Minnesota sled dog race canceled because of too much snow

[Desertdog]

How's this for odd? Minnesota sled dog race canceled because of too much snow
Patrick Springer, Forum Communications, Bemidji Pioneer
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/articles/index.cfm?id=20594&section=News
 
Here’s another entry for the annals of noteworthy winter weather: The dogsled race near Frazee, Minn., has been canceled because there’s too much snow.


Too much fluffy snow that keeps drifting and therefore made it impossible to maintain a groomed trail.


That poses a safety risk to the dogs, supercharged canines whose mushers need a groomed trail to drop a hook to stop when necessary.


“We can’t pack it,” race organizer Eddy Streeper said Monday. “We just can’t get it packed. We had to speak up on behalf of the dogs.”


The Third Crossing Sled Dog Rendezvous, slated for Jan. 23-24, would have been the ninth annual running of the sprint races, which twice were canceled for lack of snow.


This winter, as anyone with a driveway knows, has been a season of prodigious snows.


The Frazee area has received about 3 feet of snow, but winds keep creating drifts of 4 feet or more over the course, which was to host races of four to 14 miles.


“The drifting aspect is just unbelievable,” said Streeper, a native of Canada who has been involved with dogsled racing for 25 years. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”


The National Weather Service doesn’t tally snow accumulations and moisture content for Frazee. But snowfalls in Fargo, 54 miles to the northwest, have totaled 39.3 inches since October, with 2.37 liquid inches.


That translates into a moisture content of 6 percent – snow is considered wet at around 30 percent to 35 percent. That dry, fluffy snow is just too deep.


Cancellation of the dog races is a blow to Frazee, population 1,374. Last year’s two-day event drew 2,000 to 3,000 spectators, and contestants come from as far as Alaska, five Canadian provinces and five or six states.


“This is the NASCAR of sled-dogging, the sprint ones,” said Gale Kaas, Frazee Sled Dog Club secretary.


“We’ll try again next year,” Streeper added. “We’ll see what the weather does to us.”

[dogmush]

Stupid Sprint Mushers.

Real mushers (By that I mean distance mushers)  can control the speed of the dog team and slow down for bad conditions.  None of this "Oh the drifts are to bad" stuff for us. Jeez.


(since this is the internet, the above is about half tongue-in-cheek)

[Standing Wolf]

“We can’t pack it,” race organizer Eddy Streeper said Monday. “We just can’t get it packed. We had to speak up on behalf of the dogs.”

Well, heck. Throw that Frankenthief into the snow and send Streeper to Washington.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Stupid Sprint Mushers.

Real mushers (By that I mean distance mushers)  can control the speed of the dog team and slow down for bad conditions.  None of this "Oh the drifts are to bad" stuff for us. Jeez.


(since this is the internet, the above is about half tongue-in-cheek)

its a diffrent sport, there for diffrent needs. no need to bad mouth the spriters.

must ask, are you an actually musher? as in have a team of dogs and a sled. or do you have a couple huskys and a cart with bike wheels?

[Tallpine]

Stupid Sprint Mushers.

Real mushers (By that I mean distance mushers)  can control the speed of the dog team and slow down for bad conditions.  None of this "Oh the drifts are to bad" stuff for us. Jeez.


(since this is the internet, the above is about half tongue-in-cheek)

Back when we were using a dog team for transportation, I sometimes had to get out in front and break trail for the dogs and the sled.

[dogmush]

its a diffrent sport, there for diffrent needs. no need to bad mouth the spriters.

must ask, are you an actually musher? as in have a team of dogs and a sled. or do you have a couple huskys and a cart with bike wheels?

Since everyone is so serious, let me quote myself:

the above is about half tongue-in-cheek

Should I add smilies?

As far as mushing, I unfortunatly had to give up the sport when I joined the army, but I had a team from 1989-1998.  I raced Juinior sprint races for most of those years in my local club, Arctic Winter Games as well as multiple runs of the Jr. Iditarod, The Knik 200, Kuskoquim 200, Copper Basin 300, Klondike 300, and one little 200 miler outside of Fairbanks that I'm blanking on the name of right now. I also worked a winter with Sourdough Outfitters out of Bettles as a Sled Dog Guide, so Yes I had a team Kennel License and all.  Thundering Hordes Kennels. 28 dogs at the most, averaged around 18.  (I mean seriously, My screen name is "dogmush"?  Of all the off the wall things to fake; Dogmushing?) 


As a junior musher there's not a lot of ditance races so I ran 3,5, and 7 dog sprint races.  There was (at least in Chugiak Dog Mushers) a friendly rivalry between the two disciplines.  Sprint Mushers called us slow and boring, and we said they couldn't handle anything but beautiful trail and gates up.  Heavy on the friendly part of the rivalry.  It's not actually two sports, just concentrating on two aspects of the same sport.  That friendly poking is what I was fondly remembering with my post.  I tried to be clear, in the teasing part.

FWIW, Yes I know that a 16-20 dog team, loping at ~20 MPH, attached to a 25lb sled and a needs nice smooth trail or he dogs can get hurt.  I was just poking fun.

Tallpine, yes, I've had to break trail on both foot and snowshoe before.  It's not fun, but it's doable.  Powder and drifts never really bothered me too much but I always hated getting caught in overflow.  That nice sinking sensation as the water sloshes overyour shins and soaks in.

On that note, I need to work harder on getting the heck out of FL.  I really miss snow and solitude.

I hope that smoothed everyones hackles down.

[BlueStarLizzard]

hackles wern't raised in the first place.

i grew up with two siberians and have loved the breed ever since. growing up the story of the race to nome was one of my favorites. i used to pull out moms old harnesses for the dogs and try to reinact it. 
its one of those sports that i would have been into if i lived someplace other then virginia. its on my list  of one day...

[dogmush]

hackles wern't raised in the first place.

It's on the outside of theoreticlly possible that I'm oversensitive too. :)  I miss my dog team.

In my experiance, nothing in the world is more soothing to ones soul then moutains, snow, about 12 dogs, and NOTHING ELSE for miles in any direction.

If you get a chance to try it, you'll be hooked.

[BlueStarLizzard]

It's on the outside of theoreticlly possible that I'm oversensitive too. :)  I miss my dog team.

In my experiance, nothing in the world is more soothing to ones soul then moutains, snow, about 12 dogs, and NOTHING ELSE for miles in any direction.

If you get a chance to try it, you'll be hooked.

thats what i'm scared of. 

at the very least i will get another siberian at some point. i can honestly say i've never met a siberian i didn't like.

[Tallpine]

Powder and drifts never really bothered me too much but I always hated getting caught in overflow.  That nice sinking sensation as the water sloshes overyour shins and soaks in.

We did that once on XC skis     Instantly transformed from gliding like an elf to dragging 50 lbs of ice on each ski.  We were only about a mile from home so we just shouldered the skis and walked home, and thawed out the skis by the woodstove.

In my experiance, nothing in the world is more soothing to ones soul then moutains, snow, about 12 dogs, and NOTHING ELSE for miles in any direction.

If you get a chance to try it, you'll be hooked.

I enjoyed our dog team, but I enjoy our horses more :)

[BlueStarLizzard]

I enjoyed our dog team, but I enjoy our horses more :)

but horses don't sing.