Powering Safety Beyond the Course
Avalanche Beacon Checkpoints & Battery Support
The Iron Dog is known as the world’s longest and toughest snowmachine race, demanding preparation, discipline, and respect for Alaska’s winter environment. While avalanche conditions are not a concern on the Iron Dog race route itself, the organization’s commitment to safety extends far beyond race day and well beyond the course.
As part of that broader commitment to backcountry safety and community stewardship, Iron Dog supports an avalanche beacon checkpoint system that has been built over years of collaboration and continues to evolve. This season marks a key moment in that effort, with refreshed battery support and the addition of new checkpoint locations across Alaska’s backcountry. These stations serve as a final, critical gear check, allowing riders to confirm that their avalanche beacons are turned on, transmitting properly, and powered before entering avalanche terrain.
Avalanche beacon checkpoints are not a replacement for formal avalanche education or rescue training. Instead, they reinforce a simple but essential habit: checking your gear every time. Many preventable incidents stem from beacons being turned off, left in search mode, or running on dead batteries. A quick stop at a checkpoint can catch those issues before they matter.
This project has been a collaborative effort from the start, built over time through shared vision and hands-on work from multiple organizations and volunteers. Alaska Safe Riders and Backcountry Access’s Are You Beeping initiative completed much of the early groundwork, including acquiring the beacon checkers themselves. Delta Powersports provided signage, while Avalanche Alliance and Klim contributed solar panels. Interstate Batteries and Iron Dog provided the batteries that keep the system operational, with many others contributing lumber, materials, and construction support.
To date, three checkpoint units have been built, with nine more currently in progress as part of this year’s expansion and refresh effort. Existing units are located in the Summit Lake (Isabel Pass) area and Red Rock Canyon. Additional installations scheduled for March include new checkpoints in Broad Pass, at Denali Highway lodges, and in the Thompson Pass and Valdez areas, with further locations planned near Cantwell and Summit.
These stations operate throughout the winter season, supporting not just racers, but snowmachiners, skiers, hunters, trappers, and anyone traveling Alaska’s backcountry. In a state where access to formal avalanche training can be limited by distance, cost, and weather, these checkpoints provide a low-cost, high-impact safety measure that reinforces education through repetition.
Behind the scenes, board members and volunteers design, build, place, and maintain the stations,often quietly and without recognition. Their work reflects a shared belief that backcountry safety is a collective responsibility.
As Roger Brown, Iron Dog board member and builder of the checkpoint stations, puts it:
“These checkpoints provide a simple, life-saving reminder that reinforces a culture of safety for everyone recreating in Alaska’s backcountry.”
Backed by Interstate Batteries and partner organizations, the avalanche beacon checkpoints stand as a reminder that Iron Dog’s commitment to safety and responsibility extends far beyond the race itself.