Fairbanks interview with Brent Sass

03/02/20 • 17 min

Three-time Yukon Quest champion dog musher Brent Sass is headed back to Alaska’s other thousand mile sled dog race, the Iditarod, after some trial and tribulation. Sass is originally from Minnesota, and lived in Fairbanks in the Goldstream Valley before moving a little farther north to Joe Bush Creek near Manly Hot Springs. Sass joined us from Fairbanks, where he was getting ready before heading south for the Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage.

Previous Episode

S4E1: Looking back at 2019 Iditarod, this year's 300-milers and Yukon Quest

... and we're back! Kicking off the 2020 Iditapod, host Casey Grove and Alaska Public Media trail reporter Zachariah Hughes discuss the 2019 running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, as well as the 2020 Copper Basin 300 (briefly) and the Kuskokwim 300 (at length). And Casey talks to three-time Yukon Quest champion Brent Sass about his recent victory in that other thousand-mile sled dog race and his impending return to the Iditarod.

Next Episode

S4E2: Iditapod LIVE!

Instead of hiding in our cozy little radio studio at Alaska Public Media or out on the sparsely populated Iditarod Trail, we took the Iditapod to the Beartooth Theatrepub in Anchorage on Monday, March 2 for a live, onstage event, where about 300 people joined reporters Zachariah Hughes, Tegan Hanlon and Casey Grove for a wide-ranging discussion with Iditarod mushers Jessica Klejka, Matthew Failor and Jeff King.

We laughed, we didn’t cry somehow, and we did our best to explain some of the intricacies of dog mushing.

Also, an update: Shortly after this recording, Jeff King was rushed to a hospital to undergo emergency surgery that likely saved his life. He will not be racing in this year's Iditarod. We will have a more complete story about that soon here on the Iditapod.