Mikhail Telpin, 59, comes from a region of Chukotka in Russia with a team of hardy Chukchi sled dogs. “A marine mammal hunter by profession, I am on my second winter in Willow, Alaska, where I am part of Team Racing Beringia–a free online education program live at RacingBeringa.com our team has set out to explore and run the great races of the Beringia region with both Chukchi and Alaskan Husky dogs. Beringia is the ice-free steppe in Yukon, Alaska, and Chukotka where my ancestors and their sled dogs came across from Asia to North America during the last ice-age. Sled dogs are part of our ancient culture in Chukotka—the oldest remain of sled dogs, bones more than 8000 years old, have been found on our land in Alaska and across the Arctic region; actually, the celebrated Togo, who lead Seppala in the 1925 Serum Run to Nome was a Chukchi dog! Sled dogs have been my life. As a child on the tundra the dogs took us hunting and transported us; that is still the way for me today where I have about 20+ dogs with my family in the community of Yarankanot on the coast of the Bering Strait; we hunt seal and walrus with the dogs even travel across the tundra on steel runners when it is covered with grasses instead of sow during the summertime. I cannot imagine a life without my dogs. I race every year too—my first race was in 1994, the first time I raced in our national race Nadezhda-Hope in Chukotka, Nadezhda. This race brings us great pride as we travel from community to community sharing the traditions of dogsleds and traditional dancing.” Mikhail ran and finished the Yukon Quest, his first race in North America. He is married to Zoya and their three children are Ekaterina, 20, Petr, 18 and Anna, 6. He lists his hobbies as hunting and fishing.