King wins fourth crown at Iditarod

NOME, Alaska – Salem curled up beneath Nome’s burled spruce arch, a ring of yellow roses around his neck.

Then, in the bright lights of the Iditarod winner’s circle, the star sled dog fell asleep.

“He is one of the most incredible dogs I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing,” said musher Jeff King, whose headlamp was the first to pierce the darkness in the old gold-rush town early Wednesday, giving him his fourth Iditarod title.

To hear King tell the story, Salem’s nap was well-earned.

Last week, while King was jockeying for first with four-time champ Doug Swingley, his team hit a snow drift.

The bump sent King tumbling and unhooked one of his dogs. While King ran after it, the rest of his team disappeared down the Iditarod Trail, somewhere between the Yukon River village of Kaltag and the town of Unalakleet on the Bering Sea coast.

But King said Salem helped stop the runaway team, which he spotted a few minutes later in the blowing snow.

The musher arrived at the finish line of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race under a full moon and in first place. Hundreds of bundled-up spectators sent puffs of breath into the chill air as they cheered King along Nome’s main street.

King won his fourth Iditarod with what he called his best sled dog team, completing the annual 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome in nine days, 11 hours and 11 minutes.

King, competing in his 17th Iditarod, pulled into Nome more than three hours ahead of runner-up Swingley, of Lincoln, Mont.