Race officials say Iditarod musher Aliy Zirkle sustained a “significant impact that resulted in a concussion and orthopedic injuries to her upper torso” on her way into the Rohn checkpoint.
Zirkle was flown to the Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage and has since been released from the hospital. She’s resting with family in the city, said an Iditarod statement Tuesday morning.
Zirkle was injured on the trail between Rainy Pass and Rohn, known for notoriously tough terrain, including the steep and windy Dalzell Gorge.
Zirkle dropped out of the race at the Rohn checkpoint at 8:05 p.m., race officials said. She arrived at the checkpoint with her 14-dog team.
“Her race team is uninjured and being well cared for by volunteers at the Rohn checkpoint where they will wait for the first flight out to be flown to Anchorage and driven back home,” said the Iditarod statement.
Zirkle’s injury was first announced in an earlier statement from Iditarod Race Director Mark Nordman, just before midnight Monday.
“Aliy is in stable condition but based on information provided by a volunteer with medical training, I notified the Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center for assistance,” that statement said. “Her dog team is in Rohn and being well cared for by volunteers at the checkpoint.”
Rohn is nearly 200 miles into this year’s 850-mile race, shortened from the usual 1,000-mile distance because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Zirkle and her husband, musher Allen Moore, own SP Kennel in Two Rivers.
A post on the kennel’s Facebook page late Monday said Moore was headed to Anchorage to meet Zirkle.
Zirkle announced on her kennel’s website last month that this would be her last Iditarod, and she hoped to win.
She has competed in the race every year since 2001, notching three second-place finishes in a row, winning a record six humanitarian awards and drawing crowds of fans to the event.
In 2000, she also became the first woman to win the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest.
Last year, she placed 18th in the Iditarod.
In an interview with Alaska Public Media in February, she said she has always raced the Iditarod to win. But the competition is so physically and mentally demanding, she said, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to give it 100% much longer.
“I know what it takes to win and, in the next few years, old Aliy Z. ain’t going to have it,” she said. “So I might as well hang it up before I don’t have it anymore.”
