Iron Dog News Aklestad, Tyson plan full-throttle attack for Iron Dog title.

By BRIAN SINGLER Anchorage Daily News February 5, 2006 A year ago, a battered Tyson Johnson was unable to stand. Now, the young but veteran snowmachine racer is once again eyeing the winner's podium waiting near the Fairbanks finish of the Tesoro Iron Dog snowmobile race.

At the ripe old age of 26, Johnson is starting over with a new partner, a new machine and another chance to win the world's longest, wildest and toughest snowmobile race. The Iron Dog, which starts Feb. 12, roars across 1,851 miles of largely untracked wilderness from Big Lake north over the Alaska Range to Nome and then back along the Yukon and other Interior rivers to Fairbanks.

Having nearly lost everything on Jan. 8 of last year, Johnson considers himself lucky to once again be going up against the bitter cold, the bad trail and the 21 other teams of the Iron Dog. Even the worst of that is better than the 14 weeks he spent hobbling around last winter and spring, recovering from a snowmobile crash that nearly ended his career as a rider.

Going off a 50-foot double jump during a practice run while training for snow-cross races, Johnson misjudged the landing. Instead of hitting on the downward slope of the bump, his full weight and that of his machine struck the apex of the hill.

The impact was bone-crunching. It ate up the inches of travel in the suspension of his snowmachine and shot through the frame. Something had to give. It was Johnson's femur, the big bone in the thigh. It snapped in half. But that wasn't the worst of it.

Weeks of rain had left the surface of the training area coated in glare ice. When the still spinning track of the machine hit ice, it bucked. Johnson was thrown off as if from an ejection seat. He went one way; the machine the other.

As the rider neared impact with the ground 15 to 20 feet from where this had all started, he instinctively stuck out his hand to help absorb the impact. His wrist snapped.

"He was laid up for months," said Tyler Aklestad, 23, who will be Johnson's partner in this year's Iron Dog. "That's when we started talking about becoming partners -- when he was in casts."

All competitors are required to race as teams of two for safety. The rule has been key to the Iron Dog never having a fatality, though there have been some wrecks that have left racers seriously injured.

Crashes are a way of life in snowmobile racing, and no one knows that better than Johnson. He now races with a metal rod in his leg and pins in his wrist. Though he says he's ready to race again, he is still recovering from last year's accident.

He said he has regained about 80 percent of the flexibility in his legs, but his wrist is weak. He admitted that will be a concern over the bumpy trail that snakes through Alaska's Interior from Big Lake to Nome and on to Fairbanks.

Johnson said he can feel pain on nearly every bump, and for months after recovering from the accident rode cautiously -- a reversal for one of Alaska's more fearless racers. He even took his crutches along on some early rides.

"It took a little while to overcome that fear," said Johnson, a veteran of seven Iron Dogs who has finished as high as third and often been in contention to win until near the end of the race. Until last year, Johnson had competed in every Iron Dog since 1997.

He appeared an almost broken man limping around the Big Lake finish line last February when the Iron Dog went from Wasilla to Nome to Big Lake.

"It was pretty tough," Johnson said. "You want to be out there."

Ironically, the accident did bolster Johnson's image as a brash, young, hang-it-out there speedster. Both he and Aklestad have that reputation and are well aware of it.

"People expect us to make it a couple hundred miles and tear the crap out of our sled and we're done," Aklestad said. "We are a little smarter than that. We aren't going to beat our machines up the first day.

"We get a reputation (that) we win or break down. They think we ride too hard."

They're committed to trying to do something about that. Last year's disappointment is this year's motivation, Johnson said. What Johnson learned about crashing could help make one of the youngest teams in this year's race among the more competitive.

"There's no one who's faster," Johnson said. "There isn't a team that wants to win as much as we do."

Still, there's no denying the competition will be tough. Defending champions Marc McKenna of Anchorage and Nick Olstad of Wasilla are back, along with a legion of past Iron Dog winners.

Johnson and Aklestad think a lot might depend on whether their new Polaris Fusion 600s stay mechanically sound.

"We don't have as much experience as people who have been riding longer than we have been alive," Aklestad said. "(But) we want to be on the podium. Tyson's got the experience. The biggest obstacle is mechanical. Rider wise?

"We have that taken care of."

