American Summit Rescue

HAns Gatt greets his team after checking in to Eagle

Extreme weather has shaken up the mushers of the Yukon Quest.  A blizzard stranded a champion, one musher executed a successful rescue for the second time in his mushing career and the back half of the pack has decided to remain in Dawson until weather conditions improve.

When 4-time Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt attempted to tackle American Summit in a blinding snow storm, he knew it would be bad, but he hadn’t expected it would be as bad as it was.

Heavy winds had drifted snow over the trail. Gatt says he and his dogs were up to their necks.

Exhausted and dehydrated, Gatt retreated with his team and crawled into his sleeping bag to weather the storm.  But he was soaked in sweat.  When he feared he was too hypothermic to continue, Gatt pressed the “Help” button on his Spot tracker.  What he didn’t know is that he had unknowingly pressed the “Reset” button instead.

Four hours after Gatt had hunkered down, a dog team appeared.  Musher Brent Sass credits what happened next entirely to his dogs.

Silver, his 70 pound, 7 year-old husky was leading the team.  Sass hooked Gatt’s team to the back of his sled and together the two teams headed for the 3,420 foot summit.

Despite this being a race, Sass says when he found Gatt freezing in his sleeping bag, all bets were off.

Brent Sass parks his team in the dog yard at Eagle

This is the second* time Brent Sass has rescued someone from hairy conditions.  In 2006, during the Yukon Quest 300, he picked up fellow musher who had lost his team on top of Eagle Summit.

Hans Gatt says if it weren’t for Sass and his dog team, he may not have made it through the day.

Sebastian Schnuelle checked in to Eagle shortly after the whole ordeal unfolded.  He says the camaraderie among mushers is what gets them through the grueling challenges of the Yukon Quest Trail.

Roughly five hours after arriving, tired and shaken, in Eagle, Gatt was back out with his team strapping booties on their feet and hooking them to their tug lines.  When he had first arrived, he wasn’t sure he would continue with the race. But Eagle is located in a remote corner of interior Alaska, which left him with little choice but to proceed.

Hans Gatt talks with Yukon Quest communications Writer, Claire Festel, inside the Eagle checkpoint

Teams will continue on to Circle after checking out of Eagle.  A number of mushers delayed their departures from Dawson as poor weather continues to impact trail conditions.  Race officials say teams at the back of the pack have decided to travel along the Yukon River together as a matter of safety.

listen at kuac.org.

[*editor's note:  this is the 4th successful rescue Brent Sass and his lead dog, Silver have attempted. His other rescues include that of Randy Chapelle during the Quest 300, as mentioned in the story.  But Sass also rescued Yuka Honda during the Yukon Quest in 2007, and he helped William Kleedehn over Eagle Summit in the 2010 Yukon Quest]

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