Alaska’s oldest and largest winter festival returns this week, with Fur Rendezvous running from late February through March 8 across downtown Anchorage.

The schedule holds the events that made Rondy famous: the Open World Championship Sled Dog Races, which start on Fourth Avenue at D Street and run out to Far North Bicentennial Park and back over three days, the outhouse races, snowshoe softball, the blanket toss, the Rondy Carnival and the Grand Parade.

The Running of the Reindeer returns March 7 on Fourth Avenue between H and D streets, sending costumed runners sprinting ahead of live reindeer in a spoof of Pamplona. Registration proceeds benefit Toys for Tots. The Alaska State Snow Sculpture Competition takes place at Ship Creek, and the Royal Court is crowned at the Hotel Captain Cook.

Rondy started in the mid-1930s as a three-day sporting event timed to the return of miners and trappers after a winter of work, with skiing, hockey, basketball, boxing and a children’s sled dog race down Fourth Avenue. The sled dog championship itself dates to 1946.

Most events are free. Downtown hotels fill weeks ahead of race weekend.