Speaker Biographies
2008 International Sled Dog Symposium
Sponsored by the Alaska Dog Mushers Association, Fairbanks Junior Dog Mushers Association, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough Pioneer Park
In alphabetical order, these are some of the speakers who'll be presenting at our 2008 International sled Dog Symposium. Biographies are added as we receive them. For more information, email Amanda Byrd or call 907-458-0888.
Jeff Conn
Jeff came to Alaska in 1980 and got his first dog in 1983 to pull a small sled during family ski trips. This somehow evolved into competitive limited- and open-class sprint teams. Jeff is a biologist and has compiled the Open North American Sled Dog pedigrees since 1987. He won the ISDRA bronze medal in the 10-dog class in 2005, and the gold medal in 2007.
Mark Cooper
Mark Cooper has been building sleds since he was just a young boy. His father was a founder of North Star Sled Dog Club in Minnesota, as well as building sleds and racing back in the 1970's. Mark remembers varnishing piles of sticks…how times have changed! He inherited the business in 1993 when his father passed away. Although Mark and his family still make high-quality, traditional sleds, his current passion has become the high-tech racing sleds. With Mark's racing experience and continual pursuit of excellence, Cooper Sleds is becoming one of the top sleds in the market.
Bill Cotter
Bill began racing back in 1971 at the age of 25. Since then he has been in more than 150 dog sled races, including 18 Iditarods. He won the Yukon Quest in 1987. Bill has been in the top 10 of the Iditarod five times and placed as high as third, in 1995. He also has won humanitarian awards, including the highly prized Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award, and in 1995 received the Spirit of Alaska Award. Bill placed 14th in the 2008 Yukon Quest.
Curtis Erhart
Curtis, a noted fourth-generation Alaskan musher, comes from a long family tradition of running sled dogs and racing in Alaska. He has been involved in many aspects of racing since his first race at 7 years old. Having been deeply involved in running both sprint and distance racing, Curtis brings a wealth of experience and information for beginners and experienced mushers alike.
Hans Gatt
Hans Gatt grew up on a farm just outside of Innsbruck, Austria. He attended a dog sled race in 1984 which drew his passion for sports toward breeding, training and racing sled dogs. He also started sled building under the name "Gatt Sleds" in Austria, in partnership with his friend Ernst Danler. (Ernst still builds excellent sleds in Austria, under the name "Danler Sleds.") After winning all 8 races he entered in his first year of racing in Europe, Hans turned his attention to the world of dog sled racing in North America. His wins include the Open Class Sprint Racing European Championship 4 times, the IFSS World Championship, the Copper Basin 200, the Yukon Quest 3 times, and the Wyoming Stage Stop 4 times. Hans moved to northern Canada in 1989. In 2008, he began training and supplying international mushers to run the Yukon Quest and Iditarod.
Hans builds sleds for ultra-long-distance, mid-distance, sprint, and stage races. All models are built to similar specifications for durability, handling and speed: the durability to cover a thousand miles of rough trail and to steer through forests and jumble ice, as well as the stability and speed of a sprint sled. The different models benefit from the knowledge and technical expertise required to build each. Hans Gatt currently works and lives near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, with his girlfriend, Susie Rogan, and their 72 dogs.
Kelley Griffin
Kelley was raised in Alaska and began running pound dogs recreationally as soon as she graduated from high school and could move out on her own. Since her team was so slow, she trained them for weight-pulling and had many world champions. Kelley also homesteaded in the Alaska Range and freighted with her dogs and maintained a small trapline. In 1991, Kelley handled at a sprint kennel in Salcha and began gathering bloodlines for a team capable of running the Yukon Quest. A car accident in 1998 put her Yukon Quest plans back another few years. In 2002, she finally entered and finished the Quest for the first time. She has competed in the Quest each year since then, finishing as high as sixth in 2008. In the meantime, she also ran Iditarod in 2005 and in 2008, becoming the only woman (so far) to finish both races in the same year. Kelley maintains a kennel and other critters near Knik, Alaska.
