Sports

King to run 2015 Yukon Quest

A pioneering Yukon Quest musher and one of the biggest stars in the sport said Thursday he plans to return to the 1,000-mile sled dog race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks.

Jeff King, who finished fifth in the inaugural Quest in 1984 and won the race in 1989, announced on his Facebook page that he's signing up for the 2015 race. His name showed up a short time later on the Quest's official website.

"It is true," King said by phone Thursday from his home near Denali Park. "I've been thinking about it for a while. I knew I wanted to do it again, and I've been looking forward to it."

King hasn't entered the grueling race since finishing second in 1990. The race trail alternates between Whitehorse-to-Fairbanks and Fairbanks-to-Whitehorse routes. It's the former this winter, a factor King said played a big role in his decision.

"I wouldn't have done it if it was finishing in Whitehorse," said King, who will turn 59 the day before the Quest begins Feb. 7.

King will also enter the Iditarod, which starts March 7. He said he doesn't think running both races will be too much of a burden for his team.

"Last year I was training my team for the Iditarod with 1,000 miles," he said. "I thought if I'm gonna run 'em 1,000 miles, I might as well race."

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King led the 2014 Iditarod until he got caught in a storm and was forced to scratch between White Mountain and Safety, about 50 miles from the finish.

Quest executive director Marti Steury said she's thrilled to have King -- an Iditarod Hall of Famer who has won that race four times -- back in the Quest for the first time in more than two decades.

"It's not that he's a new guy coming in, he's one of our champions coming home," she said Thursday.

Steury helped found the race back in 1984 and said having former champions return is always exciting.

"These guys actually were our pioneers, and to have them come back all these years later kind of validates the dream and the challenge of this race and the trail," she said. "It validates the race and the reason we do it."

She said the Quest runs over trails that were used to deliver mail the remote Interior Alaska communities, and the race commemorates the efforts of those 19th- and early 20th-century pioneers. "That's what these trails are all about," she said.

King said supporting the historic race played a role in his decision to return.

"There's a lot of history there, both personal and culturally, and I really look forward to giving it a try again."

King has been one of the most recognizable faces in mushing over the past three decades, famous for a bevy of innovations that include the sit-down sled now favored by many top mushers.

"This is a guy that for decades has been on the leading edge of inventing the next great thing for the dogs," Steury said.

King is the 24th musher to sign up for the Quest. He'll be joined by such notables as Allen Moore, the two-time defending race champion, and Brent Sass, who finished third in 2013. Mushers have until Jan. 2 to sign up for the race, which will feature a minimum purse of $115,000 -- some $15,000 more than last winter's race.

King said he believes he's got a team capable of making a strong showing. However -- like most mushers -- he was cagey about predicting where he'll finish.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I'll get there," he said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 257-4335 or mtunseth@alaskadispatch.com

Matt Tunseth

Matt Tunseth is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and former editor of the Alaska Star.

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