Partly Cloudy, 64°
With the annual sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome only two weeks away, sled dog teams are gearing up for the long and icy journey. However, several dogs from one team have come forward with concerns about the 1,131-mile run through the Arctic north, suggesting that it might be easier to complete the race if they could run on solid ground instead of snow.
“Don’t get me wrong, we love running,” said five-year-old sled dog Koda. “But it might be nice to run on solid ground instead of snow for a change. For one, snow makes you really cold and is kinda smushy and slippery. Solid ground, on the other hand, is pretty easy on the paws. You gotta think that’s a more practical surface for racing, am I right?”
Koda, a member of Hans Brenner’s sled dog team, has been a competitive sled dog for the past three years. “I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed my time racing on the ice pack,” Koda continued, "but I probably could have done without all of the trudging and the biting cold. And I probably could’ve gotten there faster too.”
Vali, another member of Brenner’s sled dog team, expressed a similar hesitancy to running several days straight through the snowy terrain. “There has to be someplace else we could race where our paws wouldn’t get so cold,” said Vali. “Like, anywhere where it’s not snowing. That would be so much better than anywhere where it is snowing.”
Noting the regular occurrence of warm weather and solid ground during the summer months in certain regions, the dogs have expressed interest in pushing the race back until the snow melts and changing the location to a more temperate locale. "I can’t help but think we could race quicker in the summer,” said Koda. “Especially in a place like Southern California. Yeah. That would make a lot more sense in terms of running.”
