HUMAN

Name: Dave Karp
Age: 53
Residence: I live in Anchorage, but raised in Nome. 
Occupation: I am the senior vice president and managing director for Saltchuk Alaska.
Years involved with Iditarod: Since the first one, in 1973.
Iditarod Role: So I’m here tonight volunteering to auctioneer.
Current Location: Dena’ina Center, Anchorage, Alaska. 
Date of Photo: March 6, 2020
Temperature: 68F/Indoors

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

I got involved with the Iditarod, with the very first race, just watching the activity on Front Street in Nome. I was 10 years old, I guess. And watching the first mushers come down the street, and then subsequent years was involved in a lot of different ways, mostly with the aftercare of the dogs. But I always sold Iditarod annuals. Dorothy Page and Joe Redington, Sr. were a couple of my early life heroes. And as a kid growing up in Nome, most of my childhood heroes were Iditarod dog mushers. So it’s been a part of my life for a long time.

What is your Why?..Why are you here today and involved in Iditarod?

I’m here today and involved with the Iditarod because it’s an Alaskan institution and there’s nothing I’m more proud of than being a kid who grew up in Nome and such a big part of that is the Iditarod. It’s always been referred to as the end of the trail, but for me it was the center of the universe the whole time I was a kid growing up. And every March, the whole month of March, it was Iditarod fever, and it’s just a big part of who I am.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was in 1978, the Rick Swenson/Dick Mackey photo finish. It was back in the days where we didn’t have all the protocols about people being in the shoot and out the shoot. It was pretty wild, wild West. I was in the shoot and I think I might’ve been tangled up in a dog team. I know that I had the closest thing to a front-row seat that anybody could get. It’s fun every once in a while to look at the pictures and feel like I was right there, those classic photos. And of course when Libby Riddles won the race, there was a picture taken of her with her lead dog sitting on top of a 55-gallon drum. And my face is right next to the dog’s ass and it went worldwide, so I got to be famous for holding up a dog’s rear. 

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is that I have been blessed beyond measure; to be an Alaskan, to be a part of this race, and to have the family and the friends that I have, that I’ll share the values of what this race and what being an Alaskan is all about. And I look forward to being an avid supporter for decades to come.