Those four are among 23 rookie mushers entered in next year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which begins March 6 in downtown Anchorage. For Iditarod rookies, the hurdles surrounding the world's biggest mushing marathon are many, including a weekend of meetings beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Millennium Alaska Hotel in Anchorage. Rookies finish the two-day session at the kennel of four-time champion Martin Buser of Big Lake on Sunday.

Attendance is mandatory. That goes both for Anchorage rookie Emil Churchin, who need only drive cross-town, and John Stewart of Aberdeen, Scotland, who's more than 4,000 miles away. Tuesday, the cheapest roundtrip airfare from Aberdeen to Anchorage on the Web site expedia.com was $2,366.

While the expense can be high, Iditarod glory is elusive, even for the most talented newcomers. Rookie of the year Chad Lindner, son of former Yukon Quest champion Sonny Lindner, could only nail down 30th place on Front Street in March.

Since the race's early years, when several champions were rookies, the best performance by a first-time Iditarod musher belongs to Norwegian Bjornar Anderson, an experienced European musher who was fourth in the 2005 Iditarod.

Kim Darst of Blairstown, N.J., will be back in Alaska this week for an indoctrination similar to what she experienced before the last race.

But no seminar could fully prepare Darst for what actually happened on the trail in this year's race before she scratched midway through.

Darst and fellow back-of-the-packers Lou Packer of Wasilla and Blake Matray of Fairbanks encountered temperatures of minus-50 in the desolate Innoko River country north of McGrath as winds swirled deep snow into ground blizzards. Race marshal Mark Nordman said afterward it had been years since Iditarod mushers encountered such sustained extremes.

Darst was fortunate that Matray was a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, a pilot trained in survival who offered his tent for shelter. To prevent hypothermia, Darst had to warm one of her dogs, an 8-year-old husky named Cotton, in a sleeping bag with her body heat while Matray fired up a butane stove to provide additional warmth.

Two of Packer's dogs died, likely victims of hypothermia. But all three mushers and the rest of the dogs survived.

Today in Blairstown, N.J., the National Weather Service forecast a high of 51 degrees.

Surviving last year's ordeal left Darst even more determined to return -- despite the expense.

"The weekend's going to be another $1,200," she said. "I'm hoping they do a little bit more on vet care and CPR (during the seminars) and a little less on how to talk to the media."

Either way, it's an expensive refresher.

"It's a long flight and a long weekend for two days," she said. "It would be nice if it could be a little closer to the race so it would just involve one trip."

The rookies are among 75 racers who have signed up so far. Monday was the deadline an entry needed to be postmarked to avoid a $4,000 late fee.

Typically, the size of the Iditarod field is pared back between now and race day as mushers encounter various setbacks.

Last year, 67 mushers started and 78 percent of them (52) made it to Nome, where Lance Mackey claimed his third consecutive title.

The Fairbanks musher, who is also planning to race the Yukon Quest beginning Feb. 6, stands on the brink of yet another historic moment. No musher in the Iditarod's 37 years has won four consecutive races.

Mackey, of course, has already accomplished what mushing fans previously considered impossible by winning the Iditarod and Yukon Quest back to back.

He repeated that feat in 2008 before taking a pass on the Quest last year to devote himself to training his team of dogs and that of rookie musher Harry Alexie. The National Guard paid Mackey to help Alexie, a National Guard staff sergeant.

It paid off; the Bethel musher finished 37th as a rookie, ahead of such noted racers at Bill Cotter and Tim Osmar, who have 14 top-ten finishes between them.

Osmar was paid to act as the visual guide for legally blind musher Rachael Scdoris, who finished 45th.

Only the late Susan Butcher (1986-88) and Doug Swingley (1999-01) have also won three consecutive Iditarods. In fact, without a 64-minute loss to Joe Runyan in 1989, Butcher, who also won in 1990, would have won five straight.

Rick Swenson, who will be 57 on race day, is among the five former champions in the field, joining Mackey, Buser, Jeff King of Denali Park and Mitch Seavey of Sterling.

Sebastian Schnuelle, the defending Yukon Quest champion, is among several mushers planning to run both marathons.

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Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.