Buser starts with a handicap

March 4, 2005

KATE GOLDEN /Frontiersman reporter

Veteran musher Martin Buser likes to finish training and preparations for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race a week ahead of schedule.

Wednesday, in the course of this year's race-week relaxation, he lopped off a finger.

"I should have just stayed away from the power tools," he said.

Buser wasn't working on his sleds or anything else Iditarod-related. He was woodworking. The table saw caught and chewed his ring finger, and completely mangled his middle finger.

He drove to Anchorage, where a hand specialist at Alaska Regional Hospital "had to finish what I started" on the middle finger, he said.

It's no big deal, he said.

"I've got the first joint even, still. It's only like two inches," he said.

For the race, he'll sandwich three fingers into a splint, leaving the index finger and thumb free to dress booties on dogs that have neither.

"Driving is no problem," he said. "I can drive with one hand if need be."

Since it's started to hurt, he may be on pain medication during the race.

"On a scale of one to 22, this will be the 22," he said of the pain on Wednesday.

Buser, who won the Iditarod in 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2002, was quick to warn his competition that it's no time for complacence. That trouble, for him, has a "golden lining."

"It always takes a major event to bring out the best in me ... You better watch out."