What about Iditarod 2016, 2017, 2018 and beyond?

What some predicted — and maybe even feared — became official Wednesday evening. With a unanimous vote, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Board of Directors opted to move the restart of the Last Great Race from Willow to Fairbanks.

It’s only the second time in the 43 years of the race that the restart has been moved from the Valley to Fairbanks. Both times the restart was moved north due to poor trail conditions.

Weather and trail conditions have become an annual topic of conversation, and even debate, in the weeks and months leading up to the race. Rather than focusing on featuring the people behind the teams, it’s the ground the teams race on that steals the storylines.

In many cases, “ground” is the most appropriate way to describe the trails. Snowpack has become a luxury in certain areas along the trail.

Notorious stretches, such as the Dalzell Gorge trail, which is a challenge for mushers even under good conditions, become treacherous hazards as trail conditions deteriorate. In 2014, that piece of trail, part of the run from Rainy Pass to Rohn in the Alaska Range, became a battlefield. A disastrous trip through that stretch ultimately led to veteran Willow musher DeeDee Jonrowe scratching from the 2014 race.

Moving the restart from Willow to Fairbanks also was considered in 2014. But race officials opted against the move. A factor was the work of a local business, Cruz Construction, and volunteers, who put in hundreds of man-hours to transform sections of rough trail from Willow to the Kuskokwim River near Nikolai.

Despite all of that extra work, poor trail conditions provided a big storyline during the 2014 race. And again, trail conditions are dominating headlines in 2015.

We will miss cheering for our friends and neighbors at the Willow restart this year. But we appreciate the committee’s decision need to make the safety of human and canine athletes its top priority.

Changing weather conditions and growth in the Valley have made hosting this race locally a challenge. The Iditarod is part of the fabric of life in the Mat-Su Valley and we’d sure hate to see the race pull of stakes and relocate.

Still, we can’t help wondering if we have reached a point where race officials need to take a hard look at the future of the Iditarod restart — beyond the next race start.

In some ways, this conversation is about more than the restart.

Changed weather conditions and growth here also make it harder for mushers to train their teams.

“What used to be the snowbelt has recently become the ice and rain belt,” Martin Buser wrote on his Happy Trail Kennel Facebook page. “This makes training for long distance events more and more difficult in the Big Lake. When four-wheelers and treadmills become part of the norm, one has to be extremely dedicated to the sport to train up a great team to compete in the Iditarod.”

Maybe it’s time we had that talk.