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The 42^nd annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race proved to be one of the most dramatic from start to finish. Dog teams were lost, ganglines were broken, mushers were injured – some severely.

The trail from Anchorage to Nome threw everything possible at mushers from rocks to tree stumps to hurricane force winds.

The Iditarod is by no means easy, but even the most veteran of mushers were surprised by what they faced in this year’s race.

Before he left White Mountain, Jeff King was confident he’d set his team up for a solid 5th championship.

“My team charges into these checkpoints with more reckless abandon than many other teams do. No matter how tired they are, they dig deep and just have to make me step on the brake to come in.”

If King’s team had been able to hold out against hurricane-force winds blowing off Norton Sound, he would have become only the second musher to win the Iditarod five times. The 58-year old would have also become the oldest musher to win and in record time, but it was not to be. The team was blown into a pile of driftwood roughly four miles out of the Safety checkpoint. King spent more than two hours trying to untangle his dogs, but they shut down and he had to ask someone on a snowmachine for help.

It’s a story this year’s second place finisher, Aliy Zirkle relayed to winner Dallas Seavey during a post-race press conference in Nome.

“So I got to Safety and the sheet was blank and I said ‘Where’s Jeff?’ they said ‘you didn’t see him?’ So we were all highly concerned about all the teams so I had two dogs I was really worried about and myself, so I said ‘to heck with it, I’m staying,’” Zirkle said. “And then some snowmachiners came in and by golly if they didn’t have Jeff on the back of the snowmachine.”

As Seavey fought his way through stiff winds toward Nome, he had no idea what was happening to the competition in front. He didn’t know King was out and he had no idea Zirkle was struggling to rework her race plan inside the Safety shelter cabin.

“It was really, really bad out there and it was the safest thing for me to do to just get my act together and not leave,” Zirkle said, chatting with Seavey. “So I took a nap, had some coffee, listened to people talk about how bad it was outside and then I saw [Seavey] go through, so I left.”

When Seavey spotted a headlamp behind him, he assumed it belonged to his father Mitch.  He thought he was racing for third place.

He came sprinting down Front Street in the wee hours of the morning, red faced and panting.  He collapsed on the back of his sled where he sat for a few minutes after his dogs crossed the line.

It’s the second time the younger Seavey has beat out Zirkle for the top spot.  It’s also the third consecutive year Zirkle has finished behind a Seavey in second place.  Dallas’s father took the win last year.  Zirkle was visibly disappointed, but she says it’s not the worst that could have happened.

“Sure yeah, hindsight blah, blah, blah, but second’s pretty good,” Zirkle said. “It’s better than scratching.”

Clearly the favorite in this year’s race, the crowd chanted her name even after she arrived in Nome.  She says that kind of support is humbling.

“Over the last eight days’ I’ve really run into the people who’ve… I’ve brought them down the trail with me in my heart and it’s very motivating,” she said.

Just over three hours after he claimed his second Iditarod championship, the younger Seavey waited for his father to finish the race in third place.  The two hugged, but Mitch Seavey had no idea his son had won.

The elder Seavey came into Nome, clearly exhausted and completely bewildered.

“We crashed and tipped and whatever countless times,” he said.

The wind is still blowing wildly out along the coast of the Bering Sea.  Teams are fighting to travel over thick, uneven glare ice without getting too close to the open ocean. The drama that ensued for the first few mushers may not be the last in Iditarod 42, as teams continue to make their way for the finish line.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

At the culmination of an exciting couple of days of racing, Dallas Seavey has claimed his second Iditarod win after overtaking Aliy Zirkle at the Safety checkpoint. He arrived at the famed burled arch in Nome at 4:04 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Two Rivers musher Aliy Zirkle slid into Nome 2 minutes and 22 seconds after Seavey to take second place for the third-straight year.

Last year’s champion, Mitch Seavey, is currently in third after leaving the Safety checkpoint at 4:10 a.m. He’s trailed by Norway’s Joar Leifseth Ulsom, and four-time winner Martin Buser.

In a stunning reversal of fortune, four-time champion Jeff King has scratched from the race about 25 miles from the finish line.

The scratch came just hours after King appeared to be cruising to a record-tying fifth win in the nearly 1,000-mile race across Alaska.

According to Iditarod officials, King scratched because of severe wind in the area, and he was having trouble navigating the trail.

He had a lead of an hour over second-place Zirkle, but she passed him and was the first musher into the last checkpoint in Safety, about 22 miles from the finish line.

Iditarod officials indicated was waiting out the storm, which included winds of up to 40 mph and blowing snow.

Jeff King overtook Aliy Zirkle early Monday morning in the 2014 Iditarod. King took off from Elim about 1 a.m. and Zirkle, who had battled King and Martin Buser for the lead, left less than 10 minutes later.

Dallas Seavey, who won two years ago, jumped into third place and was out of Elim about 2:52 this morning. While Zirkle, and King had spent more than an hour in Elim, Seavey was in and out of the checkpoint in minutes.

As of early Monday morning, the leaders looked liked this:

King. Zirkle. Dallas Seavey.

Mitch Seavey had passed Buser. Sonny Lindner was racing right behind Buser. All were out of Elim.

Earlier on the trail dogs and mushers were showing signs of fatigue on the Yukon River.

Iditarod mushers kept volunteers in the Nulato checkpoint busy overnight. Some teams that weren’t expected to stay grabbed a few hours rest in the sleepy Yukon River village, while others who could have used the rest decided to blow through.

