Iditarod 2014 Frequently Asked Questions

• When is the Open House?

The North Wapiti Open House will be on 28 February 2014.  10 am until 3pm

9582 Rappe Circle, Willow, Alaska 99689

•  What can we do at the Open House?

You will be able to meet all of the Pretty Sled Dogs that are in Alaska.  You can pet them, pose for pictures with them, scratch their tummies, give them kisses, and get kisses from them, but please don't feed them any goodies or treats.  They are on a strict diet.

You will be able to schmooze with the Musher, ask her questions, pose for photos, get autographs, but please don't feed her any goodies or alcohol, she is on a strict diet.

You will be able to meet Bet, she is pretty shy so it's best you just ignore her and let her come to you (plus she's a famous Diva and likes to feel special).  You can massage her crampy feet if she offers them, won't say much and may snub you, but still likes you a lot anyway.  Please don't feed her any goodies, she's probably stealing them from the table of food anyway.

You will be able to meet the minions, ask them questions, have them take your picture with other more exciting things like the Musher and the Pretty Sled Dogs, and you can feed them anything you want, they aren't on a strict diet.

Currently, here is the list of Minions who will be at the Open House:

• Dan Minion
• Heather Minion
• Donna Q Minion
• Jenifer Minion
• Shelly Minion
• The Cartoonist Minion
• Kristin Minion

There will be some foods and stuffs and things.

• Can we be handlers at the Ceremonial Start and Real Start?

Each Musher is only given a few arm bands that will allow their support team to be in the Musher area, and those support people are responsible for making sure the Musher has everything they need, the dogs have everything they need, the area stays neat and clean, and to help wherever needed.

We love our fans, you make it possible for Karen to run this race and if we could, we'd let all 6,000 plus fans handle at the start, but that would mean 375 people to each dog and that would be very crowded at the starting chutes, and the Iditarod officials might frown upon that. 

Because it is impossible for us to pick and choose who would get to handle at the starting chute without causing hurt feelings, we have decided that ITC handlers will escort the Pretty Sled Dogs to the chutes.  That isn't to say that if you happen to be near the North Wapiti truck, and a minion happens to notice you resplendent in your North Wapiti merchandise, or your exuberance, that you get picked to go behind the scenes for a quick photo opportunity if time and conditions allow it... just sayin.

ITC trains people to be starting handlers, but you don't get to pick and choose which Musher you get to handle for, but it is a fantastic experience, and we highly recommend that you take the training if you can or even ask some of the other mushers who may not have such a large fan base if they would like some help.

• How will the race be broadcast?

 There will be oodles of Minions in Anchorage starting Wednesday 26 Feb through (probably) Tuesday March 4.  All of the action happening in Anchorage will be dutifully Facebooked as it happens, including pictures and what's going on.  There will be nightly blog posts wrapping up all of the happenings and things and stuffs that didn't get reported on Facebook.




Everything will pretty much be "as it happens" so if you aren't there, it will feel as though you are there.  Feel free to post questions, but don't expect anyone to answer your questions until after March 4th due to travel and jet lag.  Once the minions are back on their home turf, we'll be Facebooking during the day with nightly blog posts and answering questions.

Here are some general rules that we typically follow for all races:


1.) We'll tell you when we know.  If we don't tell you, we don't know
2.) Yes, Wayward will be attached to Karen's sled... we will provide pictures as proof.
3.) You can ask questions, we'll try to answer them, but we won't answer "why aren't they moving, why is the sky blue, or if you could be any tree"

We HIGHLY recommend that you become an Iditarod Insider.  With an Insider subscription you get to watch the GPS blips on the screen go through the trails, watch videos that are ONLY provided to Insiders, and generally there's a ton of cool things you get to do and see that non-Insiders don't get.