Up, up and up

Even a traditional race involving dogs and sleds is being heavily impacted by soaring fuel costs.

The costs of living and doing business of any kind just keep escalating! Now from storied Alaska comes still another indication of how rising costs can alter so many aspects of our lives, even the legendary ones. Think of the Iditarod, a dog and sled event that you might not expect to be affected by spiraling prices.

Mushers who want to compete next year in the world’s best-known sled dog race will be paying a lot more to bid for a smaller guaranteed purse. The entry fee for the 2009 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will be $4,000. That is nearly a $1,000 boost from this year’s spectacle and more than double the $1,860 fee from the previous year. The field also will be limited to 100 teams. How do rising energy costs figure in all this?

Race organizers say the changes were necessitated by higher expenses, most notably those affected by energy prices. But there are dogs and sleds, right?

The energy costs include the fuel powering the snowmobiles and airplanes that support the mushers and their teams for the 1,100-mile chase to Nome.

“Everything is related to fuel,” says Stan Hooley, executive director of the Iditarod Trail Committee. “That head of lettuce costs more to deliver and everything involving fuel is affected.” Gasoline prices are creeping toward $4 a gallon here, but they’re already averaging about $4.28, up north, according to AAA.

The 2009 guaranteed purse will be $660,000 compared to this year’s $935,000. But at least the winner’s prize of $69,000 and a new pickup truck will remain the same. Other competitors won’t fare so well. The bulk of the money is distributed among the first 30 finishers in the race that was inaugurated in 1973 to commemorate a 1925 run by sled dogs delivering lifesaving diphtheria serum from Anchorage to Nome.

Mushers admit that a race can set them back as much as $20,000 each. “While $1,000 more for the entry fee is not insignificant, it’s only one expense,” said a previous competitor. “It’s more money for food, which has had its price boosted by the higher fuel costs. Everything has gone up.”

We can look around us and see countless reasons for concern about the impact of gas and oil costs. When something like a traditional sled dog race in Alaska is hit so hard, you know the economy could be staggering for quite a while.