Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Mariusz Max Kolonko presents:
Discovering America.
When it begins
it's more popular here than the Super Bowl.
Just like in the football league, fans have their favorites,
and gallery of stars.
That's Iditarod
the world's greatest sled dog race,
finished only by over 600 adventurers for 35 years.
"Iditarod"
in Athabasca Indian language means: "a place far away".
Today, on Discovering America.
"A Place Far Away" producer: Yvette Williams.
Local terms are descriptive,
and come from the Indian language.
"Alaska" means a land which is no island.
In fact, it's the largest America's state.
20% of U.S. territory, looking mostly like this:
In summer temperature rises up to 30 degrees,
In winter, drops to -50.
In March, wind blows on the streets, among piles of snow reaching the rooftops.
The biggest town - Anchorage is less populated than Poland's Bialystok,
but still it makes half of Alaska's population, which is a bit more than 0,5 million people.
The tallest buildings have about dozen of floors,
which is accordant to the law and common sense.
the ground quakes here often.
These mountains keep growing with the highest America's peak Mt. McKinley.
In the mountains' shadow rest what's left after 7 on Richter scale.
People won't come back here.
Nearby you can hear death, and the sound it makes:
It's snow rubbing snow.
Falling into this water means death.
That's the "Water Of Return".
The name was given by the Capt. Cook's crew, who thought it was a river.
The ship turned around, as they didn't find a river,
thus the name "Water Of Return".
The water is not moved by the river's current, but the ocean's tide,
sometimes with 20 km/h speed, raising the water level by 10 meters.
But under the snow, there's a life:
when the winter ends,
belugas will come-the white whales.
I'm on my way to Wasilla, where the Huskies are waiting for me.
I'm going down one of America's most scenic drives.
Alaska has only 8 highways well maintained all summer,
so you can use them in winter.
Road signs serve as shooting targets.
Nobody like Feds here.
65% of Alaska is owned by the state.
These signs better be respected: avalanches killed many tourists taking pictures.
My top dog is the white giant over here.
Karen is preparing dogs for the team.
There will be 10 dogs' sled half of the standard number,
but still it's a powerful force.
How powerful, I'm about to find out.
- 18F below at my house this morning,
-What boots you got? -These are military boots,
good for very low temperatures
New York shoe looks poor in comparison.
Diane is one of the veterans of Iditarod.
- I started in '84, it took 12 days. and 15 hours to complete the race
- All this time I slept only 23 hours. Not to fall asleep is the most difficult.
-You feel so tired, everything hurts you just want to sleep.
The race goes nearly trough entire Alaska over 1800 km on sideways.
It will take over week or 2, to cover this distance,
depending on conditions.
Iditarod has historic roots:
22 January 1925, a telegram came from Alaska to Washington:
In a small town Nome, a diphtheria epidemic outbroke.
The one thing that could save the people was the huskies and mushers,
who moved to Nome the same way that the race goes today.
That's the dog which reached Nome as first, carrying the vaccines.
Its monument stands today in Central Park in New York.
Every race's participant has such an envelope in memory of those events.
And also now, as then, the race helps those in need.
This is Tim.
He's 14, and has only few months of life left.
Tim suffers from incurable nervous system disease.
Make a Wish Foundation paid for his participation
in occasional start in Iditarod.
Tim loves dogs. He had one but it couldn't pull him anymore.
Tim's parents came here from Colorado.
They believe, that nature will help Tim to at least forget about disease.
Now Diane with friends is preparing a sled for Tim.
-What kind of breed is that? -Any breed, that can run and pull
- That brown one has a lot of Greyhound the one here looks more like Husky,
- it depends on how tough they are
- Can they survive in low temperatures?
- Can you too?
Dogs know they'll run soon and it's an event of a day.
Big fuss starts, New York musher has no experience with dogs.
Huskies are very patience and help in putting harnesses on.
Each dog is a cog in a well oiled machine.
*** will be in a pair with Swing.
*** may be ready, but the camera is done.
Saliva froze on the objective instantly.
10 dogs' team passes by like a locomotive.
