Iditarod

This is an extract from the official Iditarod website (www.iditarod.com):

The Last Great Race on Earth.

A race over 1150 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills, and you have the Iditarod. A race extraordinaire, a race only possible in Alaska.

There are two official starts to the Iditarod: the ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and the actual start in Willow. The finish is in Nome.

Teams from all over the world (i.e. Alaska and Canada) come to participate in the Iditarod, and this year's contestants include a Scot, a Belgian and a Jamaican!

We watched the mushers and their teams of sixteen dogs set off from the city centre, and then raced to the airstrip where the ceremonial route ends. We cheered the mushers in while snowflakes danced all around us. It was quite surreal, and we felt thoroughly Alaskan!

Snow Sculptures

Fur Rondy is the forum for a lot of wacky events and competitions, among them the GCI Snow Sculpting Contest. Have a look at some of this year's entries (including a 'real' snow angel).

Running with the Reindeer

This great Fur Rondy event is Alaska's answer to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, only it's a lot more stupid! All the locals dressed up in ridiculous and skimpy costumes as they hustled their goose-bumped flesh down fourth avenue.

We were too chicken to remove our parkas in the -10 degree chill, but I tied a South African flag around me like a cape.

Unfortunately I had a twisted ankle, so our run with the reindeer was more of a hobble with lots of squealing as the reindeer raced by.

The Fur at the Rondy

It doesn't get more Alaskan than this...

Fur Rondy

Fur Rondy is the biggest festival in Alaska and is held in the week building up to the start of the Iditarod. The spectrum of events includes everything from dog-sledding to blanket-tossing to stamp-collecting, and the week is filled with fun and mayhem as everyone shakes off any cabin-fever symptoms.

The opening ceremony of Fur Rondy boasts a spectacular Grand Parade, and Daniel and I rushed into Downtown to be a part of this truly American display of pomp and circumstance. We think, however, (very diplomatically, of course) that the pomp might have been popped by the weather, as the crowds were meagre in the -10 degree chill. The Parade turned out to be a fizzle of Girl Scouts and insurance companies handing out free sweets, but we tried to imagine some spirit.

We also rushed down to the waterfront to watch the Big Air Demo, and were quite surprised when not a single plane flew overhead. The Big Air Demo turned out to be snowboarders flying down a ramp and doing tricks in the air! Not quite what we expected, but brave nonetheless.

Just behind the flying snowboarders was the Rondy Central Carnival. Finally, we thought, a chance to relish the American spirit: candy floss, big wheels, root beer floats, and stuffed teddies to be won at stalls. We made it as far as the Big Wheel, from which we could see, for the first time, Anchorage's beautiful waterfront and beaches.

The evening finished off with a fireworks display over the sea, and then we took our numb feet home.