HUMAN

Name: John “Andy” Anderson

Age:  76

Residence: Phoenix, Arizona

Occupation: Retired builder, dog musher, writer

First Year Ran Iditarod: 1986

How Many Years Involved With Iditarod: 31

Iditarod Role: Musher, journalist with KABN radio, newspaper writer, race judge

Current Location: Palmer, Alaska

Date of Photo: June 22, 2026

Temperature: 67F outdoors

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

What I love about running sled dogs is you just feel so alive and it’s so exciting and interspersed in the middle of all that. There are times when you think, “What am I doing out here? This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” 

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

 

I got involved with running Iditarod because I met a guy in 1983 named Bill Cotter. And from there I was exposed to another crazy man called Joe Redington who started a race called Iditaski and from there Iditarod was just a natural progression out of that whole thing. And so it evolved into 30 years of my life and it was the luckiest guy on earth to do that.

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

My most memorable experience of running Iditarod in 86 was it was a no-snow-year. There was nothing. Going across the Farewell Burn it was just dirt. And halfway across the burn, there was a newscaster from Channel two News called David Salesky. He was out covering the race on a snowmachine and I think he had Norman Vaughn with him, and they ran out of gas and the airplane was flying over so he shot off a flare and he started a brush fire. I’m going across the burn with Bobby Lee, who subsequently turned into be a race marshal, and the trail you could see where the beaten down mud and the grass was, went right into flames, a 10-foot wall of flame and we see an airplane flying and he kind of directed us around the flame. How can you beat that? There were other things about falling in the water and crashing your sled and everything else, but a fire on the Iditarod trail… It’s Iditarod and everything happens on Iditarod.

Question 4: What in life do you know for sure?

 

What I know for sure in life is that it’s a gift and every day you’re presented with all these challenges and sometimes they’re really good ones and sometimes you just kind of want to stay in bed because it’s going to be downhill from there. But it’s always a new adventure every single day. And today I rode on a riverboat with Martin up to the Knik Glacier. Life is full of adventures. Take advantage.