After some debates with the Department of Natural Resources, it has been decided that this year’s Arctic Man will be canceled.
Arctic Man is known to be one of the most energetic snow machining races in rural Alaska. It consists of snowmachiners and skiers competing in races, gathering with friends, and having some fun.
However, it was announced on Saturday that the event would be canceled for this year.
According to Jeremy Wise, one of the event organizers, the problem was that they were having permitting issues with the DNR. When the group originally spoke to them, the DNR said they would provide Arctic Man with a new permit for the land.
“They came back with their new permit. And it was almost 10 times the amount of what it used to be, if not more, and so we didn’t think that was fair with the circumstances, so we ended up having to reach out to Governor Dunleavey’s office. And once we contacted Governor Dunleavy’s team and made it work,” said Wise.
The proposed charge for the land would have been $100,000.
After speaking with Dunleavy’s office, they were able to set the next five years for Arctic Man. But since this was such short notice, this year’s event had to be canceled. Wise says that everyone is very frustrated at the situation.
“We just had to cancel event because we don’t have enough time to get prepared. A bunch of our sponsors backed out because it’s late in the year and we waited it took too long to get this permitting issue figured out, so we will be back in 2025 because we have a permit for five years now.”
Wise says that the members for the board will have a meeting in the beginning of March to start preparing for Arctic Man 2025.
