Photos: Akiak Dash sled dog race

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Musher Rayme Nose, 17, of Akiachak, was the last to leave Bethel in Saturday’s mass start for the Akiak Dash sled dog race. Fourteen racers in the 65-mile Akiak Dash left Bethel in a mass start Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 17, 2015.

Fourteen teams lined up just a few feet from one another on the frozen Kuskokwim River, dusted with an inch or so of fresh, dry snow that kept falling. Six rookies were in the mix. When race marshal Bill Eggimann – a Bethel family doctor – gave the sign, racers charged up the trail and some sleds looked to be almost on top of each other. But no one fell off, flipped or ran over anyone else's team.

The quick 65-mile run on the Kuskokwim to the village of Akiak and back is one of the high points of a weekend of intense sled dog racing out of Bethel.

Read more: Madcap mass start makes Aniak Dash wackiest of Kusko races