Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 15/04) - Dog mushing has changed in the last 50 years. What was once a convenient form of transportation has evolved into a fast paced, cut-throat sport.

Dog teams were still common well into the second half of the 20th century. Traditional knowledge of dogs and dog mushing was easily passed on.

However, as the snowmobile gained popularity people began to lose interest in sled dogs for travelling. Most mushers these days are involved in racing.

Almost all the races in the North are short distance sprint races with very little in common to the mushing of the old days.

Huskies today are bred with other types of dogs and trained to run their fastest for a short distance. Mushers carry no supplies, and sleep inside every night.

This trend made it hard for Yellowknife musher Marcel Marin to find a good long-distance racing team. Marin recently placed 14th in the 1,600 km Yukon Quest dog sled race.

For a race like this, you need a tough group of dogs. It took Marin three years to assemble his team.

Most of the dogs, a mix of Alaskan and Siberian husky, were bred in Nunavut. Marin received some of his dogs from Rankin Inlet's John Tatty and others from Warren Palfrey of Yellowknife.

The experience took its toll on Marin, but his dogs handled it well, he said. When he crossed the finish line after 13 days of mushing, Marin had lost 22 pounds, but some of his dogs had gained weight.

The vet at the halfway point told Marin that his dogs looked better than any of the other teams.

The temperature during the race went below -50 C on some days. This caused teams from Europe and down south to drop out, but Marin and his dogs were raised in the harsh climate of the North and were used to dealing with the cold.

Marin began mushing as a child when he ran a trapline in the Eastern Arctic. He always dreamed of competing in the Quest. When he finally made it to the race, he was amazed to find out how much it tested a mushers survival skills.

"(The Yukon Quest) is the toughest race in the world," Marin said.

The trail is based on an old gold rush route from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Whitehorse. The race was designed to imitate the old days when mail, food, people and supplies all had to be transported by dog team.

With only 10 towns on the route, mushers must sometimes travel more than 300 km before reaching a proper shelter. Marin was forced to camp in the open most of the time. He didn't have a tent.

Unlike most sprint races where mushers will do anything to win, competitors in the Yukon Quest are happy to help each other reach the finish line.

Marin lost half a day when he helped an injured musher down Eagle Summit. The peak is 3,600 ft. high. He escorted the injured racer 80 miles to the nearest checkpoint and received the Challenge of the North Award for his good sportsmanship.