Next To This Contest, Dog-Sledding Is A Breeze

How Tim Kelky '79 and a partner skied the Alaskan Iditarod in a first-of-its-kind race.

One usually uses dogsleds to do the 1,149-mile Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. But on February 28,1990, Tim Kelley '79, companion Bob Baker, and two opponents embarked on the Nome Odyssey, the first-ever race to complete the Iditarod trail under human power Tim and Bob on skis, their opponents on mountain bikes. Bad weathernot to mention the eruptions from nearby Mt. Redoubt—made for very poor trail conditions, and the bikers called it quits after two weeks. Tim and Bob, however, managed to slog across the snow, slush, ice, and volcanic ash in 23 days. They skied an average of 14 hours a day, camped in temperatures well below zero, and pulled 60-pound sleds laden with food and gear.

Along the way they occasionally stopped for an hour or two to accept the hospitality of Athabascan, Inupiaq, and Alaskan bush communities, and Tim says he was "constantly overwhelmed by the beauty and vastness of Alaska." He apparendy hasn't had enough. In April Tim plans to ski in the Coldfoot Classic, a dogsled race that traverses 450 miles of Alaska's Brooks range; and in February 1993 he plans to join up with Bob again to ski the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest.

When he is not "ski mushing," Tim lives in Anchorage, where he runs his own computer consulting firm and lives with his "wild Alaskan bush pilot" wife, Tamara Thiele (who undoubtedly knows of a quicker way to traverse Alaska).

Tim Kelley pushes on through volcanicash-dusted snow.