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson has been working with Alaskan Malamutes for 25 years. He and his 22-dog team specialize in arctic expeditions and typically freight 3000 pounds of gear and supplies for exploration and scientific research during the winter months. Joe utilizes the modern equivalent of traditional camping and mushing gear used by pioneering arctic explorers. In the spring, Joe offers remote expeditions throughout arctic Alaska to adventurers and scientists from around the world. Joe shares his experiences with malamutes and arctic travel in Mushing Magazine. In addition to mushing, Joe has trained his dogs for various documentaries, television and films, including Walt Disney's "White Fang."
Dave Klumb
David Klumb has been building dog sleds in Fairbanks since 1980. He and his wife, Joanne, operate Laughing Husky Enterprises, building sleds and parts year-round when they're not mushing or boating. Known as the "Sled Doctor," Dave writes a regular feature in Mushing Magazine on sled-building techniques, maintenance and repair.
Tarika Lea
Tarika Lea, a 40-year veteran of massage, is a nationally certified massage therapist and founder of The School of Integrating Shiatsu Alaska. She teaches The Lea Method, which she describes as "the martial arts of massage techniques." Her specialties include designing and tailoring training programs in massage therapy and professional use of essential oils. Tarika has been drawn to canine massage throughout her career, prompting her to develop canine massage techniques that reflect the power behind her method. Tarika began teaching "Tails A Waggin" Dog Massage classes in Fairbanks in February 2008.
Sonny Lindner
Sonny Lindner, 59, was born in Michigan on Christmas Eve. He came to Alaska in 1970 and attended the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, where he graduated in 1972. He began mushing in the early 70s and became interested in the Iditarod in 1976 when he had friends having fun running the race. Sonny was the winner of the first Yukon Quest. He finished 4th in the All Alaska Sweepstakes this year. Sonny is a carpentry contractor in the Fairbanks area.
John Lunseth
John is a patent and trademark trial attorney by trade, a former actor, and describes himself as "not shy." He has been a bird hunter for over 50 years, everything from ruffed grouse in the woods to sharptails and huns on the prairie. He has even done some bird hunting on horseback on the Alberta prairies. He had his first pointing dog, a German Shorthair, in 1962, and has owned and/or trained German Shorthairs, German Wirehairs, Brittanies, Pointers, Setters, and several other breeds. His current dog sport of choice is pointing dog field trialing, in which the dogs run in one-hour championships and are handled from horseback. John is a member of the board of trustees of the National German Shorthaired Pointer Association, and is privileged to have bred and owns the 2007 NGSPA National Champion, Willows on the Spot ("Spot"). He is a frequent judge at field trials. In past years he was also a member of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, and can speak to the use, breeding, training and conditioning of all types of pointing breeds.
Lance Mackey
Lance is the first musher ever to win the Yukon Quest and Iditarod back-to-back, a feat thought by many to be impossible. Even more astonishing is that several of the dogs in his Iditarod team were part of his Yukon Quest team. Lance is also one of only two mushers to win the Yukon Quest three times in a row. A lifelong Alaskan, Lance is part of a well-known family of dog mushing champions; his father, Dick Mackey, won the Iditarod in 1978, and his oldest brother, Rick Mackey, won the 1983 Iditarod and the 1997 Yukon Quest. Lance has been racing since he was a junior musher and says that for his family, dog racing is a way of life. After the 2007 Yukon Quest, Frank Turner, a fellow Quest champion, wrote, "In all of the years of the Quest that I have participated in… there has never been another musher who has brought the level of enthusiasm and dog care that you consistently have brought into play. You are an inspiration to everyone who loves the sport of sled dogs."
Gar Morey
Gar is the originator of Outlaw Dog Sleds. He is a mechanical engineer, professional musher and sled builder, and has been involved in sled dog sports since 1972.
