My name is Mille Porsild, I am sitting at the K300 Head Quarters in the midst of the incredible excitement unfolding on the trail. This is racing! My job is to make updates online at RacingBeringia.tumblr.com throughout the race, to get everyone fired up about what is ahead for our team:
I am here with my racers Mikhail Telpin of Chukotka, Russia and Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Mo I Rana, Norway -- right now Joar is in the 5-man chase group trying to catch Jeff King leading the race, while Mikhail is on the trail from Aniak where he rested his team of native Chukchi dogs as planned.
For both Mikhail and Joar this is a (very exciting) training race for the Iditarod start in a little more than one month from now -- when our education program goes live for the 2013 school year on February 25th at RacingBeringia.com
Mikhail, Joar and their specialized forces, the amazing sled dogs, are on the trail in our adventure learning program "Racing Beringia," exploring and sharing their experiences of the region of Beringia: As they travel across tundra, up rivers, on the sea ice and across mountain ranges and into remote native communities, they are racing indeed, but most importantly they are fueling excitement and curiosity of thousands of classrooms across the US and in 30+ countries around the world.
Beringia is the ancient Arctic region spanning from Chukotka (Russia) on the eastern side of the Bering Strait to Alaska (US) and the Yukon (Canada) on the western side of the Bering Strait. During the last ice age the water of the Bering Strait was frozen in glaciers and the water level was so low that the entire region was a huge grass steppe connecting the two continents of Asia and North America. Over time mammoth, sable tigers and eventually people following their prey, made way from what is now Chukotka to Alaska. In this way the people on each side of the continent, their way of life, language and culture is still connected today.
Sled dogs and dogsledding is an important part of this connection. The oldest remain of sled dogs, some +7000 years old, have been found in Chukotka and the Chukchi sled dog native to this region over time migrated to Alaska with people; Then in 1907 - 08 teams of Chukchi sled dogs were brought to Alaska from Chukotka to win the All Alaska Sweepstake Race in Nome (setting a record that still stands today!). These Chukchi dogs eventually became Seppala's dogs and with the Chukchi dogs he bred and raced Seppala (who came to Alaska from Norway) proceeded to win most of the racing titles in Alaska and became world famous in 1925 as a result of their heroic efforts to get the badly needed diphtheria serum to Nome. Yep, Balto was a Chukchi dog indeed!
In that way, Joar's team of small fast Alaskan Huskies that he brought with him from Norway is connected to Mikhail's sturdy Chukchi dogs -- just like the people, culture and nature is connected across the Beringia region, a connection that in turn is connecting learners online.
The online education program involves a natural and social science curriculum for teachers in classrooms and the programming is free to all participating classrooms. Whether you are inside our outside the classroom -- join the team today at RacingBeringia.com!
Racing Beringia is made possible though generous contributions from our sponsors and support by the Shared Beringian Heritage Program.
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