The race
Race to the Sky is Montana’s premier winter sporting event, and recognized as one of the most challenging and beautiful sled dog races in the world. Our Races are a test of physical strength, mental toughness, teamwork, and a special bond between man and his canine friends. Working together, teams negotiate the trail through Montana’s scenic Rocky Mountains.
The races were organized first as Montana’s Governor’s Cup Sled Dog Race in 1986 and we ran the first 500 mile continuous race in February of that year. Since that year, Race to the Sky has been an Iditarod qualifier.
In 1989, we became Montana Sled Dog, Inc. Each February, since then, MSDI has been hosting this distance race. We have gone through several distance changes, including adding a 250 mile race, a 300 mile race and changing the 500 mile race to a 350 mile continuous format race.
We now organize three races “within” a race. We have the 300 mile distance race, the 100 mile junior race and the 100 mile adult race.