Northern Light Media | Northern Light is Different…

Military Sled Dogs

When Joe Redington needed assistance relocating and marking the historic but long-forgotten Iditarod Trail...

Jujiro Wada

There are many strange and unusual stories in the annals of northern sled dog...

Sled Dog Mail in Alaska 1890′s to 1963

Delivering the mail to Alaska has always presented a formidable challenge to the U.S....

Appetite & Attitude

In 2008 Northern Light Media produced the documentary Appetite and Attitude: A Conversation with...

When Joe Redington needed assistance relocating and marking the historic but long-forgotten Iditarod Trail in 1972, in preparation for the epic race he’d envisioned and was working to make a reality, he turned to the U.S. Army and forged a cooperative venture in which the Army helped put in the trail while gaining valuable wintertime maneuvers for their troops. Redington’s history with the military had long been established: he’d spent many years doing contractural recovery work on military flights which had crashed in the remote reaches of the Alaskan back country. It must have been a bizarre sight when Joe and a team of huskies were going down the trail with a wing or the fuselage of an aircraft...
Read More »

2012 Yukon Quest Recap

By Helen Hegener

February 20, 2012

Commentary by Tim Looney, photos by Mark Gillett/Junglemoon Images After 9 days and nearly one thousand miles, the Yukon Quest is decided by mere seconds! In the closest finish in race history, Hugh Neff crossed the finish line 26 seconds ahead of Allen Moore, winning the 2012 Yukon Quest. It all began in Fairbanks, Alaska on Saturday, February 4th, as 23 teams started the nearly one thousand-mile trek from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon. The temperatures were below freezing and the sun was shining, making for a firm, fast trail. Allen Moore was the first musher out of the start, and led most of the second half of the race from Dawson to Whitehorse. The first major test, at Eagle...
Read More »

2012 YQ: Team Racing Beringia

By Helen Hegener

February 18, 2012

It is said that Beringia is where sled dogs and dog sledding originated. The oldest site of hunters with sled dogs in the high Arctic was found in Russia’s Beringia, the remains of the dogs and sleds dating back 7,800 to 8,000 years ago. In Alaska and Canada archeologists have found that sled dogs have been present there for 4,000 years—as long as the indigenous Arctic peoples. Today, Beringia is defined as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada’s British Columbia; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The name Beringia originates...
Read More »

2012 YQ: Moon Run Rookie Run

By Helen Hegener

February 16, 2012

Moon Run Kennels in Chugiak, Alaska, is the dream of Jim and Bonnie Foster, who moved to Alaska from Florida in 2003. Jim wrote on their web site for Moon Run Kennels, “In 2001, my wife and I decided we needed to move out of Florida. Bonnie’s dog obsession was in full swing by then so we included in our search places with active mushing communities. Turned out no place better to get involved with dog mushing than Alaska, and as luck would have it, this is where we found a job. On our move up to Alaska on the AlCan we stopped in at Frank Turner’s kennel, MukTuk. Bonnie had been communicating with him on the internet researching...
Read More »

2012 Yukon Quest: Nail-Biter of a Finish!

By Helen Hegener

February 14, 2012

2012 Yukon Quest: Nail-Biter of a Finish!

The 2012 Yukon Quest came to a nail-biting finish early Tuesday morning when race fans watched in awe as the clown prince of mushing, the inimitable Hugh Neff, came from 45 minutes behind to claim victory over longtime crowd favorite Allen Moore. After running close together for the second half of the race, Allen Moore was the first musher into last checkpoint, Braeburn, on Monday morning, arriving just before 8:30 am. Hugh Neff followed twelve minutes later and both teams rested for the final mandatory layover of eight hours. Neff suffered a half-hour penalty for lost mandatory gear when he misplaced his axe outside the Pelly Crossing checkpoint, and that penalty had him leaving the last checkpoint on the trail at...
Read More »

