Step away from the Iditarod
I’ve always hated snowmobiles – at least, I have since encountering one racing all over a Seattle park after a heavy snow one day back around 1980. I know they have their uses, though, as long as the people using them aren’t mean bastards. But one snowmobiler is a very mean bastard.
One dog has been killed and multiple dogs have been injured by a snowmobiler in what appears to be an intentional attack on competitors in the Iditarod Race in Alaska.
Iditarod veteran Aliy Zirkle was the first to report an attack.
A snowmachiner had “repeatedly attempted to harm her and her team,” the Iditarod Trail Committee says, and one of Zirkle’s dogs had received a non-life-threatening injury.
Zirkle reported the attack when she arrived in Nulato, Alaska, in the wee hours of the morning, and race officials and law enforcement were notified.
Then Jeff King, a four-time Iditarod champion who was behind Zirkle, reported a similar encounter.
King’s team was hit by a snowmobiler, injuring several dogs and killing one — Nash, a 3-year-old male.
That’s a very mean bastard.
Zirkel went on with the race, leaving one dog behind. King said, “I’m not gonna let this schmuck take any more of the fun away.”
I’ve always considered snowmobiles a necessary evil to pull the groomer around to prepare a trail for dogsled races and cross-country skiing, to rescue stranded mushers, and to get spotters to their places on a sprint race trail. But as a “sport”? Never could understand it. When you ski and run dog teams, you move in silence and actually feel a part of nature. You see wildlife. Hear streams gurgling over stones. It is peace. Not so on a snowmobile.
We had someone over in Kitsap county a couple of years ago decide his pickup would work just as well as a snowmobile. He tore up the golf course with it, thinking it would be fun to go up the icy, snowy hill with his 4X.
Fortunately, he was caught, and no one was injured.
Well, there’s a class divide. Professional class goes hiking or cross-country skiing; working class goes 4-wheeling or snowmobiling. But I don’t think it is just a matter class identity; I think it follows from the work.
If you’re a professional, you spend your work week sitting on your duff, but doing work that is interesting and challenging and often empowering. When the weekend comes, you want something that exercises your body and quiets your mind.
If you’re blue collar, you spend your week doing labor that is physically demanding, yet boring, tedious, mind-numbing–and rarely empowering. When the weekend comes, you want something that does the work for you; something that is exciting; something that is empowering. Riding a powerful machine that you control fits the bill.
David Brooks mentioned that in ‘bobos in paradise’–middle class and working class people do the same leisure activities, but working class people do it with internal combustion. Thanks for insightfully explaining the reason why.
Though now I’m thinking about this more, and want to challenge your statement a bit. I wouldn’t think most middle class office-based work is that interesting–my current middle class job is pretty tedious and only challenging in a ‘how can I successfully pander to this person’s ego?’ way. I hate having to spend the day stuck in a bland, unpleasant, and surprisingly noisy (open plan office) environment, and in my spare time I want a little fresh air and some peace and quiet. And I’d also question the ’empowering’ aspect of most jobs, either middle class or working class, and point out that some working class jobs are pretty autonomous–I used to tell my architecture classes that your average plumber exercises more creativity in a day than your average architect.
Yeah Steven,
Blue collar work ain’t retail… mechanics, electricians, plumbers, welders, etc… are engaging in creative problem solving all the time. It’s called *skilled* labor for a reason.
The middle class meme that blue collar work is boring, drudgery needs to die in a fire…
I always figured the motor-powered-or-not sport thing was more a rural/urban thing. With the suburban swinging a bit either way. Mostly because there’s room to do it, room in the garage for the machines. You don’t see a lot of snow machines downtown. I was surprised to hear Ophelia saw onein a Seattle park (and that does sound incredibly obnoxious).. I know pretty well we _have_ a lot of of the things in Canada, but I just can’t picture someone bringing one into the city. Not sure if maybe there are bylaws? Or it’s just not done?
I figure it’s mostly socialization. I’m an urban beast, don’t think I could stand to be seen dead riding a snow machine for recreational purposes (or a jet ski at all), any more than I’d much want to go to a monster truck rally or a stock car race. Probably makes me some kinda snob, but look, I mix with mine, and _those_ people aren’t mine. Also, in my defence, I grew up rural, and I left for a reason. Probably would need desensitization therapy of some kind to be able to stand too _near_ a snow machine, now…
Funny thing about socialization: I’ve been pondering it a while that we even seem slightly tribal in choice of recreation at my work. It’s high tech, so there’s a mix, some rural, some urban, but it even seems to cluster a bit by what you’re doing, who else you’re working with. Hazy clusters of cyclists in this group, cross country skiers here, alpine and snowboarders in this, runners in that. Couple sales guys who hang together do have four wheelers and snow machines.
