HUMAN

Name: Riley Dyche
Age: 23

Residence: Fairbanks, Alaska

Occupation:  Dog handler/Dark Horse Sled Dogs Kennel owner/musher

Iditarod role: Musher

Current Location: Ruby, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 13, 2020
Temperature: 22F/Outdoors

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

Got involved with Iditarod because I was working with sled dogs in Colorado, and wanted to get into the more serious side of mushing. So I moved up here and I started working with Matt Hall, helping train his dogs in 2013 with him. Just mentored by him and a few other mushers. I completed the Quest in 2018, but really wanted to move on to Iditarod and see what it was like.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was definitely going over Rainy Pass and then through the Gorge. You know, the Dalzell Gorge is notorious for being the most technical and hair-raising section of trail, but usually there’s no snow due to winds and glaciation through large portions of it. But this year it’s an exceptionally good snow year so there’s good snow all the way through so it was really just a really scenic beautiful trail through there.