Hello Kiana1,
After an extensive search of the web and various Alaska newspaper
archives, this is all I have been able to locate regarding Susan
Buthcer, Joe Redington, and Ray Genet.
?1979 First dog team ascent of Mt. McKinley by Susan Butcher, Joe
Redington, Brian Okonek, Ray Genet and Robert Stapleton.?
http://www.nps.gov/dena/home/mountaineering/history.htm
?1979 First dog team ascent of Mt. McKinley by Susan Butcher, Joe
Redington, Brian Okonek, Ray Genet and Robert Stapleton. Six hundred
fifty-nine climbers attempt Mt. McKinley, 283 reach the summit.?
http://ssbea.mercer.edu/sanders/denali/history/EarlyHistory.asp
?Ray?s Grandfather believed in the dogs and wanted to prove to people
what they are capable of, so in 1979 Joe set off on another adventure.
With his then handler, Susan Butcher, famous mountain guide Ray
Genet, and a photographer they set off with a dog team to summit Mt.
McKinley . . . . and they did! This was the first and only dog team to
reach the summit. Ray?s Grandfather was not quite at his prime at 62
years old then.?
http://www.teamredington.com/the_people.htm
?The title "Father of the Iditarod" has been applied to Joe Redington
for years, and he has engraven himself upon the hearts of all
Alaskans. I grew up in Anchorage and he was always a household name.?
http://iditarod-dog-sledding.idoneos.com/
?By no one's account, least of all his own, was Redington a scholar.
He and his family led a peripatetic existence and he was fortunate to
experience any coherency in his schooling as they moved from state to
state. Nevertheless, he became an avid reader and a fan of Jack London
fiction, or non-fiction tales of Alaska adventure.?
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:HeDYO8305ekJ:www.adn.com/adn/weak/wearkive/we990704.htm+Susan+Butcher+%2B+Joe+Redington+%2B+Ray+Genet+%2B+Mt.+McKinley&hl=en
?In 1979, Susan and fellow musher Joe Redington, Sr. were the first
and only people to take a dog team to the summit of Mt. McKinley,
North America's highest peak.?
http://premierespeakers.com/1455/index.cfm
?In July 1979, when Susan Butcher started racing in Alaska?s grueling
Iditarod race?a 1,152- mile jaunt through the brutal Alaskan
wilderness with 100 M.P.H. skin-ripping winds, blinding snow, and
temperatures reaching 70 degrees below zero?few could imagine any
woman competing with, much less winning against, the men who had come
to define the sport. But Butcher, a disciplined and fearless
adventurer, went on to win the championship four times, setting
numerous records along the way. The first person to win the Iditarod
three consecutive years, the world watched in awe as she broke nine
speed records in major international races, including the Iditarod
record, which she broke by an amazing 31 hours.?
http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/speakers/butchersusan.asp
It seems Ray Genet died on the way down of Mt. Everest in 1979
http://www.everesthistory.com/everestsummits/summits70.htm
?I decided something had to be done." His answer, the 1,150-mile
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, has sustained a dying tradition since
its inception in 1973?producing new mushers like four-time Iditarod
winner Susan Butcher, who summited Mount McKinley with Redington and
two dog teams in 1979. "Joe taught me what a real Alaskan is supposed
to be," Butcher says. "He taught me the patience to deal with
adversity as it comes. I should have been raised a Redington."
http://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/0899/9908mentors_pres.html
?In the 1,157-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which begins on March
2, Butcher will be the one to beat. For those who've lost count, she
has won the race in four of the last five years, 1986, '87, '88 and
'90, and she holds the Iditarod speed record of 11 days, 1 hour, 53
minutes and 23 seconds. At the beginning of this season, she held
records in four other races: the Norton Sound 250, the Kobuk 220, the
Kusko 300 and the Beargrease. The only other person to win four
Iditarods is Rick Swenson, who prevailed in 1977, 1979, 1981 and
1982.?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/features/si50/states/alaska/flashback/
?Butcher abhors the brouhaha over male-female differences, especially
when people use them to denigrate her accomplishments. "As long as I
wasn't a factor, it was O.K. that I was breaking trails in an area
where they didn't want women," she says. "But when I started to get
good, there was a lot of resentment." ?
