Monthly Archives: September 2025

20 — Remy Coste, a French musher living in 
Salcha, Alaska. Formerly a baker in France and awarded Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2000, Rémy recalls: “Recognized as one of the best bakers in France, I asked myself: so what’s next?” The answer came quickly: mushing. He first worked with Malamutes before racing Euro hounds in 2012. Together with… Read more »

19 — JR Anderson from Buyck, Minnesota. JR is a native of Minnesota who has dedicated over 20 years to the sport of endurance canines. He and wife, Anna ‘Chapman’ Anderson, own the River Rock Kennel in Buyck, Minnesota. When not racing dogs, JR can be found playing with his daughter Sara and son Eli. Through… Read more »

18 — Tim Thiessen from Leadville, Colorado. Tim has been participating in Stage Stop since 2019. His passion for dog sledding began in 2003 when he began work with a Breckenridge, Colorado sled dog tour company. He soon began competing in the local Colorado race circuit with his own team. Tim and his partner, Natalie,… Read more »

17 — Mitchell Jackobson from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada. Mitchell is from Tuktoyaktuk, a small community on the Arctic Ocean north of the Arctic Circle. He’s been racing dogs for 7 years. Until 2018, he was a Junior ‘A” hockey player in Ontario. Then he discovered mushing dogs, which he loved. He now has his… Read more »

16 — Nicole Lombardi from Lincoln, Montana. Nicole got her first sled dog when she was looking for a canine running partner. The rest of the story unfolded about the way you would anticipate: a) anthropomorphic feelings that your dog is lonely, b) the acquisition of a second dog, c) the realization that your dogs… Read more »

15 — Tristan Rivest from Saint-Zénon, Québec, Canada. Tristan describes himself as a biologist and professional hunting guide who’s always been a musher. He participated in his first race when he was four years old, and two years later ran 15 miles with five dogs. “I fell into the ‘pot’ when I was young,” he… Read more »

14 — Stéphane Roy from Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick, Canada.   

Born and raised in Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, Stéphane started dog sledding at the age of five with his dalmatian, and it quickly became a daily activity. In the last four years, he’s competed in the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Race, La Chic-Chocs 40 (first place in 2024), Defi Lotbiniere… Read more »

13 — Bruce Magnusson from Newberry, Michigan. Bruce has run the Stage Stop Race more times than any other competitor in our 31-year history. The first time he got on a sled was a race in 2002 and placed second. His dad took first. Bruce was hooked! Now in his 24th year of mushing, he lives… Read more »

12 — Dave Hochman from St. Malo, Manitoba, Canada. In 1979, Dave saw his first sled dog races at the Festival Du Voyager in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and convinced his mom to let him get three dogs. And that’s how Dave’s dog mushing career began. During the summer months, he works as a provincial park maintenance… Read more »

11 —Anny Malo from St-Zénon, Quebec, Canada. Anny started racing sled dogs in 1996 after meeting her husband, Marco. In 1999, they received some precious teaching from Joe and Pam Redington. Afterwards, they raced western Canadian mid-distance events with mass starts and met so many good mushers. Racing became a family affair, taking their two… Read more »

10 — Alix Crittenden from Bondurant, Wyoming. A flower farmer in the summer and a dog musher in the winter, Alix began mushing in 2009 when she was a tour guide for Jackson Hole Iditarod Sled Dog Tours. It didn’t take long for her to get addicted, and now in addition to managing the kennel,… Read more »

9 — Dennis LaBoda from Hovland, Minnesota. Sled dogs were a neighborhood activity when Dennis was growing up in Minnesota. His older brother, Dale, started mushing as a teenager and raced the IPSSSDR in the early years. Following his brother’s “footsteps in the snow,” Dennis started mushing as a teenager, and in 1973 won the… Read more »

8 — Sean Hildreth from Bend, Oregon. Sean began mushing in 2018 with Alpine Adventure Dog Sledding, Austin Forney’s kennel in Leadville, Colorado. “The first day of training, I fell in love with the dogs and the musher life,” he says. In 2022, Sean began working with dogs for Rachael and Jerry Scdoris at the… Read more »

7 —Leonie Tetzner from Burg, Germany. Fifteen-year-old Leonie was born into the sport, following her dad’s footsteps, and in Europe she’s a bit of media star, featured on radio, television, and in sports magazines. She was a handler for her dad in 2023 and 2024. Last year was her first time racing the Stage Stop…. Read more »

6 — Liam Conner from Makwa, Loon Lake, Saskatchewan. Liam has been racing sled dogs since he was three years old and has always loved the sport. Like his dad, he grew up racing the Ma Mow We Tak sprint circuit in Northern Canada and is proud to represent Saskatchewan. He’s an athlete who loves… Read more »

5 — Michael Bestgen from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Michael has worked for Miller Chevrolet in Rogers, Minnesota, for 40 years. He’s married to Vicki and has four grown children and ten grandkids. He’s raced dogs for 27 years. “I start training in September, when the temperature gets under 50 degrees,” he says. “I use a… Read more »

4— Michael Tetzner from Burg, Germany. Michael, a pet food company owner, writes that his home base is a 60-dog kennel farm in Burg, Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. He began mushing with Siberian Huskies in 1987 after watching a sled dog race. In 2000, he began to travel overseas to race, flying 32 dogs (imagine that!)… Read more »

3 — Sarah Tarlton from Mountain, Wisconsin.  Sarah started racing in 2019, only four years after she began handling dogs. She and her “partner in crime”, Ryan Beaber, his daughters, and their dogs live in northern Wisconsin. She’s completed the Cross Lake, CopperDog 150, The Pas, Tahquamenon Country and Northern Pines races. The Stage Stop… Read more »

2 — Chris Adkins from Sand Coulee, Montana. Chris grew up running dogs, and competed in his first distance race, the Race to the Sky 500, when he was 21. He entered the Stage Stop in 2010 as training for the Iditarod and fell in love with the trails of Wyoming. Chris has retired from… Read more »

1 — Austin Forney from Leadville, Colorado. The 2026 race will mark Austin’s 11th consecutive year competing at the Stage Stop. He comes from a line of cattle ranchers who’ve lived in the Sandhills of western Nebraska for five generations. In 2006, Austin switched from cattle and horses to sled dogs and has been chasing… Read more »