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Russian Iditarod? 96-Mile Dog Sled Race Kicks Off on Frozen Lake Baikal

The howling of dogs, the bite of frosty winter, and the butterflies floating in your stomach moments before the race begins. Welcome to BaikalRace2017, the annual 96-mile-long endurance dog sled race which takes place on the frozen surface of the deepest freshwater lake in the world. Teams of racers and their dogs kicked off the first leg of the race on Saturday and rode long and hard throughout the weekend to vie for the crown. The annual Baikal dog-sledding endurance competition has drawn scores of adventurous tourists to frosty but beautiful Siberia. This year's sled race is set to run over several days, with the dogs sledding through Lake Baikal, the Baikal National Park and the Baikal Nature Biosphere Reserve. The annual BaikalRace is not the longest official dog sledding race in Russia, not by a longshot. That title goes to the Beringia race, an annual long distance dog sledding endurance race around the Kamchatka Peninsula running for about 590 miles in total, or about 6 times as long as Baikal Race. Longer still is the world famous Iditarod Race in Alaska, which runs for about 1,000 miles on a trail from Anchorage to Nome, making it the longest dog sled race in the world.