By Shereen Siewert
The granddaughter of Wausau native Jim Otto captured an eight-place finish last week in the Iditarod, an historic annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska each March.
Amanda Otto, who lives in McKinley Park, Alaska, competed for nine days, 18 hours, 24 minutes and 33 seconds and was in the lead nearing the end. The 52nd annual race kicked off March 3 in Anchorage with 38 competitors racing toward the finish line.
Otto also raced in the 2022 Iditarod, which covers 1,000 miles of some of the roughest terrain in the world, finishes each year in Nome, Alaska. Racers battle sub-zero temperatures, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and hills in what has been called the “last great race on Earth.”
Although the race’s fame causes many people to think of the Iditarod Trail when they think of traveling to Nome, the trail is actually impassable during the spring, summer, and fall. Moreover, its routing is far from a direct course, passing through a number of towns and villages missed by the original trail, along with a northern route for even-numbered years to include more villages along the Yukon.
The home stretch is the same every year: Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain, Safety Roadhouse, and Nome. True to their predecessors, the mushers still run down Front Street past the still notorious saloons into the heart of the Last Frontier’s last frontier town to the burled arch. Every musher’s arrival is heralded by the city’s fire siren and every musher is greeted by a crowd lining the “chute,” no matter the time of day or night, or if he or she is first or last across the line.
Her family chronicled the race on social media for fans, friends and followers across the country. She finished the race at 9:24 a.m. on March 13, Alaska time.
All photos courtesy of the Otto family
