I-Did-A-What? The Iditarod’s North Beach Connection

By Pat Piper 

At 9:38 a.m. on Tuesday, March 15, the expected high in Annapolis was 57 degrees. In Nome, Alaska, 3,795 miles to the west, it was 20 below zero as North Beach resident Steve Stoller watched teammate Brent Sass cross the finish line of the 938-mile Iditarod sled dog race that began 8 days, 14 hours, 38 minutes, and 43 seconds earlier. 

Given a choice between the two, he’ll take Nome anytime.

“I’ve been doing this for 22 years,” said Stoller, who travels with the team every year. Sass calls him the “Captain of the War Wagon.”

 “Twelve of those years I’ve been with Brent’s team assisting at checkpoints, ensuring there’s straw and food and water barrels for the dogs, setting up a place for him to get a few hours’ sleep at each of the three mandatory rest stops before they all head out again. I began while working as a flight attendant and wanted to do something I’ve never done before on days off.”

The question everyone asks is why? “There’s no rational answer,” he admits. 

A North Beach resident since 1986, Stoller adds, “I’ve asked myself the same question every year and it comes down to that sense of adventure and a real unity among the mushers and the dogs.” 

He watched Sass raise the 11 huskies from puppies and says every musher has to be connected to their dogs; it’s both physical as well as mental. “They sense what you feel. They listen. There’s a closeness with the mushers. There’s a real trust and each dog understands when told ‘straight ahead’ or ‘gee’ (right turn) or ‘hah’ (left turn).” 

But there are also times when weather gets in the way of a command. At 120 miles from the finish, winds hit 50 mph in the below-freezing temperatures and Sass couldn’t see the trail, said Stoller. Usually, the dogs have better eyes in a whiteout, but the sled went off the path and down an embankment. Sass brought the 11 huskies behind the sled to protect them from the now-screaming wind and snow as they huddled together to provide warmth and waited for conditions to improve. Sass turned on his sled’s headlight and tried a number of times to find the trail that was buried beneath the snow. After a few hours he had a good sense of where it was and pulled the sled into position, despite the dogs thinking they needed to go in the opposite direction. There was another musher-to-dog conversation and soon, they were off. 

With an average speed of 8-10 miles per hour, Sass and his team crossed the finish line just over 12 hours later in front of TV crews, Nome residents, and fans eager to see the winner of the 50th Iditarod. 

Sass became one of just two mushers to ever win both the Iditarod and the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest race in the same year (Lance Mackey did it in 2007).

For Stoller, the nail-biter was over but with it came that sudden moment as he moved the huskies away from numerous hands reaching to pet them and have selfies taken. “There’s a sense of waiting and dreaming of this happening and suddenly, that’s exactly what is taking place.”

Stoller hugged Sass as Iditarod officials brought a phone to him. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski offered her congratulations just prior to her addressing the U.S. Senate about the win. A few minutes later, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavey was on the phone doing the same. 

As all of this was taking place, Stoller had secured the stars of the moment in what’s called “the dog yard” and provided some well-deserved food and water. And then he looked at the crowds bundled in parkas and boots and heard laughter as the celebration began. He checked his phone and saw messages from across the country saying, “good work” and “the dogs did more than you but well done” but one text from North Beach stopped him in his tracks. “It’s 70 degrees here. Let’s play golf.”

Stoller now has a plan for the coming month. And it’s not in Nome.