Martin Buser (born March 29, 1958) is a champion of

sled dog racing Sled dog racing (sometimes termed dog sled racing) is a winter dog sport most popular in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland and some European countries. It involves the timed competition of teams of sled dogs ...

. Born in

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, Buser began

mushing Mushing is a sport or transport method powered by dogs. It includes carting, pulka, dog scootering, sled dog racing, skijoring, freighting, and weight pulling. More specifically, it implies the use of one or more dogs to pull a sled, most com ...

at age seventeen in

. In 1979, he moved to

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

to train and raise sled

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

s full-time. His training operation, Happy Trails Kennels, is located in

Big Lake, Alaska Big Lake ( Dena'ina: ''K'enaka Bena'')is a census-designated place (CDP) in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,833 at the 2020 census, up fr ...

. He entered his first

Iditarod The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod (), is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at leas ...

in 1980, and has run every race since 1986, his third Iditarod. Buser has won the event four times, in 1992, 1994, 1997, and 2002. On sixteen occasions, he has finished among the top ten finishers. He ran the fastest finish time on the previous route which was a longer race than it is now. In 2002, the race started in Wasilla. Now it starts in Willow, making the race about 80 miles shorter. In 2002, his team completed the 80 mile longer race in 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, and 2 seconds. He entered his first

Yukon Quest The Yukon Quest, formally the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race, is a sled dog race scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, Whitehorse, Yukon, switching directions ...

in 2009 and finished in fourth place, earning him "Rookie of the Year." As of 2017, he has the most consecutive race finishes, 31. He was one of the mushers featured in a documentary about the 2008 Iditarod; in that same race, Martin's son Rohn competed for the first time. His sense of humor and positive outlook have made him a fan favorite. In 2008, he comically caused quite a stir among fans worldwide when he accidentally gave his GPS unit to a pilot who was transporting dogs and equipment to and from a checkpoint, when the race was first introducing GPS tracking on the racers so fans could follow their paths live. Martin also has a happy-go-lucky way about him. It shows most clearly when he talks in highly exaggerated tone of voice to his dogs. Other top competitors in the Iditarod, like DeeDee Jonrowe and Aliy Zirkle have found this method to work well in communicating with their dogs.

Controversy

Buser has come under scrutiny for Kuskokwim 300 race violations two years running. Most recently, Buser was caught taking short cuts and accepting help in the care of his dogs in the 2016 Kuskokwim 300. While Buser denies intentionally straying from the course, he has been officially penalized by the Kusokwim 300 Race Committee causing him to place last.

References

1958 births Dog mushers from Alaska Living people People from Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska People from Winterthur Swiss dog mushers Swiss emigrants to the United States Iditarod champions Sportspeople from the canton of Zürich {{Switzerland-wintersport-bio-stub