HUMAN

Name: Hannah Moderow

Age: 41
Residence: Anchorage, Alaska
How many years involved with Iditarod: Since I was in elementary school

Iditarod Role: I was a junior Iditarod finisher and an Iditarod volunteer and I’ve worked on some history projects related to the Iditarod trail and a serum run finisher.

Current Location: Dena’ina Convention Center, Downtown Anchorage for Musher Banquet

Date of Photo: March 5, 2026
Temperature: 68F, indoors

Question 1: What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod:

I got involved with Iditarod when I was actually in preschool and I met a little girl named Janet Willis whose father was running the Iditarod. And our family adopted a retired husky from their kennel. And that’s when I started doing junior sprint races and dreaming of being a junior Iditarod racer someday and having a family kennel that slowly grew to be large enough for us all to do recreational races and ultimately junior Iditarod and then Iditarod for my family.

Question 2: What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?

 

I was involved with the Iditarod because I had a deep admiration and love for sled dogs and the history of mushing in our state. As a young girl, I fell in love with huskies in my own house and really kind of was amazed to see what they would do when we’d go out on the trail, starting with a one dog race and just getting that close bond with the dogs, knowing that they can go a quarter mile or a thousand miles with this great zeal and bond with their human musher.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experience was growing up with junior Iditarod mushers. And some of them went on to win the Iditarod, like Ryan Redington and Dallas Seavey. And just having this bond with a bunch of young kids who loved mushing, getting to race against some of these mushers that then went on to win the big race. And kind of having that idea that Alaskan kids can learn to be out in the woods with animals and grow up to carry on this legacy of mushing in our state and the great things that Alaskan huskies can do.

What in life do you know for sure?:

 

What I know for sure in life is that we’re all connected and mushing is a great way to realize our interconnectedness. The idea that these dogs can pull us across the state of Alaska and yet they need us to care for them and to have that reciprocity. Same goes with mushers. One of the great things I learned mushing was that when you see a team in need on the side of the trail, you help, and that you will be helped. And so when I think of what I know for sure in life is that we’re interconnected, we need one another, and mushing is a great kind of microcosm for that lesson, that we need to care for our neighbors and to be cared for by neighbors in life.