Racing Career
In 1913, Seppala inherited his first team of sled dogs by chance. Lindeberg, his friend and supervisor at Pioneer Mining Company, had brought the puppies from Siberia as a gift for the explorer Roald Amundsen, whom he hoped would use them for his upcoming expedition to the North Pole. Seppala was assigned to train the dogs. "I literally fell in love with them from the start", he recalled; "I could hardly wait for sledding snow to start their training". When Amundsen cancelled his trip a few weeks after the puppies arrived in Nome, Lindeberg gave them to Seppala.
Seppala made the decision to compete in his first race, the 1914 All Alaska Sweepstakes, at the last minute. Neither he nor his canine freight leader, Suggen, knew the dangerous trail. Therefore, when a blizzard suddenly descended on the area during the race, Seppala realized his young dogs had lost the trail and they were all at great risk of death due to the nearby drop-off to the Bering Sea. Indeed, when the whiteout conditions suddenly lifted, Seppala found he and his team were at the bottom of a hill, racing toward the cliffs along the sea. Thankfully, he succeeded in making an emergency stop 20 feet from the drop-off, saving all their lives. However, many of his dogs' paw pads were shredded and claws broken by the ice-crusted snow while they clawed their way back to the top of the hill. A few also suffered frostbite. Seppala felt he had abused the dogs' loyalty by putting them in danger of death and injury, and withdrew from the race in shame. He would nurse them back to health for most the remainder of that year; they would not be ready to train again until the fall.
Seppala's racing career took off the following year, at the 1915 All Alaska Sweepstakes. After a close competition between him and experienced musher Scotty Allan, Sappala overcame him once and for all on the fourth day of the race. He finished two hours ahead of Allan, winning the Sweepstakes. Photo: Winners of the Eighth All Alaska Sweepstakes from Alaska's Digital Archives He went on to win the race the following two years, as well, at which point the All Alaska Sweepstakes was suspended until 1983.
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