Below are some photos I took last March at one of the sprint races in Fairbanks. These are just short races and quite different from the endurance runs like the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod. The sleds are different and the dogs are lighter than those that run the Quest.
One thing that is the same is the enthusiasm of the dogs to run. The photos below were taken at the starting gate and the noise the dogs made was incredible. 
They are extremely excited to be running and have to be held back at the start.
They love to run and their joy in taking off is readily apparent.
The Yukon Quest has been run since 1984. It gets its name from the Yukon River, the "highway of the north." The route traces the route the prospectors used to reach the Klondike during the 1898 Gold Rush and from there the route they followed in chasing the gold to Interior Alaska in the early 1900s. Dogsleds were the dominant means of winter transportation in those early years and everything that moved went by dogsled, but the dogsled was replaced by the snowmachine and the airplane in the 50s and 60s. Today racing and recreational use keeps this northern transportation tradition alive. Dogs have been used as pack and draft animals by the Native populations of the North for thousands of years. Most of the dogs that are used in races like the Quest are the Alaskan Huskies, which are a cross breed that has been bred for generations for their racing abilities.For more information check out the Official Yukon Quest Website. You can also check out photos from the trail on Flickr at the Yukon Quest's Photostream.
I hope to catch some of the Quest mushers as they come across the finish line in Fairbanks. Many of them finish during the night, but hopefully some will finish during the daytime and I will be able to get downtown to get some photos.
