Erin Aili wins this year’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

GRAND PORTAGE, MINN. – Former Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon champion Erin Aili recaptured the title Tuesday morning, pulling up to the Grand Portage Reservation along Lake Superior in atypically warm weather.

In a battle between the Erins, Aili of Ray, Minn., near International Falls, was closely followed by Erin Altemus of Grand Marais.

“It’s pretty exciting to be here,” Aili said, as she praised her dogs. ”I was concerned about [Altemus] the whole way down. I was looking back over my shoulder seeing if she was going to possibly catch up to me.”

Three of the 15 teams that started Sunday near Two Harbors had scratched. High temperatures made for some soft or gravelly and rocky trail patches, especially in the last 5 miles, Aili said.

“But we got to race,” she said, “so it’s great.”

The 300-mile race with several required rest stops was shortened to 267 this year because of conditions. Organizers moved the traditional start from a bar on the edge of Duluth to a snowier area about 35 miles northeast.

The longest of the four Beargrease events is famous for its ruggedness and frigid weather, but temperatures were in the 30s and 40s for much of it. Sled dogs prefer temperatures around zero degrees.

Trail boss Alex Angelos said that despite the weather, two mushers set course records in specific trail sections in the middle of the day under warm, sunny skies.

“It’s really surprising” that most dogs handled the daytime temperatures well, he said.

Altemus, 46, said that despite a few hiccups, she had a “really good race” and her dogs had few problems. She and a few others crashed their sleds along an ice-covered curve earlier in the marathon, but she was able to recover. Mushers were allowed to start the race with fewer dogs because of the lack of snow, but when Altemus went to 12 dogs, she had to do a lot of braking, she said, because of the fast conditions.

“I’ve been using the word terrifying,” she said. “It’s a lot of power.”

The Beargrease was canceled last year because of a lack of snow, and this year the start date was pushed back more than a month for the same reason.

Aili, 42, finished with nine dogs, Juliet and Duker as the leads. She said her dogs are “incredible athletes” that adapt easily.

“As long as you are managing them right, keeping them hydrated, you’re feeding them and you’re giving them the rest they need, they power through it all because they just want to be out there on the trails, seeing something new and finding out what’s around the next corner,” she said.

The trails were smoother at night, as the temperature dropped, the stars were bright and the dogs “were loving it,” Aili said.

Aili’s husband, Keith, won the marathon in 2023. Four of Erin Aili’s dogs that finished were on that team.

The Beargrease is usually a qualifier for the Alaskan Iditarod, which this year is running concurrently. Former Beargrease champion and 2023 Iditarod winner Ryan Redington is among the 30-plus teams running that 1,000-plus mile race.

Rita Wehseler of Tofte won the 120-mile Beargrease, shortened this year to 70 miles, and crossed the finish line at the Trestle Inn on Sunday night. Jesse Terry, of Sioux Lookout, Ontario, finished the full marathon in third.

The race is named for John Beargrease, an Anishinaabe man from Beaver Bay. He delivered the mail between Two Harbors and Grand Marais from 1879 to 1899, with the help of sled dogs in the winter.