A man from Sparks, Kris Kaltenbacher, participated in the Alaskan Iron Dog Race last month.
The Iron Dog is considered to be one of the world’s Longest, roughest Snowmobile Race and covers more than 2,500 miles as it traverses the Alaskan backcountry.
The course takes over a span of days as snowmobilers get ready for rapid speeds and temperatures that can reach 40 to 50 below zero degrees.
Over the course of the race, teams of three for the exhibition and two for the pro racers, have checkpoints around every 100 miles. To pass the checkpoints, all riders of a team must be present, and everyone must have all of their safety gear. If not, riders risk disqualification.
With the race taking over the span of a few days, riders stayed in wall tents, churches and hotels. Each team was required to take a 12-hour layover at a designated location.
The exhibition is half the distance of the pro race. However, once the exhibition is over at halfway, Kaltenbacher and the rest of the ambassadors plan on finishing the race to see where they stack up with the pros.
"It will be a friendly competition once we leave Nome," Kaltenbacher said. "I'm hoping that Mike and Roger are willing to go a little bit harder so that we at least have something to talk about. We don't want to come in dead last or anything like that."
With Kaltenbacher being an ambassador for Iron Dog, he also held presentations at the race. One of the presentations included spreading awareness on avalanche safety.
The other presentations were more personal and hit close to home for Kaltenbacher.
"Being from Alaska and from a small bush community, I'll be talking about how I stayed out of drugs and alcohol, and I lost my mother five years ago to a drunk driver and we'll be incorporating that into our safety presentations," Kaltenbacher said.
With Kaltenbacher being 50 years old, he said he's been waiting to partake in this competition for 30-40 years. He's hoping to get a shot with the pros in the coming years after he proves to them, and himself, that he can compete with the big guys after going through the whole course for the first time.
We spoke to Kaltenbacher now that he's home and he says, "The emotions, I think today is the first time it really hit me. I had a buddy that told me that emotions are going to be hard at the finish line. But, I think now to think that I've conquered and chased my goal and my dream, and to have finally finished it, just incredible."
He says the weather was the most challenging part of the race, but his team and local villagers helped him along the way to achieve his dream.
Kaltenbacher says he can't wait to go back next year to compete as a next level class racer.
