HUMAN

Name: Scott Slone

Age: 51
Residence: I’m an Alaskan
Occupation: Photographer and nature guide
Years involved with Iditarod: Since 1982 

Iditarod Role: Tour guide
Current Location: Puntilla Lake, Rainy Pass Checkpoint
Date of Photo: March 9, 2020
Temperature: 12F/Outdoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I first got involved with Iditarod back in 1979. Fifth grade. It was Iditarod in the classroom. And the musher I drew was Herbie Nayokpuk. Now, I didn’t know who Herbie was, but he was my musher. And my job was to look in the newspaper every day and find out where my musher was on the trail. And then I had to mathematically figure out how fast he was traveling between checkpoints, try to predict when he would get to the next checkpoint, and then estimate his arrival in Nome. And when you look at maybe Iditarod in the classroom today, you have live GPS trackers and videos and this data’s in realtime. And for me, well, and my, and my friends, we had to do that from the newspaper.

What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?

I’m here today with Iditarod because I’m guiding an Iditarod tour and teaching photography with 17 people from around the country. And I can think of nothing better than mushing in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, to connect people with Alaska. The history and culture that, that this race has here for Alaska. And such an opportunity and I’m grateful.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences.

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences is… I have to go back to when I was a kid, again. When Herbie Nayokpuk sent me a postcard from the Ophir checkpoint. Now, if you’ve ever been to a checkpoint, you know that there’s a lot going on. Or maybe you’ve watched it in a video. But, there’s a lot going on. You gotta sign in, you have to attend to your team, and on top of all that you have this fatigue. And here Herbie remembers to mail me a postcard from Ophir checkpoint. That to me was something else, and it made the race just so real.

What do you know for sure?:

One thing I know for sure in life, is that there’s much beauty around us. Even in chaos, you just have to pause, open your eyes, take a breath, be present and be open to the experiences around you. There is always something beautiful to share and something to take in and something to learn from. And that’s one thing I know for sure in life.