Jacques Philip
Jacques was born in France. He started running dogs in 1980 while he was a medical student in Paris. After graduating, and while working in the medical field for a few years, he ran his first Iditarod in 1985. He became a professional musher and gave up medicine in 1988 when stage racing started in Europe with the Alpirod. Since, he has been involved in every aspect of the sport, participating competitively in races ranging from skijoring, limited class sprint, open class sprint (ONAC, Fur Rondy), mid-distance, stage racing, long distance (Iditarod). He also took a dog team to the summit of Mount McKinley in 1992, and has worked as a tour guide for Alaska Icefield Expeditions on the glaciers above Juneau and Skagway.
Alyssa Quaile
Alyssa has been running dogs for about 7 years. She began her dog-mushing career at age 12, handling for a local Fairbanks sprint musher. A trip to Nome got her hooked on distance mushing, and she went on to compete in the Junior Iditarod and the Junior Yukon Quest. She has also run the Quest 300 and the Gin Gin 200. Alyssa lives in Fairbanks and is attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Joee Redington
Joee is part of a long-time mushing family and has been around sled dogs since he was five years old. Raised around Knik, Alaska, he has been running dogs since 1948, and completed his first race, the Junior Fur Rendezvous, in 1956. His first adult race was the Fur Rendezvous in 1962, and he competed in his first Open North American in 1963. Joee completed his first Iditarod in 1974 and placed 3rd in 1975. Joee moved to Manley, Alaska, in 1977, where he currently resides.
Brent Sass
Brent Sass, 28, was born in Minnesota. He moved to Alaska in 1998 to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks. After school, he made Alaska home and purchased land in Fairbanks. He started Brentwood Enterprises in 2003, a cabin construction and rental business located in Goldstream Valley outside Fairbanks. In 2004 Brent became interested in mushing and got his first sled dog from a neighbor. Later that year he went to work for Susan Butcher and David Monson and got his first experience with racing sled dogs. He started his own kennel, Wild and Free Mushing, in 2005 and has been raising and training his own dogs since then. In 2006 Brent won his first race, the Yukon Quest 300, and he has competed in many mid-distance races and two Yukon Quests, finishing 5th in 2008. In the summer months he maintains his rental cabin business and works at Trail Breaker Kennel giving sled dog presentations. In 2009 Brent plans to run his A team in the Yukon Quest and a set of young dogs in the Iditarod to start building a competitve team for future Iditarods.
Mitch Seavey
Mitch Seavey began mushing at age four, just months after the family's 1963 move to Alaska. His father, Dan Seavey Sr., helped found the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and ran it four times, including the first two in 1973 and 1974. Mitch's own racing career has been spectacular, including eight top-10 finishes of the Iditarod, which he won in 2004. He has also won the Klondike 300, Grand Portage 300, Kuskokwim 300 and Copper Basin 300. Dog mushing continues to be a family affair for the Seaveys, who divide their time between Seward and Sterling, Alaska. Mitch, his wife, Janine, and their three grown sons, Danny, Tyrell and Dallas, are assisted by Conway (11) in running a successful summer sled dog tour business. The three older sons have each run the Iditarod twice.
In 2008, Mitch achieved a stunning victory in the centennial rerunning of the historic All Alaska Sweepstakes, a winner-take-all, round-trip race between Nome and Candle. In the process, he smashed Iron Man Johnson's 1910 record finishing time—thought by some to be unbeatable—by thirteen hours.
Zorro
Zorro, the backbone of Lance Mackey's Comeback Kennel, is Mackey's oldest dog at 10 years old. Zorro has raced everything from 50-mile races to the 1000-mile Yukon Quest and Iditarod, and Mackey says Zorro is the reason for his kennel's success. During the All Alaska Sweepstakes this past March, Zorro was badly injured in an accident with a snowmachine. After being flown to Seattle for emergency treatment, Zorro is recovering well. He will be available for photos and autographs. Oh, and meet Lance, too!