http://warehouseschool.net/people/susan_butcher.html
Susan Butcher
=============
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/guide/hall/story/6207094p-6016574c.html
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/iditarod_alaska.htm
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/but0bio-1
http://www.barberusa.com/motive/butcher_susan.html
http://www.goodmanspeakersbureau.com/biographies/butcher_susan.htm
http://www.grabow.biz/Speakers/SusanButcher.htm
http://search.eb.com/women/articles/Butcher_Susan_Howlete.html
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461519812/Susan_Butcher.html
http://www.alaskaone.com/discovery/susan.htm
http://www.aeispeakers.com/speakerbio.php?SpeakerID=171
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Iditarod
http://warehouseschool.net/people/susan_butcher.html
http://inter-speak.com/proposal.asp?a=issb&c=009063&s=butcher-susan/
http://www.hwwilson.com/currentbio/sleddog.html
You?ll have to sign up for a free trial to read these articles
http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?DOCID=1G1:61401223&refid=ip_almanac_hf
http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?DOCID=1G1:4745098&refid=ip_almanac_hf
http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?DOCID=1G1:16641123&refid=ip_almanac_hf
Iditarod profiles
===================
http://www.iditarod.com/pdffiles/media/2005mediaguidebios.pdf
http://www.iditarod.com/pdffiles/media/2005mediaguide_1.pdf
http://www.iditarodrace.net/pdffiles/media/2005mediaguide.pdf
Other climbs of Denali
=======================
http://classic.mountainzone.com/climbing/denali/
http://library.thinkquest.org/11313/Iditarod/susan.html
http://www.womenclimbing.com/climb/essay.html
http://www.sdstore.com/second.asp?ID=1&ITEM=32&NAME=Feature+Stories
Slide show of photos
======================
http://www.schultzphoto.com/iditarod_slideshow_narrative.html
Books
=====
Read an excerpt here:
http://print.google.com/print?id=8ffmmEvrrnAC&lpg=PA143&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3Dsusan%2Bbutcher%2B%252B%2Bgenet%2B%252B%2Bredington%2B%252B%2B1979%26btnG%3DSearch%2BPrint&pg=PA143&sig=xZq3qCy6hccBXLmykonbAM0srXc
And here:
http://print.google.com/print?id=8efhxnRLCBQC&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3Dsusan%2Bbutcher%2B%252B%2Bgenet%2B%252B%2Bredington%2B%252B%2B1979%26btnG%3DSearch%2BPrint&sig=SUukaUj3fMxZR8QBj5NyiynQlFg
The Joe Redington Story
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0945397755/104-1626582-8500738?v=glance
http://www.nerdsmart.com/r-2437/m-Books/b-171115/a-0945397755/Default.aspx
?Joe Redington, Sr., may not have been an Alaskan by birth, but any
resident of the state would agree that he was, and remains, a symbol
of the Alaskan spirit. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Redington always
had a fascination with the rugged far-north, and read every book on
Alaska he could get his hands on. In 1948, at the age of 31, he
finally made the decision to pack up his family and move there. They
homesteaded in Knik, off the Parks Highway, on the northwestern side
of Knik Arm, and that's how Redington got involved with sled dogs.
Mushing was an effective way to get from place to place, and Knik
Kennels was born. By chance, the property opened directly onto the
historic Iditarod trail, which by that time was in poor shape owing to
disuse. Redington cleared a section of the trail for his own use, and
soon became caught up in the route's historical significance. The
famed 1925 "Serum Run" had followed that trail when there was no other
means of rushing life-saving medication to diptheria-stricken Nome.
Redington decided it was high time the trail be restored and brought
back into regular use, proposing a 1,000-mile dogsled race from
Anchorage to Nome. Everyone thought he was nuts. But the first
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was held in March of 1973, on a
shoestring budget, but a resounding success nonetheless. The first few
years of the race's existence were rocky at best, but this was
Redington's baby, and he nursed it along with unwaivering confidence
and energy. Today it is an internationally famous sporting event, with
mushers arriving each spring from all over the globe to compete.
Though Redington himself never won the race (he participated in it
almost every year), not having time enough left to properly train his
dogs after all the effort he expended in organization of the event, he
did help many eventual Iditarod champions get their footing. Two such
notable figures are five-time winner Rick Swenson and four-time winner
Susan Butcher. In addition, Redington, along with Susan Butcher and
Ray Genet, brought the first dog team to the peak of Mount McKinley in
1979. In 1993 he organized the first Iditarod Challenge, an
opportunity to follow the trail for fun rather than competition, with
Redington as guide. He also participated in a special dogsledding
trial at the 1994 Olympics in Norway.
The title "Father of the Iditarod" has been applied to Joe Redington
for years, and he has engraven himself upon the hearts of all
Alaskans. I grew up in Anchorage and he was always a household name.
He was an amazing man. Redington had unquenchable enthusiasm for
everything he did, and never let age slow him down. He ran his last
Iditarod in 1997, at the age of 80. When he was diagnosed with cancer
of the esophagus in 1998, he fought it with the same determination and
confidence that he had exhibited when fighting for the creation of the
Iditarod, and he beat it. He even got back to mushing, though he would
not compete again, and eventually the cancer returned and claimed his
life in 1999.
This book does every possible justice to the pioneering man who
revived dogsled mushing as a popular competitive sport. It is a
delightful read, descriptive and engaging. Even a reader not familiar
with Alaska or dog mushing will be able to capture the essence of it
here. The book is also filled with great black-and-white photos of
Redington, his family and fellow mushers, his dogs, and other images
that bring the story to life. My one criticism would be a lack of
sufficient editting. There are a few too many typos that should have
been caught, and hence I don't feel quite right about giving an
unconditional five-star rating. It also appears as if the very end of
Chapter 18 may have been cut off, as it leaves off with what appears
to be the beginning of a new sentence, but when the reader flips to
the next page, it is the beginning of the next chapter. Other than
this, however, the book flows very nicely and is easy to read. I would
highly recommend it to just about anyone, Alaskan or not, and
regardless of experience with dogs or mushing. A thoroughly delightful
book!?
http://happyplace.cherrytaco.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=913&sid=d585436c263c1c46b75a9a5d7ae11a21
Video
======
http://www.blackicedogsledding.com/page28.html
There you go. I?m afraid the information available after this is merely redundant.
I hope this helps! If any part of this answer is unclear, please
request an Answer Clarification, before rating, and i will be happy to
assist you further on this question.
Sincerely, Crabcakes
Search Terms
============
1979 + Susan Butcher + Joe Redington + Ray Genet + Denali
1979 + Susan Butcher + Joe Redington + Ray Genet + Mt. McKinley
Susan Butcher + 1979
Joe Redington + 1979
Denal Climbs |
