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, 23 hours, and 20 minutes. That same year Schnuelle finished second in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, joining the growing number of mushers who successfully raced the two major long-distance races back-to-back.
As the Armchair Musher, Schnuelle has followed the race from the beginning in Fairbanks, while also closely following the Yukon Quest 300 as Race Judge. Some excerpts from his earlier posts, this one from the 101 checkpoint: "Sonny Lindner is also running a strong race, getting into Central short before 1 p.m. Perfect time to shut down the team. How cool would that be, if Sonny would pull off a win, 30 years after the inaugural Yukon Quest which he won in 1984!!!"
From Central: "Many mushers have left and hanging out in the so called back of the pack has its own flair. There is a different feeling in the air. Not the exuberance of the front teams. People are talking about scratching, coming into the checkpoint very demoralized…shell shocked from their experience of going down Eagle Summit."
Also from Central, Schnuelle wrote about "…some cases of real heartbreak. Mushers and handlers walking around with tears in their eyes. Mike Ellis is sitting on next table, his arm in a sling, while his dogs are sitting in the dog truck. That for sure was not plan A. After putting a full year into training his team, while his wife Sue is holding the fort down at home and assisting in any way possible. Now…one little wipe out, and a whole dream is in pieces. But the lifestyle is still intact. People like Sue and Mike, live and breathe their dogs. Its not only the race which counts, they enjoy the lifestyle, the privilege of working with those beautiful dogs. The race is just the icing on the cake. Instead of dwelling on the mishap, Mike is already talking about taking his truck to Dawson, just to see friends, and still be part of this great event."
And from Circle: "About 20 km outside of Central, I realized that I had left my power cord for the laptop in the checkpoint. No choice but the drive back. Upon arrival at the checkpoint I walked back in and announced: 'I scratch.' That sure created a good laughter."
Also from Circle: "Day 4, Tuesday. Dawn is breaking over the Yukon River. We were treated to some spectacular northern lights displays last night, bands of green and purple dancing across the sky while volunteers and even mushers were sitting around the camp fire, discussing dogs, gods and the world. Its been a pleasant night here in Circle. We had reached out internet band width with the satellite system, thus no more updates. Not sure if you noted to intended pun above. Dog is God spelled backwards."
Schnuelle has proven to be a good photographer as well, and has kept the Yukon Quest Facebook page alive with great photos from the trail.
And as the front-running teams pulled out of Dawson City this morning, Schnuelle commented on the leaders, Allen Moore and Lance Mackey: "Lance. Well not much needs to be said about him. I sure would not want him 40 minutes behind me. A master of the game, he will try to pull any possible trick out of the hat to get to Whitehorse first. Knowing Lance though, he will always stay within the means of his dogteam.
"Allen Moore is doing fantastic. I would give his team the highest rating in appearance at the half way point. Very alert dogs, look they have just come off an easy training run. He is running much smaller dogs than many of his fellow competitors. Different harnesses too. Allen is also ultra physically fit himself. He will work very hard to stay where he is at. Simply, we are all going to see a heck of a race unfold into Whitehorse."
Well said. And we'll also continue to see one heck of a blogger keeping race fans informed, entertained, and cheering their favorite teams to the finish line!
Helen Hegener is an author and a documentary filmmaker specializing in distance sled dog races and the men, women and dogs who run them. This post originally appeared on her website, Northern Light Media. It has been republished with permission.