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James Mason | all galleries >> Galleries >> Mushing > Sprint racing on the frozen Chukchi Sea
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Apr '02 James Mason

Sprint racing on the frozen Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea, Kotzebue, Alaska

John Goodwin gets aero behind his team as they head in to the finish in the NW Alaska Sprint Mushing Championships, April 2002. This was a 25 mile race on the frozen sea ice, which is covered with snow. The dogs eat modern dry dog food as well as traditional Inupiaq foods such as chum salmon and seal.


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Eric Herbelin11-Mar-2010 15:43
superb! V
McGarva09-Mar-2010 20:48
Wow wow wow! ... this is awesome action capturing a wonderful moment ... sport at its best ... V
Pedro Libório09-Mar-2010 18:33
absolutly fantastic.
goelsamuel09-Mar-2010 18:22
Superb action shot!
Goel V!
Milan Vogrin08-Feb-2008 20:16
Nice action shot!
Steve Morris08-Feb-2008 20:09
Nothing short of spectacular!! V
Barry Rosenberg08-Feb-2008 10:54
Too fantastic for me to say anything but... WOW!!!
Guest 07-Dec-2007 07:09
I love the speed and power captured!
Guest 18-Apr-2004 09:18
An excellent shot.
MARCOS 05-Jan-2004 20:56
Mr. Mason:

I see your shot in my browser, and for me it's fantastic.
I agree too, that dogs are born for running.

Take care

Marcos
James Mason04-Sep-2003 00:54
I wouldn't agree that the photo has everything, but it is pretty good. It ran on the AP national wire and then the world wire. It got good play around the world. It also won some sort of Alaska state journalism award...I don't pay much attention to that stuff. What I like about the photo is it shows how much the dogs love to race. Mushing is a great sport. The detractors who say it is cruel to dogs need to witness the sport in person. What's cruel to dogs is keeping them locked up in cages or apartments...a dog is a wolf, more or less, and running as a pack across the frozen tundra is what they were born to do.

The first winter I was here I was really dissatisfied with my mushing photos, but couldn't figure out what was wrong. I was at the finish line of a race and overheard one musher who had just returned from a big race in Anchorage talking to his buddy. He said "the weirdest thing is how all the photographers lie down on their bellies at the start. It looks so funny going by them." A light bulb went on in my head. I flopped down flat on the snow and this shot was of the very next finisher!

James Mason
Kotzebue, Alaska
Guest 01-Sep-2003 12:32
I agree! This photo has everything. Casey
Jorge Elguera08-Apr-2003 21:14
wow, awesome pics!! This one is award material, believe me.