If you are new to Alaska, you may not know much about Fur Rendezvous, or as the locals call it, Fur Rondy, the largest winter festival in North America. It started in 1935 when Anchorage was isolated and had a very small population and surviving Alaska’s long winters was at its toughest. In order to bring the community together, Vern Johnson put together a three-day sports tournament called the Winter Sports Carnival that was timed to happen the same time the miners and trappers returned with their gathering of winter works. Since the fur trade was a very large part of the Alaskan industry at the time, coinciding with their return with sports events felt seamless. It was later renamed Winter Sports Tournament and Fur Rendezvous and later, just Fur Rendezvous. Today, the event has gained global notoriety and has turned into a 12-day festival celebrating the coming to an end of a long winter and the approaching of spring.
Originally, the event featured skiing, hockey, basketball, boxing, and a children’s sled dog race along Fourth Avenue. Although many of these events have stood the test of time, today, Fur Rondy has filled with more interesting winter competitions that are just as popular - sprinting before reindeer, Outhouse Races, and the most intense, three day Rondy World Championship Sled Dog Races. Mushers and their dog teams complete a high-speed loop daily for three days, the fastest time wins. This year, the dog sled race beings on Fourth Avenue at D Street and will run out and back to Campbell Creek.
The Official Rondy Fur Auction has also been a main staple to the festival since the very beginning that incorporated Alaska’s huge fur trading industry to the winter celebration. Also, an ancient Alaska Native tradition, The Blanket Toss became part of the festival in 1950. Native Alaskans from Nome and the Little Diomede Islands were flown into Anchorage to showcase their tribal dances and participate in the Blanket Toss that mimics a traditional whaling tradition of either jumping or gripping the blanket’s edge while tossing others as high as 20 feet in the air!
For those who may not be into winter sports or competitions, there is still something you at the Fur Rondy Festival. There is the Rondy Carnival (a carnival in the winter? How cool!), the Grand Parade, Fireworks and, pure entertainment from watching all the festival events like Snowshoe Softball and the races listed above.
Fur Rendezvous is a huge part of Alaska’s history and tradition. It represents the Last Frontier’s pioneering spirit and embracing the wild and wacky things that we Alaskans take pride in.