HUMAN

Name: Libby Nelson

Age: 64

Residence:  Seattle, Washington

Occupation: I’m a environmental policy analyst for the Tulalip tribes, about 40 minutes North of Seattle.

Iditarod Roles: Volunteer/Communications

Years involved with the Iditarod: This is my first year

Current Location: McGrath, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 11, 2022

Temperature: 11F Outdoors

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

I first became involved with the Iditarod formally just a few days ago, starting in Anchorage. I got this assignment to work the checkpoint in Galena. I’m familiar with the Iditarod. I lived in Alaska for about a decade in the 1980s. I have a good friend who ran the Iditarod and I’ve had older, retired sled dogs in the past as pets and I’ve done a little bit of mushing on my own and some ski touring, so always loved the sport, love being outdoors, love being in Alaska. That’s my role.

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

That begins to answer why I’m involved in the Iditarod and that living in Washington state now, this is a great opportunity for me to reconnect with Alaska, which, once you’ve spent any time here at all, it gets into your heart and it always feels so wonderful to be back and this is a nice opportunity to reconnect with being out in the remote communities with beautiful winter days and dogs, so thoroughly looking forward to this opportunity.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences, well, it would’ve had to have been my first one, which was in the winter of 1981 and along Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, just seeing, it was part of the Fur Rendezvous and somebody who had not been in Alaska for a long period of time getting down to Fourth Avenue and seeing these dogs going crazy and tons of people with huge wolverine wolf roughs on their parkas. It was quite a scene. It was a little more of a regional event then. It’s definitely blossomed into a much wider following of people. But yeah, that was pretty remarkable to see the dogs start that year.

What in life do you know for sure?

What I know for sure in life is that you don’t know very much at all and the older you get, the more you realize just how little you know.