Kuskokwim 300
Ice Classic
As spring advances slowly, the
southwest Alaskan tundra begins to soften on the surface. The ice on the
Kuskokwim River, which has served as a highway to trucks, cars, snow
machines and dog teams for the last five months, begins to rot. The ice
is four feet thick, and the river is 800 miles long. Simply melting
would take too long. The transition from frozen ice highway to flowing
river happens in a few days. We call it “Break Up.”
Break up is a violent event.
Spring rains and snow melt in the mountains raise water levels in the
rivers as warming temperatures soften the ice covering them. Edges break
loose from the bank and water washes over them. Large leads open in the
middle and the surface becomes pocked with narrow ribbons of open water.
As current picks up the plates of ice crack, begin moving and jumble up
against each other. It starts way upriver and the whole mass of ice
begins to move down toward the sea
One of Bethel’s fun annual events
is the Kuskokwim Ice Classic. In early April, a “quad-pod” is built of
2x4s and erected on the frozen river about fifty feet out from shore. A
cable connects the top of the structure to a small building onshore
which contains a clock. When the ice breaks up and the quad-pod falls in
and washes a hundred feet downriver, the cable is pulled from the clock.
The clock stops and that moment is declared Bethel’s moment of break up.
The Ice Classic begins when the
pod is erected. Tickets to guess the exact day, hour and minute of break
up are sold for $5 each, or a book of five for $20. Half the money goes
to the winner’s pot and the other half goes to Bethel Regional High
School. The students are in charge of ticket sales around town and
collection of the deposit boxes where people place their guesses. For
the last two years, the winner of the Ice Classic has received over
$5,000.
Predicting break up is an item of
general discussion around town for most of April. It can occur at 4 in
the morning or at 4 in the afternoon. It can come as early as late April
or as late as early June. The most frequently occurring date since
records have been kept is May 18th.
A Sled Dog race from Bethel to Aniak and back.
Most
of the Kusko course is on the frozen surface of the Kuskowkim River.
Mushers running into standing water on the river ice can’t know for sure
whether it is water over ice or an opening in the river itself.
One woman reported that at one
point a musher found himself guiding his lead dogs through “thigh-deep
water. The dogs were swimming and the sled was floating behind. He did
find a dry spot and stayed there for one or two hours, contemplating how
to get to Bethel. This and other stories are pretty horrific and not for
the faint of heart that's for sure.
Collectible Pins
Kuskokwim Ice Classic Pins are becoming very
popular with
collectors, and remain very much in demand. Below we have listed as much
as know regarding the year of the events and what pins were released for
each one. If the date is in yellow, we have the pin here for sale. If
the pin is listed in white, it is informational only.
Date |
Pin |
Lapel, Ceramic, Silver, Pewter |
1980 |
Idea Conceived |
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1986 |
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1987 |
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1988 |
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1989 |
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1990 |
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1991 |
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1992 |
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1993 |
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1994 |
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1995 |
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1996 |
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1997 |
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1998 |
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1999 |
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2000 |
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2001 |
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2002 |
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2003 |
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2004 |
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2005 |
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2006 |
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2007 |
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2008 |
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