My Yukon Quest by Annika
I’m 20 miles down river from Dawson. The river trail is hard and fast. It’s daylight and about -30 C. All of a sudden I hear a CRACK, and my dogs are swimming. I get my sled stopped and ice hook set, but I realize the front half of the team broke through an ice shelf, and water is rushing around the dogs.
I realize that the pull of the water on the swimming dogs is threatening to pull the rest of my team and sled into the water. I jump into chest-deep water and start lifting my dogs out onto what is left of the ice shelf. We get off the ice and light a fire. We started getting cold in about ten minutes. I hoped someone would see us and tell someone at the next checkpoint.
Finally we got out of there after about twelve hours. We got disqualified but we made it out alive.