HUMAN

Name: Kari Skogen

Age: 66
Residence: Willow, Alaska

Occupation: Part-time store manager with Underdog

First Year Ran Iditarod: 1984

How Many Years Involved With Iditarod: 2 years

Iditarod Role: Musher, handler

Current Location: Willow Museum, Willow, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 7, 2026
Temperature: 68F, indoors

Question 1: What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?

So what I love about running sled dogs is just the different personality of the dogs, their excitement, their just eagerness to run. But they’re all very different individuals, very many different personalities. And that’s what’s fun about it.

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 I was here as a handler back in ’82, ’83 in Willow, and this lady was a lawyer from San Francisco that came up to the race. And she said that if I run a team of Siberians, she would sponsor me. And Earl and Natalie Norris were gracious enough to let me run their dogs.
So that’s how I started with Iditarod. Initially, I came over just to learn about dog mushing because I had been a skier, back country skiing, skiied for years my whole life in Norway, but I never stepped on a dog sled before I came over here after high school just to learn more about dog mushing. So I didn’t really know much history. I just wanted to learn.

 

Question 3:  Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences running the Iditarod.

 

And my most memorable experience running the Iditarod is probably on the Yukon River. I had stopped… This was outside of Ruby. I had stopped, pulled over at night to take a rest. And I just got my team moving again in the morning and I saw to my left on the riverbank, there was a team pulling out and I thought that was kind of odd because I didn’t realize there was teams around me. But as this team came out from the bank and crossed in front of me, I realized these dogs didn’t have lines or harnesses. And I realized that, “Oh my God, this is a pack of wolves.” And I thought, “Oh, that’s pretty scary. I have an ax.”

But they crossed in front of me and they were really big because I had one huge wheel dog, Big Frosty, and he was tiny compared to these wolves. So a few of them crossed in front, the other went back in the bank, and then they followed me. So I knew they were behind me on the trail. I was very glad when I caught up to the other mushers I traveled with in a couple hours, but that was pretty special.

What in life do you know for sure?:

 

What I know for sure in life is that everything is unpredictable and don’t plan too much because things change and you have to roll with it and enjoy what you’re doing at the time because there’s no guarantees.