One of the first rules a musher is taught is to never let go of their dog sled. The musher’s only connection to their dogs during a race is the sled. Gwinn, Mich. musher and 3-time Midnight Run participant Darlene Walch, she was lucky to have only been practicing when her dogs pulled the snow hook out from its anchored position and took off without her. One of her colleagues who was running the same trail spotted the runaway pack of dogs and was able to get them stopped and back to Walch.
“You want to hang on to your sled because you don’t want to lose your team, and most of your gear, including emergency gear, is in the sled,” Walch says. The dogsled is the silent workhorse of mushing, ever ready to take on the unforgiving trails wherever snow may be found.
Ft. Ann, N.Y., sled maker Shawn Lindendoll, of Lindendoll’s Happy Husky Kennel, says today’s dogsleds be made out of white ash, aircraft aluminum, carbon fiber, with some parts being made out of high-density polyethylene plastic (HDPE). The standard white ash sled can weigh 25-35 pounds, and the modern composite sleds weigh about a third less, depending on the size of the basket.
A basic white ash sled costs around $400, Lindendoll says, with aluminum sleds rounding the $2,000 mark, and carbon fiber costing upwards of $4,000. Lindendoll says besides being lighter, the modern sleds are more resilient. “The carbon fiber will take a pretty good impact sideways compared to white ash, and the aircraft aluminum will take a very good impact; it will more likely bend than break,” he says.
Many sleds used by recreational and racing mushers alike are basket sleds, Lindendoll says, which have the basket elevated about 6” off of the ground. Walch says the toboggan is better suited for uncut trails. “If you’re in really deep snow a toboggan would be better because it will float over the surface better,” she says.
Toboggans are more stable, but rigid and more difficult to turn. The toboggan sled’s bottom is only about 2” off of the snow, and without the handlebar and runners, it would look like a child’s sled.
The earliest archaeological evidence of sled equipment, such as harnesses, was found in Canada, and was dated between 1000 and 1600 AD. The sleds of this era were likely used to aid hunting and trapping. For this reason, the sleds were most likely toboggans, which were historically used for pulling heavier loads.
Walch owns basket four sleds, three wooden and one composite. The composite sled is a mix of carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum and weighs about 10 pounds less than the wooden sleds, she says.
All of the sleds provide the same flexible handling concept and are outfitted with plastic runners which make contact with the snow. “If you hang on to the handlebar even while the sled isn’t moving, you can flex it side to side, which helps you turn,” she says. “You can cut your runners into the snow as you flex your sled much like you would if you were skiing.” Although the handling concept is the same on all of the sleds, Walch says there is a noticeable difference in the way the composite sled performs. She says the result is that there is less friction and therefore more speed.
“The runners on the wooden sleds are flat so that the plastic runs on the ground for the entire length of the runner,” she says. “The runners on the composite sled are cambered; they’re more like cross-country skis.” Sarah Kimball, Gwinn coordinator for the Midnight Run, says the plastic runners are the most common part requiring replacement. “If [the sled is] running on a rough surface that can make little dents in the runners. The sled would then create more drag against the surface of the snow,” Kimball says.
Lindendoll says there are different types of plastic runners for different weather and track conditions, such as one that work better below freezing, or ones that are more resilient for rockier trails.
The runners can break if the sled passes over very rough terrain, and Lindendoll says they are most likely to break right behind the stanchion. The stanchions are vertical pieces which connect the runners to the handlebars and to the basket. This means that the runner would break directly in front of the musher’s feet and behind the stanchion that holds the handle bar; the worst possibly spot for it to break is also the mostly likely, Lindendoll says.
The braking system of sleds are all similar, with the bar brake as a standard on any modern sled. The bar brake rests above the snow in front of the musher’s feet. The musher needs only to step on the bar to engage the claws, which Kimball says can slow a sled abruptly if a musher applies more than a light tap. “When you hit the [bar] brake, that’s going to stop you very quickly,” she says. The bar brake is used primarily when a musher wants to bring the sled to a full stop, unless they don’t have a drag break installed.
The drag brake, also called a pad brake, is a rubber pad which attaches to the sled above the bar brake but can be released to rest between the runners where a musher stands. Kimball says the drag brake allows a more controlled deceleration. “[Mushers] can ride on that rubber which slows them down coming into a hill or a curve and that kind of slows them down gently,” Kimball says. The control gained lowers the likelihood of a sled tipping, which can injure the musher or cause damage to the sled.
The sled’s importance is often overlooked because it cannot voice how much punishment it has endured to get the musher to the finish, but without the sled, the recreation and sport of dog sledding could not exist.
