"A race like a chess game."

The toughest dog sled race in the world is once again before: When Iditarod race man and dog go to the limits of their power. Included is the Wuppertal Sebastian Schnülle - in the vastness of Canada and Alaska is the most successful German musher a star.

 

Sebastian Schnülle would be the first to cast a "Robinson Crusoe" movie. His long brown hair is confused in all directions, his beard was allowed to grow for years. Only the snow crystals and icicles, like climbing in his hair hanging to disturb the picture. So more of the role of John Thornton from Jack London's novel "Call of the Wild" - because Sebastian is Schnülle musher, a dog sled driver.

Throughout the year, trained Schnülle his total of 80 Alaskan huskies, to winter in the North American races to participate. As the Iditarod, the toughest sled dog race in the World: 1150 miles rush by the mushers icy and snowy landscape of Alaska, from Anchorage to Nome. Through dense jungle and abandoned goldmining settlements on barren plateaus and the ice of the Bering Sea. 1150 miles, where the men and few women on their own, and on 7 March want to be defeated again.

In the past year and crossed Schnülle his huskies on 12 March at 13:14 clock the finish line, as sensationell Tenth. He won the best placement, a German ever achieved. Almost ten days earlier stated: "Let's go." The long-drawn-out call is formally swallowed by the wind. But the 16 dog sled race Schnülles before going on? with twelve km / h, though, the team on the snow. On board are an ax, snowshoes, sleeping bag, a headlamp for night driving and cooking and food.

"Sleigh driver, cook and masseuse equally"

"Culinary is not a highlight," says Schnülle and laughs. Precooked pasta and pizza, all vacuum-packed, and lots of chocolate bars are on the menu, but takes Schnülle during the race about six kilograms from. Much more important are the things for his dogs: blankets and straw as a mattress, dog trainers, massage and foot care creams and feed en masse. "I'm sled driver, cook and masseuse alike," says Schnülle.

After about six hours' drive the dogs must be six hours to recover. Time for Schnülle to heat the food, the dogs and shoes to change the dogs shoulders and massage joints. "For me, remains a maximum of one hours sleep before we break up again. On the lack of sleep you have to be mentally set on the third day of physical intrusion." The secret of success lies in the strategy: "As a race is like a big chess game: Which dog is right for me, at what times I go and how do I go gentle? Because the hardest part comes at the end." He selects especially older and more experienced dogs.

"Gee!" The command allows the dogs unerringly to the right. There is an Indian village, one of 22 checkpoints. At 18 of them before the race Schnülle Proviant shoes and other dogs landfilled. From where he needs a total 1200th Change of clothes for himself, he is missing: "Meanwhile, I have on the line so much self-confidence that I shall not. After two days of smelling my dog and I always like."

Born and raised in Wuppertal in Ostfriesland, Schnülle worked up in the nineties as an industrial mechanic at Mercedes and studied in parallel environment. But his semester in Ontario and a first dogsled trip changed him. "My next few years, I took leave in the winter and went back into the cold." Back in Germany, he dropped his studies in the penultimate semesters and moved to the Yukon from. Since he raises sled and offers excursions for tourists.

"A kind of long-term meditation"

97 participants last year at the start of the Iditarod has gone. Along the route remained especially beginners, the so-called Rookies. Like Schnülle in his debut. 1999, he was the first time in the Yukon Quest, it is also a race of several thousand miles. "But I failed miserably," admits the 38-year-olds. Only five years later, he undertook the next start? and was Tenth. "Then I could not leave. It's like a virus. An addiction." What makes the attraction of these tough races to go? "For me, this is a kind of long meditation. You forget everything and live on only in the here and now, with your dogs."

ON TO ONLINE blogs

Hardest dog sled race in the world: family triumph at the finish line (14.03.2007)

In the pick-up through the Americas: From, the "Lucy" (05.12.2008)

Northwest Territories: Land of Extremes (16.07.2008)

Alaska: Whiskey on glaciers (27.02.2008)

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By clicking in the U.S.: How the new online entry form works (12.01.2009)

Yukon Quest and Iditarod in Alaska and Canada right big events. Schnülle is especially known because he was one of the few drivers in the year equal to two thousand mile race participates. Iditarod 2008 were for around 50,000 spectators at the starting line in Anchorage. The goal in Nome, there were still around 1000, although it only goes by plane. There are autograph sessions, and many of the participants have their own Mushing cards, similar to the American baseball cards. All sleds have a GPS in the process so that the fans on the Internet can pursue their favorites. These are mushers filmed from helicopters.