For a musher with a sled dog championship in his immediate past, Pete Kaiser’s outlook in Iditarod 2012 may seem modest: “however we place, that’s how we’ll place,” the Bethel musher says, adding that he wants to “try to get to Nome as fast we can safely get there.”
Kaiser was the champion of the inaugural Paul Johnson Memorial Norton Sound 450, a mid-distance sled dog race, held in February, that traversed the Norton Sound region and concluded in Nome.
In this year’s Iditarod, Kaiser seems pleased with his performance, although he notes that one “definitely can’t declare a winner right now.” “There’s plenty of teams out there that I think could do it,” he says.
At the Ruby checkpoint – where KNOM’s Laureli Kinneen caught up with him – Kaiser talked about the state of his dog team, his run/rest schedule, the quality of this year’s trail, and even the Northern lights.
Hear Pete Kaiser in Ruby:
