How do you handle the cold?

Dressing to stay warm at -40 isn’t as difficult as it sounds. For example, Apocalypse Design in Fairbanks (www.akgear.com) makes expedition parkas and bibs suitable for running the Yukon Quest at -60. Pair them thermal underwear, fleece under layers, a face mask (the parka has a great hood), good boots (e.g. mukluks, bunny boots, northern outfitters), and good beaver mitts and you can stand around at -40 for a long time. Remember that this is just insulation – so if you are cold it will keep you cold, but if you are warm it will keep you warm. Don’t be afraid to add chemical hand warmers as necessary.

Now that you look like the Michelin man, imagine what happens if you have to run up a hill, run to the front of your team to undo a tangle, or chase a dog team that is getting away. If you sweat, then your gear is wet and now you are in trouble. The challenge is to dress so you are comfortable riding the runners, or sitting on the “old musher” seat, but you don’t overheat when you have to get off and work for a while. The real challenge in severe cold is not to overheat.

My solution is to use the lighter Alpine Parka and Bibs with several under layers to add insulation when necessary. Minus 20 is pretty forgiving and if you work up a sweat you are uncomfortable, but generally not in serious trouble. With good synthetic gear (no down or cotton), if you stay active so you generate body heat, you are pretty much ok.

Minus 40 is much less forgiving. If you get wet, either because you sweat or you fall into open water, you have to work much harder to stay warm. You may even have to stop and build a fire to dry out. I haven’t camped in -60 yet, but I imagine there is even less room for mistakes. Remember it is much easier to keep something (yourself for example) warm than to warm up something that got cold. You have to stay on top of things.

Keep 'em Northbound

Eric

Mushers Anonymous

Hi, my name is Eric and I am a dog bum.

For me, getting into Iditarod was a spiral, much like soft drugs leading to hard drugs. I started innocently enough at the age of 5 watching Sgt Preston. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and it seemed so safe. I remember celebrating when Alaska became a state.

When I was 11 we moved to Colorado and I discovered the municipal library. Within a few years I mastered the Dewey Decimal system and read every book they had on Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Passage, and the journey to the Pole. I cried over the Good Friday earthquake. This is starting to get serious.

In 1972 I made a weekend trip to Anchorage with the Air Force and it was even more magic than I had imagined. In late August 1973 I spent two weeks flying out of Fairbanks refueling surveillance aircraft over the Pole. Watching the northern lights from 40,000 feet north of 80 degrees is a memory I’ll never forget.

I had a subscription to Alaska magazine and read about this strange group of people racing sled dogs over trails that hadn’t been used in 50 years. Wow. For years Alaska Magazine was my sole source of information. I remember hearing that Dick Mackey beat Rick Swenson by 1 second after 14 ½ days of racing. I practically devoured Tim Jones book “The Last Great Race”. Then in 1985 Libby Riddles won the race and it got national attention. When Susan Butcher won in 1986 the media paid attention and Wide World of Sports covered the race in 1987 (I still have the vhs tape I recorded off the TV and Libby’s book). I subscribed to the Anchorage Daily News by mail for the month of March (I was living in Houston, TX) and nearly broke the budget calling the phone room. I cut out and saved every article from the paper (I still have them). I still remember the panic I felt in 1991 when I heard that Rick Swenson was caught in a blizzard between White Mtn and Safety and nobody knew where he was.

Finally my job in Houston went away and in January 1992 I drove the Alcan to Anchorage looking for work. Working Iditarod in March was a given, I met my fellow volunteers and for the first time had friends who understood my affliction. Then I met the dogs… Now I’m getting into the hard stuff. I got a harness for my Chessie and a pair of skis. In February 1994 I got two huskies and a sled. By November I had a 9 dog team. In 1995 I started working the trail as a communications guy and taking my team on training runs down the Iditarod trail out of Knik. Watch out folks that 5 yr old just got his license to drive!

I got serious about running the race in 2000 and in 2006 finished my first Iditarod as the oldest rookie at the tender age of 58. Now in 2008 I’ve run three races and finished two of them (details on my website) and I feel it is only fair to warn you folks what you are getting into.

1) The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single sleddog.

2) Sleddogs are like potato chips. You can't have just one.

3) Sleddogs are like Jello. There is always room for one more.

4) There are many reasons not to run Iditarod, but a number on a calender is not one of them.

Keep ‘em Northbound

Eric

Thyme and the Elizabethan collar

Thyme got into a little tussle with Dash and got a three corner tear on her left cheek. Sebastian Schnuelle helped me staple it shut and we put an Elizabethan collar on her.

Now the first time we did that last winter poor Thyme just laid there and refused to even move. I had to put her into the dog house. But after a week she was bouncing around like her old self. This time is never fazed her.

Thyme is very oral and likes to carry things in her mouth. I Imagine that is what caused the tussle. Dash and Thyme were both fond of a 3 inch hard plastic ball. But Thyme is versatile and if she can't carry the ball, a rock or a stick will do. Recently she adopted the special stick lying at her feet in the picture. I only wish I could have gotten a photo of her with the stick, which is wider than the collar, in her mouth and sticking out on both sides. You can see the mud on the inside from previous encounters. Silly girl.

I keep telling her that she is a good dog, but she has to make the team because I could never sell her. Can't you see the ad? "For a good Thyme call..." My mother would never understand ;-)

Eric