Yukon Quest is not for the weak as one musher showed

In the past I've spoken about my fascination with sled dog racing, which stems from twice spending weeks in the Yukon and Alaska wilderness covering the world's toughest sled dog race, the Yukon Quest, when I lived in Whitehorse.
At this time of year, my attention is drawn to the race, which I follow via the race's website and the Fairbanks daily newspaper's website.
As I kept track of the event this year, through the event's first week, I couldn't help but enjoy what I saw at the top of the list.
During my few years in the north, there were several mushers I got to know and got along with very well.
One of the mushers who I liked and got along with was a guy who lived about an hour outside of Whitehorse by the name of William Kleedehn.
The best way to describe Kleedehn is this: He is the toughest S.O.B. I've ever met in my life.
In an event where mushers can just go along for the ride, Kleedehn was forever pulling out his ski pole to push along and give his dogs a hand. He would get bounced around on jumbled ice, knocked off the sled and then get right back on. He was also strong - I once saw him on the rowing machine at the gym for an hour straight at full speed.
Oh, did I mention that when he was a teenager growing up in West Germany he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle and lost most of his left leg.
He is a top-level musher competing with just one leg and a prosthetic that, when I was covering him, was not state-of-the-art (it didn't bend at all).
I was delighted to watch the results from this year's race and see this tough, prankster had taken the lead around the halfway point and took a good two-hour lead with about 200 miles left in the 1,000 mile race.
Kleedehn has often been close to winning the event (finishing 10 minutes out of first in 2005). However, it seemed like he was snake bit and something would happen keeping him out of first.
On one occasion, he didn't even get close to winning when he was knocked of the sled and broke what little he has for a left leg.
Now, it looked like the bad luck was leaving him be.
Imagine my dismay Monday when I checked the standings only to see that Kleedehn was no longer in front. Instead, a couple of others had headed into the penultimate checkpoint and Kleedehn was still not in. I had hoped it was a mistake. But then, finally he arrived in fifth place, 5 1/2 hours back of first.
I couldn't figure it out until I came across a story online that explained what had happened. Lady Luck took a bite out of him again, this time in the form of a storm and horny dogs.
Firstly, he was stuck for some time at the foot of Eagle Summit, one of the most challenging mountains the teams have to go up and over in the race. So he had to wait awhile for daylight, allowing other teams to catch up.
And when he finally did try to go up, one of his female leaders had gone into heat and that meant the male dogs in his team had zero interest in running up a mountain.
After several attempts, he ultimately needed another musher to pull his team up and over the mountain.
As the race ended Tuesday, I was happy that another Whitehorse musher, Sebastian Schnuelle (whose hair extends out three feet from his head and face) had pulled off the upset win. But it was disappointing that Kleedehn eventually pulled into Fairbanks in sixth, 12 hours behind Schnuelle, when Kleedehn was so close to finally being top dog.
Well, at least this time he didn't break his leg.

Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.