Ice Art Tribute to Susan Butcher

After the Kids Park is created, the ice artists carve several pieces to express the theme of this year's festival, such as an ice castle entrance, an ice phone booth, and an ice tribute in honor of a different person or group each year. This year the honored person was Susan Butcher. I am showing you only 1/4 of this gorgeous display. Susan and her sled are 3-D shapes out in front of the background mural. Ahead of Susan, you can't see her team of 14 huskies running up and down an undulating trail. There are mountains in background and the aurora borealis in the sky. Its beauty takes your breath away. I will try to send more pictures of this later.

World Ice Art Championships

We have had the incredible luck to be visiting here in Fairbanks during the preparation phases of the "Ice Alaska." This is a competition that brings the best ice sculpture artists from all over the world to Fairbanks. This great city has volunteers who come out of their cozy homes in below zero temperatures to provide food, lodging, tools, scaffolding, power, transportation, and whatever else they need, free of charge, to enable ice teams the freedom to create their exquisite artwork. I will be writing several posts about this event, since we will be visiting the show several times this week.

Back in February, local tradesman bring lots of heavy duty equipment to nearby McGrady's Lake to cut up the crystal clear blocks of lake ice. These blocks of ice not only supply the tons and tons of ice for the ice festival, but many blocks are saved under piles of sawdust to be preserved and shipped all over the world all year long! Fairbanks is world-renown for its pure crystal ice.

Ice carvers come to Fairbanks in February and set up shop to create their ice magic. They may work alone or with one partner to enter a piece in the Single Block contest. Then they will combine with other artists as a team (many times they don't all speak the same language to each other!) to submit an entry in the Multi-Block contest. However, before these two contests begin, they all work together to create a Kids Park. What a wonderland of ice fun! I wish I could bring all my third graders up here to see this. There is an ice putt-putt golf course, slides of all sizes, two kinds of mazes, ice vehicles, ice castles, a "hand slide", and so many more kinds of ice toys to play with. I have included two pictures of me going into and out of the larger ice maze. Amazing!

I did it. I really did it!

I drove a sled dog team!

On Tuesday, thanks to a gift from two of my sisters, Terry and I had the opportunity to have a one hour dog sled ride through PAWS for Adventure Mushing School near Fairbanks.

It was a beautifully sunny -8F day, with NO WIND! Yeah! We were provided some extra gear to what we were already wearing: insulated snow/wind pants, goggles, heavy mitts, and scarves to cover our faces. Heather, our mushing guide, hooked up ten huskies to the sled. All the other dogs in the dog yard started howling like crazy, when they knew some dogs were going to get to run and they weren't.

Terry got in the sled first, and then I dropped into the sled in front of him. Heather jumped onto the runners, released the snow hook, and the huskies took off! We traveled across a snowy farm field and then, traveled down narrow trails lined with gorgeous snow-covered black spruce on either side. We flew around corners tipping sideways only a little. The trail was quite bumpy in places, and I had to learn to loosen myself up to let my back and legs act as shock absorbers. I think every vertebrae in my back slid into a new location! It was surprisingly not uncomfortable. The cold air stung my face, and my goggles fogged up right away. I ended up taking my goggles and glasses off. The dogs moved along easily and silently. It was so cool to see them running happily in front of us. Our lead dogs were small black dogs called, "Rerun" and "Lucy." Our wheel dogs, the ones right in front of the sled, kept turning their heads back and looking at Heather. She praised them each by name all along the way.

About halfway, Heather stopped and asked if we wanted to try driving the sled. I told Terry, "You go first." He got on the back of the sled, Heather sat in front of me, and away we went. It was as easy as pie! What a blast!

Soon, it was my turn. I really kept wondering if I could do this. The dogs went so fast! What if I fell off. First problem, I could not get out of the sled. I had so many layers of clothes and padding that I could not bend at all! I had to roll out of the sled onto the snowy ground! How ridiculous. I finally stepped on the runners, and made Heather repeat all the directions she had just explained to Terry. I was getting worried. Could I really do this! Then I decided, what the heck, I had so much padding on, how could I possibly get hurt, if I fell off!

Second problem, I had one foot on one runner; seemed to be very secure. I had the other foot on the brake; seened to work OK. But then, I had to keep my feet in these places and somehow reach down to grab the snow hook about one foot away from the sled! I could not bend, remember - too much padding! Not to worry, Heather came to my rescue and reached around from inside the sled and was able to pull the snow hook loose.

Was I ready? Could I do this? Heather said I could keep my foot lightly on the brake as the dogs started to go to keep their speed down. Well, I did it. I lightened up on the brake, and the dogs took off! I hung on. I was really mushing! It was so much fun! We just cruised along as smoothly as can be. I kept the brake on lightly the whole way, however. Lester, one of those wheel dogs kept turning his head back and looking at me, as if to say, "Who is in the driver's place now?" I even had to go around a few turns in the trail, and I stayed on the sled! What an amazing experience. I am almost ready to sign up for Dog Mushing 101!

Toward the end of the trail, with Heather as driver, we headed back to the dog yard. The final leg of the trip was up a fairly steep hill. Those dogs dug their paws into the snow and pulled our heavy sled up the hill, no sweat. They seemed to really enjoy the challenge, but some of them turned around to look at Heather with a "Are we there yet?" look on their faces. Heather was calling out dog praises the whole way. I rolled out of the sled at the end of the trip, and just HAD to go up and give each dog a pat and a "Good job!" They were such great, happy dogs.

As we were mushing along, Heather told us that some of the dogs pulling our sled were retired dogs who were not competing in races anymore. They still love to run, so they are used for tourist sled dog rides and the mushing school. What a great time!

A Tough Race & Lance Mackey

We have been following the race in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (stories are available online) and on the iditarod.com and Cabela's websites. It has been a brutal race thus far, with disappointing scratches by Dee Dee Jonrowe and Doug Swingley. Lots of sled crashes, broken bones, and blizzards blowing away trail markers are causing concern for the safety of the dogs and mushers.

It is truly amazing that we keep seeing Lance Mackey right up front. This musher from Fairbanks won the 1000 mile Yukon Quest race only a few weeks ago! We also read that he is using many of the same dogs on the Iditarod. All of Fairbanks is following this race closely to see if he can win both races in one year - never done before. Lance's dad and brother both won the Iditarod on their 6th try. This is Lance's sixth try! Lance's dad and brother both wore bib number 13. Lance was able to chose bib number 13 this year!

Lance seems so much like our Texas cyclist, Lance Armstrong! Lance Mackey has battled throat cancer. He has to carry lots of extra water in his sled, since he needs it to help him swallow his food. We wish him the very best on the Iditarod this year.

Susan Butcher

There has been a tinge of sadness during this year's 35th Iditarod. March 3 was declared "Susan Butcher Day" in Alaska. Susan was the first woman to win the Iditarod four times (starting in 1986), and is known and loved for her dedication to caring for her dogs. In 1979, Butcher helped drive the first sled-dog team to the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley. She died this past August (2006) in her early fifties after fighting a battle with leukemia.

During the ceremonial start, the first team to leave the starting line is always dedicated as an honorary position. This year the sled was Susan's and was driven by David Monson, Susan Butcher's husband. Riding in the sled were their two young daughters, Tekla and Chisana.

Susan's photo is everywhere, even at the airports. The flight attendants passed out bookmarks dedicated to her memory. I asked them where I might get some extra bookmarks to give to my students, and to my surprise, they gave me a whole pack of them. A quotation appears on the front of the bookmark that reads, "I do not know the word "quit." Either I never did, or I have abolished it."