Curt Perano, 44, was born in New Zealand and raised in Singapore, Europe, the United States and New Zealand. He began running dogs in 2000 and in 2007 moved to Minnesota to handle and work for Jamie Nelson. He and his wife handled for Jamie Nelson for three and a half years. After leaving Minnesota in 2011, they moved to Atlin, BC, and trained there for a year. In 2012, they staged their team out of Willow, AK, and then moved back to New Zealand, using their retired race dogs. “We have been able to turn our dogs into a full-time lifestyle running our tour business in new Zealand and racing in North America in the off season. After eight years of running dogs in North America and five 1000 mile races including the Iditarod and Yukon Quest back to back in 2014, we took last season off to rebuild our ageing team. We now look forward to getting back out on the trail with a mixture of our veterans and some new dogs we have bred and acquired.” Fleur and Curt are the parents of Wyatt, age 4. Curt enjoys skiing, diving and the outdoors.