Jessie Holmes, a former reality television star on “Life Below Zero,” won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Friday morning, crossing under the burled arch in Nome, Alaska, around 2:55 a.m.
“It’s hard to put into words, but it’s a magical feeling,” Holmes said after reaching the finish line. “It’s not about this moment now, it’s about all the moments along the trail.”
The 53rd Iditarod began March 3 in Fairbanks, Alaska, after part of the traditional trail in Southcentral Alaska lacked enough snow to pass through. The Iditarod usually starts in Anchorage, alternating between the southern route during odd years (975 miles) and the northern route during even years (998 miles). Fairbanks is roughly 350 miles north of Anchorage, and the 2025 finish line was in its usual city of Nome.
The shift in trails upped the 2025 Iditarod mileage to 1,128. Holmes finished in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds, marking the longest time it has taken a winner to finish since 1993.
Holmes competed for the eighth time, having participated in every Iditarod since 2018. The 43-year-old musher owns five top-10 finishes, including third place in 2022 and 2024. In his first Iditarod, Holmes’ seventh-place finish earned him Rookie of the Year honors.
As this year’s winner, Holmes takes home the largest portion of the $500,000 prize pool. He was handed an oversized check for $57,200 at the finish line.
Holmes was born and raised in Alabama and resides in Nenana, Alaska, where he works as a carpenter and TV personality on “Life Below Zero,” a National Geographic docuseries about the daily lives of people living in remote Alaska.
This year, Holmes finished with 10 dogs on the line, led by Hercules and Polar. Holmes crossed the Kaltag 2 checkpoint with 13 dogs and the Unalakleet checkpoint with 11 dogs. He was the first musher to cross both checkpoints, earning the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award — which partly includes 25 pounds of fresh Bristol Bay salmon filets as a reward — and Ryan Air Gold Coast Award — which partly includes one ounce of gold nuggets as a reward — respectively.
A musher is allowed to start the race with a maximum of 16 dogs and a minimum of 12, per race rules, and must finish with at least five dogs on the towline. Dogs are pulled from or die during the race for many reasons, including exhaustion, injury, illness or frostbite.
One dog, Ventana, died so far this year. Ventana collapsed and died on March 7, and the autopsy showed she was pregnant. Ventana was part of rookie musher Daniel Klein’s team, and Klein resigned from the race shortly thereafter. Iditarod rules require a musher to voluntarily drop out of the race if one of his or her dogs die, unless the dog dies due to an “unpreventable hazard,” like a run-in with a moose.
Last year, Dallas Seavey set the record for most wins by a musher in the race’s history by earning his sixth Iditarod victory. During that race, Seavey shot and killed a moose out of self-defense after the moose injured one of his dogs. He then attempted to gut the edible big game animal, as required by race rules, but was later hit with a two-hour penalty for insufficiently gutting the animal. His dog, Faloo, survived the moose attack and recovered.
The Iditarod is not yet over and ends when the last musher — there are 33 competing this year — crosses the finish line. The last musher to finish claims the Red Lantern — a physical lantern symbolizing perseverance. According to the race, the last-place prize started as a joke during the Fur Rendezvous Race in 1953 and was adopted by the Iditarod some 20 years later.
• This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
