Canadian Challenge mushers race in Saskatchewan’s biggest dog sled event

Before the sleds move an inch, there’s a moment when the noise and crowd fade into the background. 

What’s left is the simplest version of the sport — a musher, a team of dogs and a winter trail that has carried people through the North for generations.

That’s the heart of the Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race, the largest of its kind in Saskatchewan, now based out of La Ronge. 

Eleven teams took off in biting cold on Tuesday morning for the 10-dog, 322-kilometre (200-mile) qualifier — a long push that stretches over multiple days.

By the evening, however, conditions on the trail had deteriorated. Visibility dropped in blowing snow, prompting organizers to shorten the race by 80 kilometres (50 miles) for safety.

For reigning champion Garrick Schmidt, the focus of the story isn’t the distance or the placement, it’s the dogs. 

“The relationship that we have with the dogs, they’re not just a working animal,” he said, holding back tears. “They’re our family.”

Schmidt is Métis, from Indian Head, and rides with the dogs from his own kennel, Eagle Ridge Sled Dog Kennel.

Métis musher smudges his dogs before the Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race

He says he got into mushing about seven years ago, and this year marks his fifth time racing the Canadian Challenge. 

He’s a firm believer that the sport requires a deep understanding of your team, he said.

“This sport, what we do, it’s all about the dogs. Our care and everything that we do, our own needs as mushers are second.”

Before the race, Schmidt went through a routine that included smudging his dogs and gear — a ceremonial Indigenous practice he described as part of how he and his community carry tradition into daily life.

That connection to tradition is also tied to the land itself, to running trails that feel bigger than the sport, he said.

That’s where the Canadian Challenge carries its deeper meaning, said Dexter Mondor, a Métis dog handler with Schmidt’s kennel.

“It’s a traditional way of travel, right?” he said.

“Some of these trails are the original freight routes, the original trap lines that our Métis ancestors travelled, our Cree relatives travelled. So it’s kind of cool that they get to be on those trails and connect with nature in the land.