This year’s inclement winter weather provided an opportunity to have our own impromptu Olympic games. My morning walk with the dogs turned into speed skating across what used to be our yard, but most recently resembled an ice rink.
My boys chose the scariest event to mimic, the skeleton. The mighty sled riding hill was frozen over, so sleds were not necessary. They threw themselves over the top and slid down to the bottom.
I managed a couple of pirouettes in the woods that lacked both speed and artistic merit; basically, I was falling on the ice. The true Olympic athletes defy gravity and ignore the rules of nature.
Climbing a hill, I glanced over at my dogs, agile as ever, sprinting over the frozen terrain. I wish they could pull me, I thought as I trudged forward.
Across arctic terrain
Sled dog racing has been around since the early 1900s. Before racing, sled dogs played a vital role in communication and transportation across the rough arctic terrain.
During the Yukon’s Klondike gold rush between 1896 and 1899, sled dogs helped transport 100,000 prospectors and their supplies to remote areas.
Famous explorer Roald Amundsen used sled dogs in his 1911 South Pole exploration, beating his competition by 33 days to the South Pole. His knowledge and use of sled dogs was inspired by native Inuits.
The first most significant sled dog race was the All Alaska Sweepstakes. It was organized by the Nome Kennel Club and held over the span of years between 1908 and 1917. The 408-mile race had a surprisingly large purse between $3000 and $10,000.
The most famous winner of the event was Leonhard Seppala. The career of Leonhard Seppala began when an expedition failed to happen. He was working for the Pioneer Mining Company as a musher, transporting supplies over 50-100 miles a day. He was asked to train a team of Siberian huskies for Roald Amundsen.
When the expedition was canceled, he was able to keep the team. Seppala is best known for the specialized care and attention he gave to his dogs. He and his dogs were a team; together, they were a part of nature and they conquered nature.
Their survival in the worst of elements defined them. The ability to thrive in the worst conditions led to their greatest accomplishment. At the time, their victory wasn’t on a racecourse.
Epidemic
In 2020, a global pandemic brought the modern world to a crashing halt. In 1925, a different medical crisis had a gripping hold on the remote Alaskan town of Nome.
The town of Nome is located about two degrees south of the Arctic Circle. With just over 1,400 people calling Nome home in 1925, it was the largest town in northern Alaska. Roughly 10,000 people lived in the surrounding areas outside the town.
During the winter months, it was cut off from the rest of the world except for the frozen Iditarod trail. The word Iditarod means “distant place.” The trail was 938 miles long and ran from the port of Seaward in the south to Nome, crossing massive mountain ranges.
Nome had one doctor, Curtis Welch. In December of 1924, he treated several children for what he thought was tonsillitis. Catastrophically, after several deaths, he became concerned that he was facing an epidemic of diphtheria.
Unfortunately, the town’s supply of antitoxin had expired. The replacement shipment did not reach Nome before the port was frozen. The only planes available were unreliable vintage bi-planes.
Heroes
The decision was made to transport the antitoxin serum via a relay of dog sled teams. The serum passed through the hands of many brave mushers who faced freezing temperatures as low as -62°F and winds at 25 mph along with 10-foot tall snowdrifts.
Seppala and his team were chosen for the most difficult part of the journey, crossing the Norton Sound. Led by his lead dog Togo, Seppala traveled 170 miles into gale-force winds and through the darkness to retrieve the serum. He had to travel back across the Norton Sound to reach the next handoff.
At one point, he and his team became stranded on an ice floe. He tossed his lead dog Togo across the open water. When the rope snapped, Togo grabbed it out of the icy water and pulled Seppala and the other dogs to safety.
They miraculously reached the next relay point where the serum was handed off to Gunnar Kaasen who successfully brought it to Nome. Thousands of lives were saved by the courage of the mushers and their faithful sled dogs.
Sled dog racing was never made an official Olympic sport, but rather demonstrated at several games. These true heroes did not need medals; it was their nature to excel in the most extreme circumstances regardless of accolades.
The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is a 1,049-mile race commemorating the historic Nome serum relay. The 50th running of the Iditarod will take place in March of 2022 after an altered course in 2021.
Tenacity, grit and determination will be on display amid the breathtaking Alaskan terrain to a “distant place.”