2012 YQ: Junglemoon Videos

By Helen Hegener

February 12, 2012

A new feature on the Yukon Quest Facebook page this year has been the regular appearance of riveting, dynamic video clips produced by Mark Gillett, of the United Kingdom, and his production company, Junglemoon Images. Gillett, on his website, describes himself as a “Photographer, Explorer, Adventurer and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society,” and writes that he has owned his own business in the UK for 18 years and “essentially always worked for myself since the age of 17. My professional career has been in coaching, expeditions, travel and photography.” On the About page of his site, Gillett shares, “I have always been driven by adventure, wanting to know what is out there? What’s next?” On his blog Mark Gillett wrote about...
Read More »

Yukon Quest Album

By Helen Hegener

December 17, 2011

Yukon Quest Album 1,000 miles across northern Alaska and the Yukon Territory The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race spans some of the harshest winter territory on the planet: 1,000 miles between Fairbanks, Alaska and the city of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Known as ‘The World’s Toughest Sled Dog Race,’ it’s an event like no other. Run every February, the race is phenomenally challenging, crossing four mountain ranges, including the dangerous and intimidating 3,685-foot Eagle Summit, as it loosely follows the course of the mighty Yukon River. First run in 1984, the Yukon Quest follows historic mail delivery and transportation routes between Fairbanks, Dawson City, and Whitehorse, the same routes followed by the stampeders in the 1890′s Klondike Gold Rush. The idea originated...
Read More »

Graveyard of Dreams

By Helen Hegener

December 17, 2011

Craig Medred has written about the Iditarod perhaps more than any other single writer, gathering numerous awards as he made the race come alive for his readers; in 1992 he was named one of the best sports writers in America for his Iditarod coverage. An Alaska Dispatch staff writer, Craig added to his considerable writing accomplishments with his first book about the Iditarod, Graveyard of Dreams: Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska’s Iditarod Trail. An excerpt: The “come back” theme resonates throughout these chapters: The come back from the brink, the come back from heartbreak, the come back time and again by those who should have quit. But one come back story bears telling first because it is...
Read More »

Ballad of the Northland

By Helen Hegener

December 16, 2011

Ballad of the Northland is an epic Alaskan tale, spinning the story of a legend, “The Boy,” who grows up on the Yentna River in the foothills of the Alaska Range, hunting, trapping, learning to drive a dogteam and learning to get by in a harsh world where survival is never taken for granted. There’s an enigmatic quality to the story, recurring images and feelings which hint at an overriding mystery: “The wind is howling and Mama is singing, Mama howling and the wind singing, I can’t tell one from the other now. Howling and singing.” The Boy learns about the Great Race, a grueling 1,000-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome, and his true story begins. He learns...
Read More »

Champion of Alaskan Huskies

By Helen Hegener

December 11, 2011

When an intrepid musher and his fast-moving team wins the premier sled dog race in the world — the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska — the trophy presented to honor their achievement is a 95-pound bronze sculpture depicting race founder Joe Redington, Sr. The artist was Bill Devine, a close friend of Redington’s who created many of the symbols associated with the great race, and he designed the trophy with Joe’s arm around his favorite lead dog, Feets, and with the burled arch — which signifies the end of the great race — standing behind him. It’s a fitting tribute to a visionary Alaskan legend, a homesteader, pilot, big-game guide, fisherman and miner; but...
Read More »

Races

2012 Yukon Quest Recap

2012 YQ: Team Racing Beringia

2012 YQ: Moon Run Rookie Run

2012 Yukon Quest: Nail-Biter of a Finish!

2012 YQ: Junglemoon Videos

2012 YQ: Armchair Musher Sab

One of the highlights of this year’s Yukon Quest has been Armchair Musher Sebastian Schnuelle’s frequent race updates and commentary on Facebook. Schnuelle, known to his legions of friends as simply ‘Sab,’ won the Sportsmanship and Veterinarian’s Choice Awards in 2007, and became the 2009 Yukon Quest champion with a finishing time of 9 days,...

Races

Welcome…

Team & Trail

Search this site

Archives

Quick Links

Books