Only in slow motion you can see the details.
Huskies are in fact 2 breeds of Siberian Husky and Alaskan Malamute.
They can sense a danger like a weak lake's ice,
and lead the sled themselves.
Huskies are born to run,
when they slip their chain, they won't go back when called.
A single Malamute can pull a car, sled, even a truck.
After a while, they run steady, trotting.
They could run like this 30-50 km daily,
with the average speed of over 30 km/h.
Dogs are not the same -the best are worth $15,000 each.
Vern Holter is a race's veteran.
He participated 23 times in it.
-We're gonna take 10 dogs and have a 15 km warm-up.
- 90% of the route you'll spend here as a musher.
- This is a break to slow down the team,
- dogs will press ahead, no matter the weight on the sled.
- Sleds are traditionally hand-made by the Athabasca Indians.
- You'll give commands to the dogs:- go left-ho, go right-geee
- On the crossroads you say: straight.
- They run without a command,but to stop them you say: woe
- At the same time you press the break, and take an anchor.
- Only the anchor stuck into the snow can stop the team for good.
-Do dogs listen to those commands? -You hope they do.
First I need to visit changing room.
What works in NY, seems a toy here.
These are Mukluks, Eskimos and Athabascans wear these.
They are light and have leather soles.
Vern promotes also American Army's boots: these are the best for Alaska.
What's the difference between this and what's in your hands?
This suit protects your legs today it's -20.
You need several layers, no fashion rules apply,
clothes must be to large: free spaces will give me warming air.
2 layers on my head, and an "astronaut suit".
It's an Eskimo's jacket: no zip, it's not easy to put it on,
better to have someone to help.
That's not all,
I need 3 pairs of gloves second one for warming my wrists.
And finally: 10X size.
- What you're wearing now is what I wear during Iditarod.- my personal parka
A flashlight is a must, dogs love to run at night.
- Notebook allows for dog's health control
- Inspector wrote here: Team looks good",
and drew a smile, which means that team is really looking good
But that's not always the case.
At least few dogs dies on each race.
Half of teams won't reach the finish line.
It's all about the training.
- Keep your knees bent and I'll be balancing the sled.
- Let's take the dogs.
Each team has specific composition, like a hockey team.
Huskies are reliable, but difficult and often competitive.
They can't wait to run, one gives me a dog-friendship sing.
- Runners are replaceable and mostly plastic
- Different type of plastic is used for different kind of snow,
- Eskimos know about dozen of snow kinds.
- Race's rule no.1 is no help from the outside.
Each checkpoint controls the dogs.
- What does it mean when they are barking? -They're just telling you, they're happy and want to run.
When I pick up the anchor, the fuss ends.
I go trough Alaska now, and I must say it's not easy.
These dogs are the hardiest breed of huskies,
they can run pulling the sled all day, 70 - 100 km daily, 25 km/h.
For me, as a musher, it's not easy job,
as there are branches, twigs, trees,
I must stand with my knees bent, and control the dogs.
Doing this for 5,8,10 hours a day,
it's no picnic, believe me.
There's no time for more training.
Only one day left to the race.
Competitors will start from these streets tomorrow.
The snow is brought from the nearby mountains.
There's a lot of it this year.
It will take them about 3 hours to cover the streets.
That's the last restful night for 84 mushers and their teams,
who run in this year's marathon.
The race's participants are in town: all hotels are full.
Anchorage has its Super Bowl.
You may recognize competitors by the dog trailers.
There are 10 dogs at each side
Dogs, as the racehorses, get special treatment.
- We've been training since mid October t's our first race, we want to finish it.
Mushers are heroes of a day.
Start will be broadcasted live on TV.
Reporters are plugged in, local papers print the starting lists.
-Who's winning? -They're all are now, but we know the winner:
-Why?
- She's from our town - it's her 7th race, 5th in the row,
she's got a great team, she's no 35 in the paper.
Others, have their own types:
-What brings you here? -The race!
-I like the way you say: "race"
We have 83 competitors on the list.
From which countries?
- Mostly Alaska, also Canada, Colorado,