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Montana women dominate Idaho Sled Dog Challenge

Olney musher Josi Thyr races in the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge in early February. She placed first in the 300 mile race. (Photo by Melissa Shelby for the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge)

| February 16, 2022 1:00 AM

CASCADE, Idaho -- With Montana mushers Josi Thyr and Nicole Lombardi winning this year's 300-mile and 100-mile races, respectively, officials have observed a trend: Women continue to dominate the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge. According to ISDC founder and organizer Jerry Wortley, women have won all but one race since its debut

in 2018.

Montana musher Jessie Royer won the inaugural race in 2018 -- a sole 237-mile course, then called the McCall Ultra Sled Dog Challenge -- and she won the 300-mile race in 2020. Canadian musher Jennifer Campeau won the 150-mile race in 2019 when the name was changed to the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge and it joined Oregon's Eagle Cap Extreme and Montana's Race to the Sky to form the Rocky Mountain Triple Crown. Idaho musher Laurie Warren won ISDC's 100-mile race in 2020.

Montana musher Brett Bruggerman is the only male to ever win an Idaho Sled Dog Challenge event -- the 300-mile race in 2019.

The competition was canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lombardi, who also won the 100-mile race at the 2022 Eagle Cap Extreme two weeks ago, finished the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge 100-mile course at 6:37 a.m. Wednesday in record time -- 16:52:30 -- averaging 9.57 mph. She bested the time set by 2020 100-mile race winner Laurie Warren from Council, Idaho, (20:55:00) by more than 4 hours (4:02:30).

Race marshal Rick Katucki explained how several mushers who finished later reached higher average speeds than some who finished earlier.

"The average speed is calculated using running time," Katucki said. "In a continuous-format race, which the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge uses, mushers may rest their teams as long as they want. A faster team that stays in the checkpoint longer can finish later than one that rests less. Sled dog racing has a large management and strategy component, and in this instance, the mushers with the faster teams finished later because they miscalculated how long they needed to stay or perhaps their checkpoint routines were not as efficient and they didn't return to the trail as quickly as they might have. This is similar to a race car spending too much time at a pit stop."

This year's Idaho Sled Dog Challenge, the fourth annual occurrence, attracted teams from seven states, with 300-mile second-place winner Bailey Vitello from Milan, N.H., being the first musher from east of the Mississippi to compete here. The 100-mile race featured three generations of Mumfords -- father and daughter Bryce and Anna Mumford from Preston, Idaho, and grandfather Rex Mumford from Huntsville, Utah.

The Idaho Sled Dog Challenge features world-class mushers. It is the only 300-mile Yukon Quest qualifier in the lower 48 and one of only three such events for the Iditarod in the contiguous continental U.S. The Iditarod and the Yukon Quest are considered the longest and the toughest sled dog races in the world.

According to ISDC co-founder and trails coordinator Dave Looney, the Idaho race is considered one of the most grueling mushing competitions in the world due to its topography.

"Mushers will tell you this is a very, very atypical race," Looney said. "Our elevation change is 36,000 feet, which is greater than the Iditarod. They call it a 500-mile race packed into 300 miles. So the dog care and the pacing and the attention they have to pay to the terrain is really important because there's a lot of up and down.”

The fifth annual Idaho Sled Dog Challenge is slated for Jan. 29-Feb. 2, 2023. The race operates under a special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service and is the recipient of an Idaho Travel Council grant secured by the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau.

Visit idahosleddogchallenge.com for more details.

The final race standings for this year's 300-mile race are:

  1. Josi Thyr (Olney, MT) -- bib #6 -- 61:52:28 -- 9.03 mph avg.

  2. Bailey Vitello (Milan, NH) -- bib #3 -- 62:46:16 -- 8.30 mph avg.

  3. Jed Stephensen (Sandpoint, ID) -- bib #2 -- 71:33:41 -- 7.87 mph avg.

  4. Clayton Perry (Power, MT) -- bib #4 -- 78:48:55 -- 6.89 mph avg.

The final race standings for this year's 100-mile race are:

  1. Nicole Lombardi (Lincoln, MT) -- bib #9 -- 16:52:30 -- 9.57 mph avg.

  2. Scott White (Snohomish, WA) -- bib #10 -- 18:35:23 -- 8.39 mph avg.

  3. Wade Donaldson (Coalville, UT) -- bib #16 -- 19:26:40 -- 8.38 mph avg.

  4. Morgan Anderson (Power, MT) -- bib #22 -- 20:53:37 -- 7.25 mph avg.

  5. -- David Ray Bush, Jr. (Bend, OR) -- bib #17 -- 21:34:18 -- 7.26 mph avg.

  6. Anna Mumford (Preston, ID) -- bib #8 -- 21:50:35 -- 6.94 mph avg.

  7. Bryce Mumford (Preston, ID) -- bib #15 -- 21:50:40 -- 7.13 mph avg.

  8. Rex Mumford (Huntsville, UT) -- bib #18 -- 21:50:45 -- 7.54 mph avg.

  9. John Kunzler (Vernal, UT) -- bib #12 -- 22:14:31 -- 6.56 mph avg.

  10. Meghan Forrey (Durango, CO) -- bib #23 -- 22:22:01 -- 7.61 mph avg.

  11. Jesse Flory (Hesperus, CO) -- bib #14 -- 22:23:02 -- 7.29 mph avg.

  12. Steve Madsen (Cougar, WA) -- bib #20 -- 22:24:45 -- 6.73 mph avg.

  13. Jane Devlin (Bend, OR) -- bib #13 -- 23:12:16 -- 6.73 mph avg.

  14. Jeneen Loeliger-Myers (McCall, ID) -- bib #19 -- 25:00:33 -- 6.19 mph avg.

  15. Elizabeth Nevills (Middleton, ID) -- bib #11 -- scratched -- 5.40 mph avg.