Gerry Willomitzer, 48, was born and raised in Bavaria, Germany. He said, “I left Germany in 1996 to look for greener pastures , which turned out to be white most of the time.” He has been a log building contractor for the last 12 years. He began mushing in 1996 and says meeting Rick Swenson and Susan Butcher in Wyoming in 1997 is what started him thinking about running the Iditarod. Gerry says, “After a few year’s absence from Iditarod, it’s time to come back. I’ve raised a completely new generation of dogs and have been ‘mildly’ racing them the last few years. After a decade or so in distance racing we tried something new and raced at the Wyoming State Stop in 2016, where speeds are a bit higher and nights are spent in warm beds. Not a bad experience at all! Now it’s time to travel longer again for these dogs, and I’d like to think of the 2018 Iditarod as my rookie run, with the advantage of having seen it a few times before. The dogs are certainly rookies. For myself, I hope to have advanced a bit from my rookie year in 2007, so it may just be a good experience if I can be patient and give the dogs room to grow.” Gerry and his wife, Darcy Olesen are parents on Leo, age 3. Gerry says he enjoys “logs and dogs (& old cars)!”