia quiz covers the Last Great Race from the ceremonial start on Fourth Avenue to the burled arch in Nome. The easy questions are the ones any fan can answer: which state hosts it, which month it runs, roughly how far it goes and where it finishes. From there it moves into the race's real story, from gold-rush mail trails and the All-Alaska Sweepstakes to Joe Redington's 1972 planning meetings and Dick Wilmarth's 20-day win in 1973. The harder end is for mushing devotees and pub-quiz specialists: why the race alternates northern and southern routes, the three mandatory rests, the checkpoint at the exact halfway point, moose alley, Dalzell Gorge, the one-second finish of 1978, the widow's lamp tradition, how many dogs must be on the towline at the end, how many calories a racing husky burns, and the record times of Mitch and Dallas Seavey. The 1925 serum run, Balto's fall from grace and Togo's 261 miles get their due as well. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the race, its route and its champions before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Alaska, dogs and winter sports quizzes next.
30 of 57 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Roughly how long does a winning team take to cover the Iditarod's 1,000 or so miles?
About 9 days
About 9 days: the first champion needed just over 20, but better-fed dogs, run-and-rest schedules and a trail prepared ahead of the teams have cut the usual winning time to between eight and ten days.
Q 02In which month does the Iditarod take place each year?
March
March: the race opens on the month's first Saturday with a ceremonial run whose time doesn't count, and the clock only starts at the restart the following afternoon.
Q 03By which nickname is the Iditarod widely known?
The Last Great Race on Earth
The Last Great Race on Earth is what enthusiasts call it, and the phrase stuck so firmly that the race's organisers registered it as a trademark.
Q 04What are the dogs harnessed directly in front of an Iditarod sled called?
Wheel dogs
Wheel dogs run nearest the sled, so mushers pick calm, sturdy animals that won't be rattled by it sliding at their heels and can help haul it around trees and tight corners.
Q 05A 1967 Iditarod Trail race marked which centennial?
Alaska Purchase
The Alaska Purchase of 1867: the centennial race covered only a short stretch of the old trail and interest soon faded, so it was six more years before a race went all the way to Nome.
Q 06What do many Iditarod mushers report experiencing on the long, flat run along the frozen Yukon?
Hallucinations
Hallucinations: mushers get very little sleep, and on those unchanging miles of ice the exhaustion catches up, so many start seeing things that aren't there.
Q 07From which town was the Iditarod's traditional restart moved north to Willow for lack of snow?
Wasilla
Wasilla still houses the race headquarters, but warming winters left too little snow there, so the restart shifted about 30 miles north to Willow, for good from 2008.
Q 08Who was the first foreign musher to win the Iditarod, in 1992?
Martin Buser
Martin Buser was born in Switzerland and moved to Alaska in 1979; ten years after this win he took his fourth title and was sworn in as a US citizen at the finish line in Nome.
Q 09Who became the first woman to win the Iditarod, in 1985?
Libby Riddles
Libby Riddles won by driving out into a blizzard on the coast while the other leaders sat out the storm at a checkpoint.
Q 10Which musher won the Iditarod four times between 1986 and 1990?
Susan Butcher
Susan Butcher's run of wins put a slogan on T-shirts across the state: 'Alaska: where men are men and women win the Iditarod.'
Q 11Which shouted command tells an Iditarod dog team to turn right?
Gee
Gee means right and Haw means left: sled dogs wear no reins, so the leader has to steer the whole team on spoken commands alone.
Q 12Which musher became the Iditarod's first six-time champion in 2024?
Dallas Seavey
Dallas Seavey won his sixth title despite a two-hour penalty: he had shot an animal that attacked his dogs, and officials ruled he had not gutted it properly, as the rules demand.
Q 13What is it called when a musher pulls out of the Iditarod before the finish?
Scratching
Scratching: a musher who scratches hands a scratch form to a race official, and the race then provides transport off the trail for musher, dogs and gear.
