Anchorage, Alaska — Riches and paid appearances have not followed Jesse Holmes since He won the most famous sled dog race in the world, Iditarod, last year.
He doesn’t mind.
A carpenter and former cast member on the National Geographic Channel’s reality show “Life Below Zero,” Holmes was instead content to return to his simple, hand-built home in the wilderness near The tallest mountain on the continent. His life is solitary and frugal. Its nearest neighbors are 30 miles (50 km) away.
“There are a lot of things that can happen in your life once you win the Iditarod,” Holmes told The Associated Press in an interview. Before this year’s race. “You can become a really important person, or you can go back to the bush and get right back to work, you know? And that’s what I did.”
Holmes set out Sunday with 33 other racers in an attempt to defend his title in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) trek from Willow to Nome. A day later he was in the lead.
The winner is expected to reach the finish line around March 17 after traveling over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and onto the treacherous ice of the Bering Sea on Alaska’s west coast.
Musching was a stranger to Holmes growing up in Odenville, Alabama, but he had a penchant for dogs with bad luck.
“I always had a problem bringing home dogs I found on the streets, hiding them in the woods and feeding them from the refrigerator,” he said.
His life found a calling after he saw the 1972 Robert Redford film “Jeremiah Johnson,” which was partly based on the legend of a real 19th-century mountain man.
At 18, he set out to make it happen, jumping on passing freight trains heading north. He eventually settled in Montana, where he strapped his hunting dog to a sled to help pull equipment during the winter.
He had no evidence of a prosperous competitive lifestyle until he moved north to Dawson City, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, after the turn of the century.
“I thought this is exactly what I want to do,” Holmes said.
Two years later he moved to Alaska, living off the land in a village on the Yukon River, near the Canadian border. He used his dogs to transport firewood and water and assist him while hunting, fishing, and trapping.
Competitive competition gnawed at him. “I can be really good at this,” he thought. “I think I’m pretty good with dogs. I should race.”
He learned some hard lessons in his first race. He placed last in a 200-mile (322 km) competition in Fairbanks in 2006 and realized he needed faster dogs. He moved into a cabin without running water or electricity with about 40 dogs, regrouped and started racing again in 2012.
He also joined the cast of the film “Life Below Zero,” which documents the daily struggles of living in remote areas of Alaska. appeared in 132 episodes Over the course of eight seasons, with wages that allowed him to buy better food and equipment for the dogs. He eventually also bought the land near Denali National Park where he made his home.
The hard work of raising his dogs in the backcountry paid off when he entered his first Iditarod in 2018. He came in seventh, earning Rookie of the Year honors and a check for $26,000.
He’s been in every Iditarod since, finishing in the top 10 for all but two years. Last year’s title came with a check for just over $57,000. He described the win as “magical” and gave all the credit to his dogs, which he named after his family.
In the Iditarod’s heyday, when it was a regular feature on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” winners — especially those with multiple titles — were able to leverage their fame with significant support and sponsorships, with some earning $250,000 a year.
But financial support has declined, partly due to A Animal rights group targets national shepherdsThe portfolio has shrunk while inflation has increased Suffocating young smugglers Trying to do it. This year, Norwegian billionaire Kjell Röcke has provided additional support as he pushes into a new amateur or “expedition” category.
Holmes has a sponsor, a local auto repair chain. But he has not participated in any paid appearances or events, and his income now comes primarily from racing and dog breeding winnings. Although Rokke’s contribution increases the prize money this year, Holmes said he is not in favor of having amateurs on the track.
“I don’t really feel like it’s in the spirit of racing,” he said. “I really don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to dig a hole for myself, but I don’t mind saying that I’m not a fan of hers.”
He said in a social media post that he has logged about 4,500 miles (7,240 kilometers) of training with his dogs this winter.
“Deep snow and strong winds. Temperature 40 degrees below zero and colder,” he wrote. “But this is nothing new for us here. Instead of letting it break us, we let it strengthen us.”
The self-imposed pressure of repeating himself as a champion burns him out. He described this year’s race as the most important in his career. Many runners have won multiple Iditarod titles, but only two – Susan Butcher and… Lance Mackey – They won their second title the year after their first.
“It’s hard to put that on your shoulders because you have to live with that pressure every day,” Holmes told the AP. “And if I can’t, it will absolutely crush me.”