Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

Paulsen and the dog team run off the edge of a near-vertical cliff and tumble down 500 feet to a frozen river—all part of the Iditarod trail. Paulsen manages to use his body as “a living sled drag, which kept the sled from running over the dogs” (176), but he says it was “all accidental” and he and the team were just lucky.

He thinks he has survived the worst of Rainy Pass and is feeling more confident, but a woman at the next checkpoint informs him that the up part of the pass is the easiest. He soon encounters the hellish down part.

Paulsen considers quitting after his attempt to navigate the treacherous Dalzell Gorge knocks him out cold. He awakens with a splitting headache. Another musher has come to his aid and is standing over him asking him if he can stand up.

The dogs inspire him to abandon his serious thoughts of quitting. He notices Cookie standing and “looking down the trail” (187): “It was their race as much as it was mine […] I didn’t have a right to quit” (187).