Dogsledding !

Looks like a lot of fun! I have a couple friends who are into dog sleding comps and it takes a huge amount of dedication. And the dogs are great. One of them runs with a big team made solely of rescues (husky or equivalent)!
 
Over a month later..... I'm from interior Alaska and for 20 years sled dogs was my only winter transportation. As off grid survival life I feel 'machines' are at there best the day they come off the assembly line, dog teams get better and better. The team rarely breaks down so I got out further more reliably getting firewood, picking up supplies. As dog teams relate to knives... One trip I had one of the dogs in the team fall through the ice and get hung-up underwater! Due to keeping a sheath knife handy I was able to grab it, get it out get, my hand underwater, and cut the harness of the dog that I could not see underwater. The harness was hung up on a tree root. Yanked the dog up out of the water. it was pretty bug-eyed, but coughed, got a breath. It must have been under water three minutes. I rolled the dog in the snow to help absorb the water in the fur and put the dog in the sled basket. We got to one of my trap- line cabins I had out every ten miles, and was able to get the wood stove going to warm up the dog. I was perhaps 200 miles from civilization, not to return for another 4 months. I became a custom knife maker after this, and more then one dog racer (one winner of the Iditarod) carry my knives on the race. As a note, many knives do not perform well in the super cold, get brittle, snap (at 30 below and colder) Getting internal stress out of the steel becomes critical - cryo treating helps.
 
I so envy you guys!! Dog sledding is WAY KOOL!!! Don't see much of that (if at all) here in western Penna...
John
 
image.jpeg image.jpeg
Over a month later..... I'm from interior Alaska and for 20 years sled dogs was my only winter transportation. As off grid survival life I feel 'machines' are at there best the day they come off the assembly line, dog teams get better and better. The team rarely breaks down so I got out further more reliably getting firewood, picking up supplies. As dog teams relate to knives... One trip I had one of the dogs in the team fall through the ice and get hung-up underwater! Due to keeping a sheath knife handy I was able to grab it, get it out get, my hand underwater, and cut the harness of the dog that I could not see underwater. The harness was hung up on a tree root. Yanked the dog up out of the water. it was pretty bug-eyed, but coughed, got a breath. It must have been under water three minutes. I rolled the dog in the snow to help absorb the water in the fur and put the dog in the sled basket. We got to one of my trap- line cabins I had out every ten miles, and was able to get the wood stove going to warm up the dog. I was perhaps 200 miles from civilization, not to return for another 4 months. I became a custom knife maker after this, and more then one dog racer (one winner of the Iditarod) carry my knives on the race. As a note, many knives do not perform well in the super cold, get brittle, snap (at 30 below and colder) Getting internal stress out of the steel becomes critical - cryo treating helps.

Looks like fun! Thought I would mention that Titanium knives do not get brittle when cold. This property is probably most useful in Alaska in Winter.
 
Back
Top