Mushers shivered and dogs bent their heads into the icy gusts that blasted 25 teams on Alpine Veterinary’s six-dog race day. Five inches of fresh snow was frozen into a sticky track and Saturday’s cloud cover whitewashed the trail, but drivers were eager to start and finish before the -20s dropped further in a forecasted deep freeze.
Skijorer Darryl Sheepway led the Twisters out of the starting chute with four dogs. He kept his place, too, until he turned the wrong way off the backtrack and gave league champion Lee Kirkpatrick first place in 51:09. Carbon Hill champ Crispin Studer followed 58 seconds later, ahead of current Twister leader Luc Twiddell in third at 57:47. (Check out the league standings.)
In the mid pack was William Kleedehn who’d hooked up his kennel’s troublemakers. Within the hour he found a slacker. One of his gang had wriggled free of the harness up to the neckline and left the other five with all the work.
Wind and cold didn’t slow pet-dog race winner Kawina Robichaud. After staffing a Twister checkpoint for two hours, for she and Otti burned up the 5 K course in 26:30, ahead of Anissa Guenfoud on skis with Cosmo. Guenfoud’s 27:23 was 13 seconds faster than third place skijorer Jonathan Lucas with Asha. The red lantern went to debut puller Taz, with Sean Fitzgerald pumping behind a kicksled.
Arctic Winter Games contenders Ben and Rachel Kinvig and Jeff Diment dominated the four-dog juniors. Ben squeaked past his sister for a three second lead to win in 9:57 and Jeff Diment took third in 13 minutes flat, ahead of Erin Spicer’s 16:14.
Larissa Rueckenbach, invisible under parka and mitts, scarf and goggles, worked hard to capture the red lantern. First, her team rounded for home early. Then they bolted. “I saw her sled go by, and then I saw her go by moving as fast as her team,” said volunteer Mike Simon who collared the runaways. “She dusted herself off, said she was okay, and off she went” to cross the line in 17:03.
February has two Twisters, with the next on Sunday the 10th sponsored by Duffy’s Pets and Tanzilla Harness. Mushers meet at 9 a.m. Icy Waters Ltd, km 4.2 Fish Lake Rd. Volunteers are generously rewarded with Icy Waters Arctic Charr - full of omega-3 and Vitamin D.
Righteo then...where is the red lantern that the TAZ and I so carefully schemed and trained for???? HMM HMMM HMMM??nd where is the race marshmellow... who so diligently harassed me for her red lantern after getting smoked in the Silver Sled??? Harumff, she is probably off on some obscure race duty for the "little race" up in Alaska...So, Jon, good that you have made it mandatory to volunteer for a twister to be considered for the league prize as we all know that VOLUNTEERS MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHowever, to really make this a proper race, I suggest that you institute a rule requiring all mushers do a "Qualifying Race" to be able to enter the twister....Now, my suggestion (and it really is only a suggestion, honest),is that prior to being allowed to enter the twister, one must enter and successfully complete the pet dog race. Yes you may encounter a few who would disagree, but wouldn't it be neat to see Lee or Luke Kicksledding behind a West Highland Terrier??? C'mon Jon where's yer sense of adventure????
Carry on... the twister is just what the Yukon needs, a race with its own flavor!!!!