I’m honestly not sure if my outdoor recreational choices have much to do with my work. I mostly cycle and snowboard, but, honestly, cycling’s more practical for me, less recreation, and I’d snowboard all year if there were snow all year. I’d describe my work as actually reasonably interesting, if a bit mixed. There’s drudgery here and there, creativity here and there (oddly, I think it was Douglas Coupland who said people in my business (broadly: network gear; I’m more specifically in the cryptographic ends of network security) tend to see themselves as some kinda ‘Internet plumbers’, and maybe that’s about right; it’s partway to skilled trade, at least, in that regard), and sometimes desperate, caffeine-fuelled creativity driven by a looming, encroaching release date…
And about the other thing: I’m not sure I’ve the skill to write lucidly and entertainingly about why riding is fun, exactly; I figure it’s another social rule of thumb that if you really want to bore people, just talk to them about your hobbies. I’ll decline, I think. Or I’ll go just this far: it’s something about the speed, the need to react fast, coupled with the gracefulness of it, when you get it right, definitely. Dancing and half-flying at many kph, is as far as I’ll attempt, I guess. What this might have to do with what I do all day, I don’t even know. Strangely enough, just throwing it out there, writing about it, it almost seems to me in my case it might not be the one as the compensation for the other as they’re actually kinda similar things. You can’t get in a groove, there are hazards, there are stresses, but get it right, you feel like you’ve done something that pushed you a bit, scared you a bit, and, especially if you actually got it right (but really either way, so long as you didn’t break anything too irreversibly) that feels good.
… erm, should be ‘_can_ get in a groove’.
(In my defense, I’ve a release date coming up.)
Snowmobiles are a migraine. People who live near what are bike paths in the summer spend all winter enduring the noise from an endless number of snowmobiles that use these paths as trails in the winter. Many of these trails are former railways that crisscross the rural landscape. Most are meant to be shared with cross country skiers, but the speed and the noise and the acrid exhaust of snowmobiles makes sharing these paths all but impossible.
In winter the Canadian the countryside has traditionally been very tranquil. As a child, I used to snowshoe with my dad and back then all you could hear were the birds and the breeze. Were I to do so much on a snowmobile path these days, I’d end up as roadkill
What Blood Knight said @ 6 – I was thinking the same thing. Factory work can be repetitive and mind-numbing, but that doesn’t mean all blue collar work is. Construction certainly isn’t.
AJ @ 7 – Oh I was amazed too, absolutely – and it was only that one time.
Apart from anything else, Seattle is a ridiculous place to have a snowmobile: we hardly ever get any snow to speak of.
I was thinking of Alaska and maybe other very rural isolated places (Montana and the like) where roads and cars aren’t pervasive when I said I realize they have their uses. It’s easy for me to think they’re pointless, I live a block from a bus stop. Must correct for Urban Privilege.
well, in my old neighbourhood, the people who were using snowmobiles were middle class assholes, and the people skiing and snowshoeing were middle class not assholes. Further north there are practical uses for the beasts, and I know a couple of people that go trailing and are respectful of the environment, but I’m not a fan of the things
And a lot of people actively choose it because they WANT to do that kind of work. I teach at a community college, and we teach people these skills every day of the week. They come there by choice because they do not want to do white collar work.
I once had a professor who made the comment that “no one actually wants to be a farmer”. Say what? I come from a long line of people who were farmers, and wanted to be farmers, and were proud to be farmers.
My experience is that the use of engine-powered recreational vehicles comes more from a love affair with motors and vehicles than from any desire to sit down. The sense of power is very attractive to people who are hooked on motors, and they can’t get that sense hiking.
I also spend my work week on my feet (yes, please, let’s all pretend that professional people never ever stand up, right?) I spend up to 25 to 30 hours on my feet. I still prefer to go hiking on the weekend to sitting in a moving vehicle. Simplistic answers rarely work.
It _is_ consolation there’s been an arrest. And very cool the mushers kept on.
It’s like the guy thought he was auditioning for some moustache-twirling movie villain part or something. Killing dogs? Seriously? What the hell is _wrong_ with you?