Heading into the old mining district on the way to the Iditarod checkpoint the conditions ... Nordman said he visited the Yukon River community of Shageluk a few weeks ago and winter trail ...

Despite little snow in some parts of the state, Mark Nordman says conditions along much of the Iditarod trail are actually ...

An Iditarod spokesperson did not immediately respond ... The route takes mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and the Bering Sea ice before ending in the Gold Rush ...

The race alternates between a northern and southern route from year to year, splitting off in the historic Iditarod Mining District and sending mushers down different stretches of the Yukon River ...

He was the seventh musher March 9 to pull into Galena (mile 545), a community on the north bank of the Yukon River. This is where strategy and pace really come into play, he told Iditarod Insider.