Passage III

Rachael Scdoris on the Iditarod Trail

Trademarked as “The Last Great Race on Earth,” the Iditarod is a grueling competition that crosses 1,150 miles of rugged frontier between Anchorage on Alaska’s southern coast and Nome on its northwestern one. A single musher, from the back of a dogsled, directs a team of twelve to sixteen dogs, often through fierce snowstorms and subzero temperatures.

Rachael Scdoris, who works hard to train for races, was born and raised in Bend, Oregon. By age fifteen, she had become the youngest musher to finish a 500-mile race. Despite her achievements though she felt the Iditarod might be too dangerous for her. Scdoris had been born with achromatopsia, a medical condition that limits her vision. (35)

In 2003, the Iditarod committee approved Scdoris’s request to race with a visual interpreter. Driving a separate team alongside her, and using a two-way radio, this guide would warn her of upcoming hazards, such as fallen trees and sharp turns. The rest (including hauling three tons of supplies and caring for her dogs) Scdoris would have to do just like the other competitors: being alone by herself.

Beginning the 2005 Iditarod in Anchorage, the race lasted twelve to sixteen hours a day across frozen rivers, barren tundra, and precipitous mountain passes. After reaching Eagle Island, 732 miles into the race; Scdoris’s team concluded with surprising rapidity. Even though Scdoris had taken expert care of her dogs, they had fallen ill with a virus. She decided her dogs’ health was more important than completing the course.

As she withdrew from the 2005 race, however, Scdoris immediately made plans to enter again. In 2006, she crossed the finish line in Nome, completing her first Iditarod. In 2009, along with her fellow mushers who also made it to Nome, she completed the race again, securing her status at the age of twenty-four as an experienced Iditarod racer.