Methow musher trains for Triple Crown

CARLTON – When The Quad first profiled musher Christina Gibson in November 2017 the then 16-year-old was training to complete in Alaska’s Junior Iditarod for teenage racers and their dog teams. The Junior is the 150-mile version of the famous 1,000-mile Iditarod that runs from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.

Gibson completed the Junior after logging more than 1,000 training miles with her team that year. She finished in 11th place earning Red Lantern honors, the Sportsmanship Award and a $2,000 scholarship.

Now, two years later, Gibson who owns and operates Whiteout Racing Kennel, LLC, is still riding the runners and taking on three big races in January and February 2020 with her pack of 15 racing dogs. Gibson has signed up for the Rocky Mountain Triple Crown, a trio of 100-mile races in Oregon, Montana, and Idaho that occur from the last week of January through the first week of February.

Gibson and her team will be on the road for some three weeks to complete the back-to-back events beginning with the Eagle Cap Extreme in Joseph, Oregon, on Jan. 23, 2020, followed by the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge at McCall, Idaho, on Jan. 30, and concluding with the Race to the Sky in Lincoln, Mont., Feb. 7.

Gibson finished second in the 22-mile junior class at Eagle Cap in 2016 and sixth in the 100-mile version in 2017. She also finished first in the Junior Race to the Sky 100 in 2018.

As part of her team’s training to get ready for the three-race Rocky Mountain, Gibson will warm up at the West Yellowstone Rodeo Run on Dec. 13-15. Gibson won the four-dog junior race there in 2015 and fourth in the eight-dog version last year.

The Quad will follow Gibson’s quest for the Triple Crown championship. To read more about Gibson and her dog team, visit whiteoutracingkennel.com.