Team Bailey takes on the Iditarod!

Hello Everyone,

My name is Bailey Cross Vitello and I am a 24 year old second generation musher from Milan, New Hampshire. Ever since I was little I have been on the back of a dog sled wether that meant in my moms pack or in the dog sled itself all I knew was that I loved dogs and that this was fun! As soon as I could stand I started doing small races and that thrill of being on the runners grew from then on.

Fast forward 20 some odd years and I have my own kennel of sled dogs that I have been racing throughout the country as well as in Canada and France.

Just like many mushers who get into the sport there is an almost impossible like goal to try to run the ultimate race and test of strength for a dog sled team; The Iditarod.

When we decided to make this goal a reality my team and I started planning and gathering intel on the race. Trying to plan out what qualifiers we should do as well as how we would build a team for such a race. Last year we tried our hand at our first qualifier and well we failed. It had nothing to do with the dogs ability but the lack of what us mushers call sled miles. We had plenty of miles sure but much of which was done on an ATV on Dryland and a fraction of it was done on a sled. I absolutely love where we live but we just didn’t seem to get enough snow soon enough for us to get the appropriate sled miles in.

This past season we decided if we were going to make this happen we were going to have to pick up and head out west for early snow conditions. Mid December we packed up our team and way to much stuff and headed out west to the land of snow.

Every day that we could we made it out on sleds, exploring the West Yellowstone area by dog team and making a lot of tourists Instagram stories along the way. Endlessly unreal trails that were perfectly groomed (as long as we got out early enough to beat the snowmobile traffic) became our view from the office (our dog sleds).

After talking with some musher friends across the states we took on our first qualifier the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge. Hearing from other people who have run it before it sounded like a daunting race as it took on about 40,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain.

Although it was a physically challenging race for both me and my team I was really able to see what they were capable of and when race day came they showed up with their game faces on and the energy from them throughout the race was electric. Every checkpoint we pulled into they were barking ready for more. My plan was to just run how we have been training and not really race while also getting in a positive run and qualifier in the books but second place in this 300 mile run was a hell of a bonus!

Our second qualifier was Montana Race to the sky. On this race we saw every type of trail condition (snow, grass, gravel, ice and plowed roads) and every type of temperature. It was a hard trail on both musher and dog but we were able to prevail and got 5th place!

Our third qualifier the Can Am Crown 250 was another great race! After having to drop a few key members from my team before the race, dogs that would just miss making the team were now on the team. I knew they could do it but I wasn’t sure how well it would go. Halfway through the first leg we were in our groove and I knew they were ready to race. Even though we weren’t the fastest team we were able to pull into 5th place with a happy and healthy dog team.

With the completion of all three qualifiers, this fall we will be headed to Alaska to take on the 2023 Iditarod trail, but it takes a village!

The Iditarod (although an amazing experience) does come with quite a few expenses. Some of these expenses include entrance fees, vet checks, lots of dog booties, dog food (meat and kibble), sled parts, supplements for the team, gas for training, a place to train the team and much more. While we continue to work on funding for this adventure, we could use your help! Anything you can give to help get our team to the Iditarod would be so greatly appreciated.

Like a good friend of mine has said; “the hardest part about the race is getting to the starting line” and with your help we will get there!

I want to thank everyone for your continued support and for all those who are following along on our adventure. We will be sure to post updates of our packing progress, our adventure to Alaska and of course Iditarod 2023!

-Bailey Cross Vitello