HUMAN

Name: Peter Reuter
Age: 63
Residence: Girdwood, Alaska
Occupation: Dog Musher, Tour Guide, Carpenter

First Year Ran Iditarod: 2017

Years involved with Iditarod:

Iditarod Role: Musher, Handler, Tour

Current Location: Anchorage, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 3, 2026
Temperature: 68F Indoors

What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?

 

What I love about running sled dogs is, first, of course, the dogs. I’ve always grown up with dogs. I started my adventure with sled dogs back in the mid-’80s in Crested Butte, Colorado. Those are trapline dogs. Since then, it’s been a thing for me. As far as how the dogs affected me positively, I’m just a more patient, calm person. I deal with crises so much better because the dogs demand that sort of calmness when you’re working with them.

 

Question 2: What, who or how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?

I got involved in running the Iditarod because we’ve always been a dog family. My father was an MP in Germany and worked with dogs. I was never much for rules. Police dogs, never really my thing. When the first Iditarod was run in 1973, my mom was sensitive enough to draw my attention to it. I was 11 years old. That’s all I could think about since then. I had a friend who grew up with Siberian Husky show dogs, used to go over and play with his dogs. Then I graduated from college, moved out to Colorado, started working with Malamutes, and then just progressed to running racing dogs. Finally got my shot at Iditarod in 2017, and that’s years and years of handling for other people. 

Tell me about just one of your most memorable experiences running the Iditarod:

 

My most memorable experience running the Iditarod would be when I 24’ed in Galena, so I took my 24-hour break. Because I was towards the back of the pack, the good parking spots for the dog teams were hard to come by. There were two parking areas. One was a big field off to the right. The second one was this small little pit sort of thing where you had to drop down this incline and then stop your team right away. I got directions from the checker to actually park, and when I dropped in, I saw the only two spots were between Jeff King and Aliy Zirkle, two of my heroes. It was kind of a technical drop there and you could easily crash your sled. Anyways, my dog team did it elegantly, and I was really happy with that, so got to show off in front of a couple rock stars.

What in life do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is you do not get a dog team to Nome by yourself. It took so many people, so much effort, and I had so much help along the way from my very first dogs in the early ’80s to when I crossed under the Burled Arch 2017. I realized that we are all in this together and it’s so much easier to take care of business when you work together.