HUMAN

Name: Max Hall

Residence: Walford Hall Farm in the United Kingdom

Age: 71

Occupation: I am a company director of a machinery supply business.

Years involved with Iditarod: I’ve been involved in Iditarod since 1993.

Past Iditarod Roles: Musher

Current Location: Settler’s Bay Lodge in Wasilla, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 1, 2022

Temperature: 68 F Indoors

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

I first got involved with the Iditarod when Joe Redington Sr. came to the United Kingdom in 1992. And I invited him to the house for dinner with some friends who were also interested in the Iditarod and Joe told me around the table that he was too damned old to run the race next year, and instead I’m going to take six adventurous tourists to Nome with a more cushioned way of going. And I signed up with him over the table and became his first protege on the first Joe Redington Iditarod challenge from Anchorage to Nome following the race, but taking it at our own pace and using any infrastructure that was left behind by the race.

What was one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was, and this is a really hard one because there are so many, that probably coming into Nome in my first Iditarod in 1995, when there was a brutal storm and it took us about 36 hours to get from Safety into Nome, and coming in down the Front Street was very special. I came down off Cape Nome and my lead dog, Norway, was running down the hill and I was screaming and shouting because I knew we could supposedly walk on our hands and knees from there. And Norway suddenly sat down and stopped the whole team. And he turned around and looked at me and said, “I’m going as fast as I can.” And I looked down at my feet and I said to Norway, “I’m sorry, we’ll go at your speed.” And so he started to walk down the Cape Nome and eventually I got fed up with that and I put a little girl dog up in lead and put Norway back in the team, which he was not pleased about. And we went into Nome like that until the police escort was taking us down to the finish line. And suddenly he started screaming through a loud hail at me, “What are you doing, limey?! We’re waiting for you at the finish line.” So I stopped my sled and put my hook around the bar of a truck, and I put Norway back in front and we went into Nome. The Anchorage Daily News said it was 70 below zero, which I’m not sure is correct, but it was 50 mile an hour wind. It was a brutal one.

What does the 50th running of the Iditarod mean to you?

Knowing this is the 50th Iditarod makes me feel really proud to have been a part of it all my life. My life would not be the same without the history of my Iditarod days and I just want to be a part of it for, and it will be going for a lot longer than I.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is that when Joe Redington, all those years ago in 1972 was considering this race across the state of Alaska, he had a vision that has lasted his lifetime and my lifetime, and probably a lot of other people’s lifetime, and Joe, if you’re listening up there to us now, I’d like to say thank you very much for all your efforts.