Questions and answers with Frank Sihler
As Frank, wife Claudia and assistant Jeff Deeter packed the large plastic bags with kibble and booties for the dogs and dehydrated meals and chocolate for Frank, the veteran musher explained how he prepares for the 1,100-mile, 10-day journey to Nome.
Q: Mushers start out with 16 huskies. Do you need that many?
A: "I like to have a smaller number of dogs," Frank says. "It gets me
faster into bed." If the number drops to 14 or 13, the power is about the
same as with a full team, but Frank doesn't have to spend as much time
caring for the dogs when he could be sleeping. Every dog has to be fed and
checked for wear and tear before anything else is done.
Q: Which dog will be your leader?
A: Several dogs will be the leaders. The "gee-haw leaders" are the ones
who obey right-left commands instantly, which is important for staying on
the right trail. Other dogs are good leaders on straight trail, and the
remaining dogs are better suited for running in the middle or back of the
gangline.
Frank expects these dogs to sharing time at the front of the team: Brevig,
Bud, Cannon, Charlie, Chinook, Clarence, Green Pea, Gunner, Mugsy, Skeeto,
Tears and Trigger.
Q: What kind of gear do you pack?
A: First, there's the gear mandated by the Iditarod rules: an ax, a
sleeping bag, snowshoes, a 2.5-gallon cooker (with adequate food and fuel) for the dogs, eight booties per dog per day (either on the dogs or in the sled), and a "vet book," in which the veterinarian at each checkpoint records notes about the dogs as the team progresses up the trail. Finally, the musher must carry promotional material, such
as a packet of letters. (Frank and Claudia have mail from the first two
Iditarods framed on their cabin wall.)
Also in the sled bag are snacks for the trail for both the musher and the
dogs and spare batteries for the headlamp.
Q: How much gear do you send ahead to the checkpoints?
A: A couple of weeks before the race, the mushers fill large plastic bags
with dogfood and gear to be flown out to checkpoints, to be opened as he
arrives. Frank put dry gear in one bag and frozen meat and fish in
another.
Here's what goes in a bag for each checkpoint:
• Booties for the dogs: 64 a day, or 4 for each of 16 dogs.
• Batteries: 4 to 8 D-cells.
• Latex gloves for applying ointment to the dogs' feet.
• Hand warmers and toe warmers; chemical packets that create heat when
exposed to air.
• Working gloves.
• Chocolate.
• Tissues.
• Freeze-dried food for the musher.
• Gallon bags of kibble for the dogs.
• Vitamins for the musher and the dogs.
• Socks. (Mushers change socks as often as possible because their feet sweat,
and damp feet get cold easily.)
• Fruit juice in foil bags.
Q: What can't mushers carry?
A: Among other things, they can't carry a GPS unit, a radio or a satellite
phone.
Q: What kind of meat do you feed the dogs?
A: The dogs eat up to 2 pounds a day of a mixture of ground fish, lamb,
beef, turkey and fats. The meat is frozen in slabs 4 inches thick and then
sliced up with a power saw before being packaged for the trail. In slices,
it thaws quickly in the cooker and is more easily chewed by the dogs.
Q: How much energy do the dogs burn?
A: The dogs eat up to 10,000 calories a day.
Q: How much energy does the musher burn?
A: The musher goes through 5,000 calories a day. Mushers supply much of
their own food, but villages and lodges along the way prepare meals for
the mushers too. Takotna (halfway through the race) provides very good meals.
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