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Nearly everything that could possibly happen to an Iditarod musher and expert in Alaskan adventure travel has certainly happened to Jerry Austin.
In 1980, he and his teammate Dick Mackey were forced to kill a moose after is attacked their team. Both men were subsequently charged with wasting the meat, however, the charges were dropped.
In 1985, Jerry broke his hand after his sled ran into a tree. He taped his hand and finished the race.
In 1993, he located, and led a group of 17 mushers, back to safety, after they had had been trapped in white Mountain by weather, under the burled arch in Nome.
In 1995, he managed to stop another charging moose with a shot fired from an explosive flare gun.
Last year, Jerry swears that he saw a pair of polar bears resting dangerously close to the trail along the arctic coast.
Nearly anything and everything that might happen, all right. All but winning this world renowned dog mushing race. Austin has run the Iditarod 18 times. Six times hes finished in the top 10. In 1982 he finished his best, third.He did, however, help to save another musher's life. Austin was running in the middle of the pack among the rookies in 1989, when the group came upon musher Mike Madden, who was sick and delirious. The mushers fed him and kept him warm, but he wasnt getting better. The group was a long way from the help Madden now severely needed. So Jerry and another musher left the pack to race to the raced to the closest town, returning in time with a helicopter that safely evacuated Madden to the nearest hospital. Austin then raced Madden's team the 30 miles to town. He completed the race that year, finishing just out of the money, but winning for the second time the sportsmanship award.
How often the name Austin will come up in the mushing community,'' wrote fellow dog musher Stan Smith. ''Someone needed a ride; a rescue a team or driver, maybe they lost their headlamp, their sunglasses? Jerry was and is always there to help.''
Jerry Austin has never won the Iditarod, but over his long and impressive career as an Iditarod racer, he has won the respect of his community and the admiration of fans. As one reader Linda Morning wrote, ''Perhaps we should just call Jerry the 'Official Guardian Angel' of the Iditarod.
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