“Our first sled was made of a pair of skis and a milk crate that clipped neatly into the bindings. Then we borrowed a handle from one of my Dad’s carts. We had two dogs, a Border Collie and a Great Pyrenees that we harnessed up for our team.”  That’s the story Kristi and Anna Berington shared during their keynote presentation at the Midwest Musher Symposium and Teacher’s Conference. A couple of decades later, they’ve graduated to fancy sled bags and lightweight sleds made of aircraft aluminum pulled by 16 well trained Alaskan Huskies. Their dream started small and has grown to a way of life.

Berington Twins, Kristi and Anna in Nome after finishing hand in hand.

We had a neighbor who had sled dogs and ran sprint races. She asked us if we’d like to feed and help in the dog yard. That led to helping her train dogs and eventually we started racing. Those early days of racing in Wisconsin laid the foundation for finishing the Iditarod for both twins as well as the Yukon Quest for Kristi. 

The twins are avid athletes. The both participate in triathlons. Kristi is quick to say that Anna is better at Triathlons because she swims better. Kristi has done an Ultra Marathon. Running helps the twins not only training their canine athletes but also understanding their dogs as marathon athletes.

Kristi and Anna Berington speak at the Midwest Musher Symposium and Iditarod Teacher’s Conference.

Out of high School they joined the Army Reserve. During their first deployment they made gravel. After the Army Reserve, they decided to take advantage of the GI bill to go to school. Soon though, their desire to be outside brought them back to dogs. They turned to mushing publications for see who was looking for dog handlers. Before landing in Alaska, they worked as sled dog tour operators for a California Company in the winter.  Kristi went with the tour operator to Alaska to purchase more dogs and knew immediately that Alaska would be their next home.

Dean Osmar was the first musher the twins worked for. Later Kristi worked for Paul Gebhardt. They called it a great opportunity to work for different mushers then come back together to share what they’d learned. Currently Kristi and Anna work as handlers for Scott Janssen. Janssen has his own team and Kristi and Anna are building their team from Osmar, Gebhardt, Redington and Mats Pettersson bloodlines.

The Beringtons are religious about reusing and recycling. They are always looking for ways to put things to use that would otherwise be discarded. They use 50 gallon plastic barrels for doghouses. Upon taking booties off at a checkpoint, the booties are sent home to be washed then sorted for those that can be re-used. If a tug line breaks, they turn it into a neckline. They visit local restaurants and ask for empty #10 cans which the repurpose as dog dishes.

The twins talked about trust established between musher and canine athlete. They said, “Our dogs trust us. They trust that we’re not going to ask them to do something they are not capable of. When they think something is hard, they keep going because they trust us to not ask them to do something they aren’t capable of.”

Kristi and Anna have adopted a good piece of advise from Lance Mackey – put yourself in an uncomfortable situation but not a dangerous situation.

The deadline for race sign up is December 1^st. The Beringtons indicated they both plan to run the 2017 Iditarod.