🐕🛷 Stat of the Day: Alaska’s long-standing Iditarod Dog Sled Race, where mushers navigate a wild trail through blizzards, subzero temperatures, and intense winds, kicked off this week hundreds of miles from where it should have due to a lack of snow. Doggone it.

The lack of white stuff meant the initial course would have had the dogs and sled traveling through mud and rocks instead of fresh pow. So, Iditarod officials went scrambling to move the course, redoing months of preparations over the span of just a few days. The massive effort involved a team of Trail Breakers redrawing and inspecting the new map, replacing ~15,000 markers on the trail, building 19 functional checkpoints for competitors, and working with authorities to reroute supply planes to the new location.

The 2025 trail covers a record-breaking 1,128 miles from Fairbanks to Nome (the usual track is just under 1,000 miles). And only 33 mushers – tied for the fewest ever – are daring to tackle it. Follow their progress and the standings here (it usually takes ~10 days from start-to-finish).

🤔 Did You Know? A 2018 study found it takes adults an average of 94 hours spent together to turn acquaintances into casual friends, another 164 hours to transition from casual friends to friends, and an additional 100 hours to become good/best friends (~358 hours in total).

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