2006 TESORO IRON DOG TEAMS

1. Mark Carr and Lane Giesler, Kenai, Arctic Cat F6

2. Shane Barber and Kenny Kleewein, Willow, Polaris Fusion 600

3. Matthew Spernak and Mike Tope, Anchorage, Polaris Fusion 600

4. C.F. Baird, Big Lake, and Paul Sindorf, Palmer, Polaris Fusion 600

5. Tyson Johnson and Tyler Aklestad, Anchorage, Polaris Fusion 600

6. Lee Davis, Big Lake, and David Bang, Palmer, Polaris Fusion 600

7. Jeff Raymond, Fairbanks, and Jack Carson, Anchorage, Arctic Cat F6

8. Dan O'Conner, Healy, and Todd Malamute, Fairbanks, Polaris Fusion 600

9. Jack Klayum, Wasilla, and Jimmer Dick, Seward, Ski-Doo MXZX 600

10. Ken Lee and Tracey Brassard, Anchorage, Polaris Fusion 600

11. Unch Schuerch, Kiana, and Jade Greene, Kotzebue, Arctic Cat F6

12. Nick Olstad, Wasilla, and Marc McKenna, Anchorage, Arctic Cat F6, defending champions

13. Tommy Kriska and Kane Richardson, Fairbanks, Ski-Doo MXZX 600

14. Dusty VanMeter, Soldotna, and Korey Cronquist, Wasilla, AK Ski-Doo MXZX

15. Andy George, Wasilla, and Dwayne Drake, Fairbanks, Arctic Cat F6

16. Todd Minnick and John Faeo, Wasilla, Polaris Fusion 600

17. Scott Davis, Kenai, and Todd Palin, Wasilla, Arctic Cat F6

18. Mark Niver, Anchorage, and Ron Zugg, Palmer, Arctic Cat F6

19. Ken Colton and Dennis Martin, Anchorage, Ski-Doo MXZX 600

20. James Stelling, Chugiak, and Dane Ferguson, Anchorage, Ski-Doo MXZX 600

21. Eddie Stoltenberg, Palmer, and Mark Torkelson, Big Lake, Arctic Cat F6

22. Phil Kari, Wasilla, and Frank Harris, Big Lake, Polaris Pro X 600
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Apr 8 2004 ;Cops to keep tabs on high-altitude Easter party
CBC News Yukon snowmobile enthusiasts are being told to keep the party reasonable as they head to their annual gathering at the Haines Summit. And this year, police say they'll be out in force to ensure they do just that.

Snowmobilers have gathered at the summit between Haines and Haines Junction for years, enjoying a last-of-the-season party in the high-altitude snowfields on the border of the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park.

Despite the danger of avalanches, 400 snowmobilers from Yukon and Alaska are expected to gather and camp along the roadside at the summit over the Easter weekend. They'll be joined by dozens of skiers as well.

They'll also be joined by four RCMP and two B.C. park wardens, who say last year things got a little out of hand.

Last year the event was the scene of wild parties involving alcohol and impaired driving. An extreme snowmobiling film crew added to the frenzy, with snowmobilers jumping across the highway, and even pouring gasoline on the asphalt, setting it alight for extreme challenges.

Mark Daniels, the vice-president of the Klondike Snowmobile Association, says he regrets what happened. He says it makes clubs like the Klondike Snowmobile Association appear reckless and irresponsible."Even though we are in no way affiliated with the Easter weekend or the people that did that, snowmobiling as an industry, as a sport gets a bad reputation," he says.

Although KSA sledders say they were not part of last year's reckless behaviour, the group has primed its members heading to the pass on the do's and don'ts for the weekend.
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Anonymous writes "A group of regional Winter Sports organizations and businesses in Alaska and the Yukon are linking up into an Alaska-Yukon Winter Sports Association for the purposes of better coordinating and promoting regional Winter Sports activities and events. Two of the websites are at http://www.Haines-Alaska-e.com/WinterSports.html and http://www.Yukon-Alaska-e.com/WinterSports.html The long-established Chilkat Snowburners of Haines, one of the prime movers in the organizational effort, are sponsors of the 35th running of the Alcan 200 highway roadrace on January 17th 2004 north of Haines, http://www.Alcan200.org"
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