A team of huskies barreled down the trail, straining at their traces, pulling a driver hellbent for Nome. It was early in last year’s famed Iditarod sled dog race, and Dallas Seavey, the defending champion, rode upright behind his team of 14 dogs. They’d reached a treacherous stretch of Alaskan backcountry where the wind had scraped the earth bare in patches, and he felt his sled jerk uncertainly beneath him. Losing control here, Seavey knew, could spell ruin for a team early in the grueling race from Anchorage to Nome, a journey across nearly a thousand miles of rugged wilderness.
It was the 50th running of the contest, and stakes were high: Seavey was vying for an unprecedented sixth victory. Such a win could solidify his reputation as the greatest musher of all time. But as the sport’s most visible star, he had also become a lightning rod for critics of the dogsled industry, and it seemed he might never outrun their reproach.
Read Full Article »