2006 HUDSON BAY QUEST

ARVIAT IN THE SPOTLIGHT

For the third year in a row, there is a new champion of the Hudson Bay Quest. Last night, Andrew Panagoniak arrived in Arviat at 7:55pm Monday, April 3rd to claim the 2006 Hudson Bay Quest championship.

Earlier that day, Rankin Inlet musher David Oolooyak’s dogs broke away on the trail, leaving him stranded just north of Nunalla checkpoint (just south of the Manitoba-Nunavut border). With Oolooyak out of contention, Panagoniak was riding strong and the only musher with a realistic chance of catching him was Philip Kigusiutnak, the eventual second place finisher and senior racer at age 74! Both hail from Arviat, Nunavut – a remote Inuit community 250 miles north of Churchill and the race destination.

On Sunday, April 2nd, the three remaining Inuit mushers had reached Nunalla prior to the onset of storm conditions around 12:00 pm. They were able to wait out the storm and use up their mandatory six hour stopover at Nunalla while all other racers were forced to camp on the trail. All remaining competitors then had to use up the Nunalla stopover while the top four finishers sprinted the remaining 100 miles. One of these four was David Oolooyak who did manage to recover his dog team and re-enter the race. He eventually arrived in Arviat to claim third position.

Race organizer Dave Daley (Churchill, Manitoba) is the fourth place finisher. He had broken away from the remaining non-Inuit mushers and was less than twenty miles out of Nunalla when the storm hit. In a situation now getting familiar to Daley, zero visibility and deep snow obliterated the trail and he waited out the blizzard alone on the barrens. At least, the wind did not start blowing him and his tent along the tundra as it did in the inaugural 2004 race.

The other five finishers include Gerald Azure of Churchill, Quincy Miller and Miriam Korner of La Ronge, Saskatchewan as well as Burton Penner (Vermillion Bay, Ontario) and the lone American musher, Dick Whicker of Indianapolis, Indiana. Travelling together they camped at Catton Lake, just north of the treeline, to wait out the blizzard. All five crossed the finish line in Arviat shortly after midnight on Tuesday night.

Andy Kowtak (Arivat, NU) dropped out by disqualification while Charlie Lundie and George Sinclair of Churchill, Manitoba have withdrawn. Returning champion John Stetson withdrew prior to race start.

This year’s purse of $22,000 is the largest ever with first place collecting $7,200 and a $1,000 Northern Store gift certificate and second place $5,200 in cash

Once in Arviat, mushers enjoyed a community banquet (featuring caribou and muktuk – made from the first layer of beluga whale skin and fat) and race awards ceremony sponsored by Calm Air International. Calm Air has also donated the use of a freight plane to move all dogs and sleds back to Churchill.

- prepared by Kelsey Eliasson
- courtesy of the Hudson Bay Post, Churchill's Community Newspaper

- return to Hudson Bay Quest race results