Martin Buser says his dog team didn’t have much of a challenge traveling down the Yukon River this year.

“They were bored getting down that trail slow and steady and kind of a punchy, drifted trail,” he said.

Buser’s quiet team curled up for a nap almost immediately after they arrived in Nulato.  Sonny Lindner arrived shortly after.  His dogs wolfed down the food he offered.  He says his dog team is showing signs of fatigue from the early rough trail.

“That trail was really rough at the start and once you get on the good going, and everybody starts trotting right along then all those places that got sore earlier start showing up,” he said.

Lindner spent his eight hour mandatory rest massaging sore shoulders and wrapping sore wrists. He could have waited to rest long in Kaltag, but he says Nulato is much quieter.

Checkpoint volunteers were surprised when Aliy Zirkle announced she planned to stay for a few hours in. Her team came in alert, tails wagging. She stopped to make what she calls a “significant force reduction.”

“I had to reduce my squad by two dogs: Joe Schmoe and Scruggs, so we made a significant equipment reduction. I just lost about 40 pounds off the back of my sled,” she said.

Zirkle left behind all kinds of gear she doesn’t think she’ll need.  She says 12 dogs is actually the perfect number, plus it’s eight fewer feet to booty, two personalities less to deal with and a little less food to carry. As for the river travel, Zirkle says what’s normally a monotonous run seemed to go by quickly.

“Yeah, I don’t feel like the river’s been that long for me this time,” Zirkle said.

As teams come off the Yukon in Kaltag, they’ll tackle what is a reportedly snow free trail in place all the way to Unalakleet, but that’s nothing new for mushers this year.

Alaska’s Paralympic alpine skiers were both injured in training runs in the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Joe Tompkins, of Juneau, is awaiting surgery in a hospital in Germany, after a crash in a Thursday training run for the men’s sit-ski downhill race.

It was the same training run that took out Andrew Kurka, of Palmer, who broke his back. Kurka has already returned to  Alaska. The 21-year-old wrote on Facebook that he was “excited to get the chance to represent” his country. “Perhaps a bit too excited,” he said.

Kurka has been partially paralyzed since he was 13, the result of an accident with a four-wheeler. Tompkins is paralyzed from the waist down due to an automobile crash in 1988.

According to Kurka’s Facebook entries, Tompkins, age 45, broke his femur in the training run.

News reports indicate that warm weather and soft snow at Sochi’s Rosa Khotur Alpine Center resulted in a number of crashes both in training and in the race.

Another U.S. teammate, Tyler Walker, crashed during the Saturday race and was taken off the mountain by helicopter. He is reportedly in stable condition.

Twenty-two competitors were entered in the men’s downhill; nine failed to complete the run.

Japan’s Akira Kano won the gold. Josh Dueck of Canada is the silver medalist and the bronze went to Takeski Suzuki, also of Japan.

The sit-skiers use a molded bucket-style seat on a suspension system and shock absorber mounted to a single ski.

Martin Buser, racing with 14 dogs, kept up his bid to win the 2014 Iditarod, leaving Nulato about 9:34 Friday night. Still in Nulato were Sonny Lindner, Aliy Zirkle and Jeff King.

Buser is attempting to win his 5th Iditarod. He won in 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2002.

Prior to reaching Nulato, both Buser and Zirkle had taken their mandatory 8-hour and 24-hour layovers. Lindner and King had not taken their 8-hour stops.

Last year’s winner – Mitch Seavey – was in 13th place and out of Galena.

Abbie West was leading the rookies and in Galena Friday night. She was in 18th place.

Iditarod teams remain large.  Most mushers are still running teams of 14 or more dogs. Mushers are surprised at how many dogs fared well through some of the roughest trail they’ve seen in the race’s history.

Four-time champion, Jeff King has towed a large trailer behind his sled since the start of the race. He carries one or two dogs in it at a time while the rest of the team travels down the trail.

“I’m using it both proactively for a dog that’s super important to later on in this race and in the event I see one that has a little tick of lameness, the first thing I do is give it a ride and then evaluate it so that if there’s something there, it’s not aggravated.”

King has been resting his dogs en route for years.  He says it saves energy for later in the race and takes some wear and tear of his equipment.

Wear and tear is something this year’s mushers know plenty about. They faced miles of rough and rugged, snow-free trail early on.  But Canadian Michelle Phillips says mushers are definitely roughed up more than then the dogs.

“It seems that way, yeah.  Definitely,” she said.

Her legs are covered in huge purple bruises. Phillips pulls a little blue vial out of her pocket. It’s medicine for both her and her dogs.

“It’s a homeopathic remedy arnica,” she said. “I’ve gone through half a bottle and anyone that’s stiff or sore is taking it as well.”

She is known for the homemade remedies she uses to treat stiff and sore dogs.

“It’s a whole blend that I roll on and I make my own massage oil and foot ointment that’s got emu oil and a bunch of herbs and essential oils,” Phillips said.

Hans Gatt spent some of his 24-hour layover massaging and walking his dogs.  He still has his full team.  He says he’s not letting anyone go until he has to.

“I’m not dropping anybody if they don’t have to be dropped,” Gatt said. “It would be a hoot to get to Nome with 16, but I know it’s not going to happen.”

Well over half the field still has teams numbering in the teens.  Those with 16 dogs will have plenty of speed and power as they push forward toward the Yukon River.