“It’s coming down to a matter of seconds” are not the words I was expecting to hear at the finish line of a 1,000 mile sled dog race, and yet that’s what was blared over the speakers as we watched two headlamps bob up and down and grow closer.
Nearly two weeks earlier I had stepped off the plane and experienced my first glimpse of the incredible beauty of the north. I was in Alaska, in the dead of winter. Each breath left a tiny layer of frost on my eyelashes, and I could feel the inside of my nostrils freeze within seconds of walking outside. It was slippery and frigid, and I was stoked; and the real adventure hadn’t even begun.
In Fairbanks, I met up with two other photographers and a video editor to embark on an adventure of our own: following the Yukon Quest – also aptly known as the ‘World’s Toughest Sled Dog Race’ - to document and tell the visual story of the incredible journey.
To put it simply, the Yukon Quest is a sled dog race where mushers, with their teams of up fourteen dogs, embark on a 1,000 mile journey from Fairbanks, Alaska (US) to Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada). They carry all the supplies they need for the duration of the race in their sled. The 2012 race marked the 24th running of the historic event, and a diverse group of twenty-three mushers had travelled from around the world to compete.
As a photographer and videographer for the official media team, I would be following the mushers along the trail, experiencing the same checkpoints and laying eyes on some of the same terrain in an attempt to fully tell the story of the extreme and unique race.
If I’m honest, prior to the start I had no idea what to expect; I knew next to nothing about mushing, and hailing from the deserts of Arizona, was slightly terrified of the impending, and potentially crazy, sub-arctic weather. In my head, I had embraced the cliché that all sled dogs were fluffy Siberian Husky types, with their bright blue eyes and adorably fluffy coats. In reality, the ‘typical’ racing sled dog weighed in around forty pounds, barely came past my knee, and looked like an ‘everyday’ dog. Though small as they may seem, don’t let their size fool you: sled dogs are pretty hardcore. Essentially elite athletes of the canine world, they’re made up of sheer muscle and enthusiasm. At any sign of running, the dogs were jumping in their harnesses to get on the trail, and the myth of the abused and overworked sled dog was nowhere to be found.
It was a frisky -20F at the start line in Fairbanks, as the mushers arrived throughout the morning, feeding and prepping their teams for the oncoming trek. With twenty-three teams arriving in the pre-race staging area, there was a real sense of excitement about. With handlers and mushers making last minute adjustments, there were perky dog-ears and ice beards pretty much everywhere you looked.