Libby Riddles: Champion Dog Sled Racer

First Woman to Win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race, known as the toughest race in sport.

March is the month when the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race is held in Alaska and this week’s RW is Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the race in 1985.

Athletes call the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race The Last Great Race. The Iditarod’s route between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska is a challenge of frozen rivers, dense forests and tundra that racers face in sub-zero wind chills that can drop to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The grueling one-thousand-mile competition tests the physical and mental endurance of the dual species teams that make up the racers: the humans, called mushers and their canine partners.

In 1985, 28-year-old Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Iditarod. Her victory was all the more remarkable because she was a newbie to the world of dog sled racing and a virtual unknown to her competitors.

Riddles was born on April 1, 1956 in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in nearby Lacrosse. Describing herself as a mostly shy kid who preferred spending time with animals over people, Riddles grew up around dogs and dreamed of living on a ranch. In 1972, after graduating from high school, she and a boyfriend moved to Alaska to become homesteaders.

Dog sled racing and mushing were never in the picture. Solitude and adventure were what Riddles was seeking. She found it in a beautiful and remote place called Stony River, located in the foothills of the Alaska Range, home of Denali, the highest point in North America. With the closest airport 190 miles away and barely any car traffic, this was paradise to Riddles.

She learned to hunt and live off the land, she built a log cabin and picked up survival skills from Native American neighbors. She quickly realized that “sled dogs were the best kind of animals to have here” for getting around the vast territory that was her backyard, In 1975, she got her first sled dogs and began training them, “with no intention of racing them.” That all changed when Riddles began attending sled dog races and fell in love with the sport. In 1978, she entered her first race, a small competition. After taking first place, she was hooked.

In 1980 and 1981, Riddles raced the Iditarod, finishing in 18th and 20th place. Undiscouraged, she decided to join forces with veteran musher Joe Garnie, to breed and train dogs.

“Our styles of mushing were different, so we complemented each other,” Riddles said. “I learned pretty quick that I didn’t want to be a dog handler…I wanted to be on the sled.”

In 1984, after taking third in the Iditarod, both Garnie and Riddles knew they had a dog team that could win the top spot. What they weren’t sure of was whether Riddles had the chops to manage the team and bring home the gold.

The 1985 Iditarod was the thirteenth year of the run. Would it be the lucky one for Riddles and her 13 dogs, she wondered as the race began. Barely one hour in, she had her doubts. Her dogs took a wrong turn, overturning the sled and tossing Riddles into the air. They kept going even when she landed on her face, dragging her along until she could regain control of the sled. The rest of the race didn’t get any easier. Once as she dozed off while the dogs sped through the night, a limb struck her face, knocking out her headlight and leaving her bleeding from a gash on her nose. She even lost her dogs once when they hijacked the sled during a rest break. Luckily, they were found by another racer and tied up waiting for her at a race checkpoint.

Riddles survived all of that only to face the biggest threat of all in the final days of the race. Over the last two weeks, officials had stopped the race twice because bad weather prevented airlifts from bringing food to checkpoints for the dog teams. Now a vicious arctic storm was bearing down, forcing teams to hunker down in the tiny village of Shaktoolik, 130 miles from the finish line.

Instead, Riddles pushed on, “…telling myself how foolish I was being for doing this because the weather was just miserable. But I figured if it does pan out, it might help me win the race. So, I’m going to try it even if it’s crazy.” The gamble paid off. Even when she took a twelve-hour break when the weather got too severe and then got lost on the final 22- mile stretch, she was able to take the lead and win.

When her lead dogs Axle and Dugan crossed the finish line in Nome, Libby Riddles’ winning time was 18 days, 20 minutes and 17 seconds, besting her closest rival by about 2.5 hours. “They’re a fine bunch of dogs,” Riddles said giving them the credit for the race. “I did my part to make sure and keep them up, keep them happy and healthy and in good shape. It looks like it really paid off.”

Although she never won another Iditarod, Riddles continued to compete for two more decades, all over the world and in the lower 48 states. She moved to Homer, Alaska and opened a kennel where she continues to raise and train sled dogs. She’s written books about her dog sled racing career and is an icon in the sport. Her remarkable story inspired other women to join the sport.

Riddles is one of several women who have made Iditarod history.

In 1986, the year after Riddles’ victory, Susan Butcher won first place and continued to take the top spot in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Butcher had been favored to win the 1985 Iditarod but was forced to withdraw when a moose attacked her dogs, killing two and injuring thirteen other dogs.

The first two women to compete in the race were Mary Shields and Lolly Medley in 1974.

Rachel Scdoris was the first legally blind dog musher to finish the race in 2006.

And Dorothy Page, called “the mother of the Iditarod,” was the woman who had the idea for the competition, as a way to honor the dog sled culture and original Iditarod trail that connected towns during Alaska’s gold rush heyday. Before cars, interstates, ATVs and small planes, dog sleds were the main transportation, delivering people, food, supplies and mail all over the state. Most famously, dog teams played a life -saving role during the 1925 diphtheria outbreak when they delivered emergency medical supplies to remote Alaskans.

©2023 Alice Look
Co-founder, Remarkable Women Project.org
Executive Producer, Remarkable Women Project