Chapter 1Outside of Fairbanks, Alaska
January 5
“Whoa.” With a shouted word, Dylan Norgard halted the sixteen-dog team. He cast an anxious look at the lowering sky. Definitely time to head back toward home. Before he yelled, “Come, ha,” to turn them around, he walked the length of sled and team, scanning each of the dogs with a practiced eye. He stopped to give each a scratch and a personal word. They all appeared fit and not overly stressed. Good. This had been only a fifty mile test run, but proved his contention. He and the team were ready.
The first of the critical quaifying mid-distance races would begin in three days, and gods willing, the storm would have passed to the east and south by then. A series of reliable finishes in the mid-distance races was necessary to establish posit