Q 21Which early race, first run in 1908 from Nome to Candle and back, was the Iditarod modelled on?
The All-Alaska Sweepstakes
The All-Alaska Sweepstakes drew the first imported Siberian dogs, mocked in Nome as 'Siberian rats' for their small size until they started beating the big freight dogs.
Q 22What nearly drove dog sledding to extinction in rural Alaska in the 1960s?
Snowmobiles
Snowmobiles, nicknamed 'iron dogs', led villages across the state to give up their teams in the 1960s, and the race was started partly to save the sled dog from disappearing.
Q 23When is the Iditarod's northern route used?
In even-numbered years
Q 14Besides becoming its oldest champion, which record did the 2017 Iditarod winner set?
The fastest winning time
The fastest winning time: as of 2026 the race still lists his 2017 run as its record, and the quicker run of 2021 covered a course the pandemic had shortened.
Q 15Which musher was the first to win the Iditarod five times, between 1977 and 1991?
Rick Swenson
Rick Swenson took his fifth title by pressing on through a blizzard that made his closest rivals turn back to the last checkpoint, and nobody matched his five wins for 30 years.
Q 16Where do winning bidders in the Iditarod's IditaRider auction get to ride?
In a musher's sled
In a musher's sled: each winning bidder sits in the basket for the first 11 miles, a relaxed run through Anchorage whose time doesn't count toward the race.
Q 17Who is known as the Father of the Iditarod?
Joe Redington Sr.
Joe Redington Sr. never won the race he founded: his best finish was fifth, and he ran his last Iditarod in 1997, weeks after turning 80.
Q 18What sounds across Nome each time an Iditarod team nears the finish line?
The city's fire siren
The city's fire siren goes off for every team, first or last and at any hour of the day or night, calling people out to line the finish chute.
Q 19The Iditarod Trail is named after a ghost town, which was in turn named after what?
A river
A river: prospectors struck gold near the Iditarod River in 1908, the boomtown that sprang up took the river's name, and it emptied again once the gold ran out.
Q 20Which federal designation did Congress give the Iditarod Trail in 1978?
National Historic Trail
National Historic Trail: it is the only winter trail in the national system, because most of the route is all but impassable until the land freezes hard.
In even-numbered years teams take the northern route through Cripple and Ruby, and in odd years they swing south through the ghost town of Iditarod, so more villages get a turn at hosting the race.
Q 24Which checkpoint with a biblical name is where the Iditarod's two routes split?
Ophir
Ophir boomed in a gold rush and stands abandoned today; the leg beyond it on the southern route is among the emptiest of the whole race.
Q 25The 49 in the Iditarod's symbolic 1,049 miles honours what?
49th state
Alaska as the 49th state: the race has long been billed at 1,049 miles as a salute to the state, though its two routes actually measure 975 and 998 miles.
Q 26Where did the Iditarod restart in 2015, 2017 and 2025 because of a lack of snow?
Fairbanks
Fairbanks: when the usual trail is short of snow the start shifts north, and the 2025 detour down the Yukon made that race the longest ever run, at 1,128 miles.
Q 27How long is the one long layover every Iditarod team must take?
24 hours
24 hours: the two-minute gaps between starters are cancelled out during this stop, which is why teams that drew early start positions have to wait a little longer than the rest.
Q 28At which checkpoint must every team rest for eight hours before the final sprint to Nome?
White Mountain
White Mountain's rest comes 77 miles from the finish, just before an exposed coastal stretch where sudden storms have turned leaders back and decided races.
Q 29What is the volunteer flying service that carries supplies to Iditarod checkpoints called?
The Iditarod Air Force
The Iditarod Air Force is a few dozen volunteer pilots flying their own small planes, hauling dog food and gear in to the checkpoints and carrying dropped dogs back out.
Q 30Who is first to leave the Iditarod's ceremonial start line?
An honorary musher
An honorary musher goes first, chosen for service to the sport; through the 1970s the place was kept in memory of Leonhard Seppala, hero of the 1925 serum run.