The Fur Rendezvous has been a staple of Alaska winter life for 90 years. Founded in the mid-1930s, the early festivals coincided with miners and trappers coming to town to sell their wares.

And a lack of snowpack forced the Fur Rendezvous’ annual three-day, 78-mile Open World Championship Sled Dog Races to be revised to a 9-mile Rondy Invitational. An abnormal winter has produced ...