Royer, Sass are first Iditarod teams to reach Kaltag, but others will pass them there

Jessie Royer of Fairbanks mushed through a snowstorm to pick up $2,000 plus 25 pounds of salmon Saturday afternoon for being the first musher to reach Kaltag in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Royer collected her second trail award in two days by driving a team of 13 huskies into Kaltag at 3:18 p.m. As the first musher to reach the final checkpoint on the Yukon River, she received the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award, which comes with a piece of burned-wood art as well as the money and the fish.

On Friday morning, Royer was the first to reach Ruby, where she earned the Lakefront Anchorage First Musher to the Yukon Award, which comes with $3,500 and a gourmet meal.

Since then, she and Brent Sass of Eureka traded the lead as they drove their teams down the Yukon River through fresh snow. Sass and his team of 13 reached Kaltag at 4:20 p.m. Saturday, 62 minutes after Royer.

Neither is likely to be the first to leave the checkpoint, because neither has taken the mandatory eight-hour layover at a Yukon River checkpoint. Kaltag is the final place teams can satisfy that requirement.

Arriving third in Kaltag, at 5:16 p.m., was Thomas Waerner of Torpa, Norway. He took his eight hours on the Yukon back in Ruby and can begin the long 85-mile run to Unalakleet, where the race hits the Bering Sea coast, whenever he wants.

Three more teams arrived in a 36-minute span beginning at 6:16 p.m. — defending champion Pete Kaiser of Bethel, Aaron Burmeister of Nome/Nenana and Wade Marrs of Willow. Burmeister and Marrs have taken their eight-hour rests but Kaiser has not.

Last year on his way to victory, Kaiser was the first musher to reach Kaltag and took his Yukon River break there. He arrived at 4:48 p.m. Saturday a year ago and reached Nome at 3:39 a.m. Wednesday.