Racing time

Big Lake musher battles age, injury

February 7, 2006

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - After 22 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races, four championships and more than half a million dollars in winnings, Martin Buser says he's still &#8220clinging” to his prime - albeit with only nine and a half fingers.

Buser, now 47, lost a good chunk of his right middle finger in a table-saw accident just days before last year's race, one of the most physically painful of his career. Nearly a year later, though, he said the mangled digit is feeling good.

&#8220It is way better now than it was last year,” he said from his Big Lake home recently. &#8220My dexterity is coming back, and I can foresee this Iditarod will be a lot easier than the last one.”

But will it produce an elusive fifth championship?

With fewer than four weeks until Iditarod XXXIV, the veteran musher said the drive for five is motivation for a man closing in on 50.

&#8220We are trying to push back that ultracompetitive age,” he said. &#8220No one knows how old a guy can be and still win.”

Just four years ago, Buser won his fourth Iditarod with what is still the fastest time in race history - 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds. In 2005, the haggard former champ straggled into Nome in 13th place - respectable for most, but one of the lowest finishes of his Iditarod career.

In order to win again in 2006, Buser will have to fend off four former Iditarod champs - Jeff King, Doug Swingley, Mitch Seavey and the only five-time winner, Rick Swenson. He'll also need to factor in last year's fourth-place winner, Norwegian Bjornar Anderson. Anderson's uncle and fellow mushing partner Robert Sorlie won the race in 2003 and again last year with slower dogs that take much shorter rests than those on most other teams. Anderson will race with many of his uncle's championship canines this year.

Like an old dog that sticks to his best tricks, Buser doesn't subscribe to the Norwegian theory that using slower dogs with greater endurance is the way to go.

&#8220I know how the race can be done fast and I have the dogs to win,” he said. &#8220Just because I have not won in a couple years doesn't mean I should breed slower dogs.”

Buser is betting that a consistent strategy and good physical

conditioning should work well with his more than two decades of race experience.

&#8220My age has not caught up to me yet to slow me down,” he said. &#8220I'm still on the apex - I'm just clinging to it with every inch of my being.”

On March 3, Buser will go against 87 other mushers for the 1,049 mile journey to Nome. It's an annual event he can't imagine missing. &#8220As long as I don't find something to replace this, with the passion that I have, I will be racing,” he said. &#8220Most of my colleagues have had at least one year where they said they would never do it again. I'm one of the few that have never said never.”

In less than a month, when his team leaves the roaring cheers and megaphone announcements at the starting line, Buser will settle into another long, cold race, through some of Alaska's most desolate land.

&#8220I really look forward to having nothing but me and the dogs,” he said. &#8220No faxes, no phone calls, no meetings, nothing but a 100-percent focus on what we are doing.”

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.