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Joe Henderson’s bucket list is seemingly bottomless.

Even after 30 years of expeditions into the Arctic wilderness, he’s still challenging himself. This month (January 2014), Henderson sets off on a 70-day solo expedition in

the haunting, frozen steppe near the Brooks Range, north of the Arctic Circle.

Henderson’s trek, scheduled to begin around late January and last

until April 1, requires preparation, skill, confidence, fearlessness

and a little bit of insanity.

Heading out into the wilderness with nothing but his gear, his sled

and his dogs is an art that Henderson has fine-tuned over decades.

The rest of the year, he’s a heavy-duty mechanic in North Pole,

Alaska. But for a few months, he’s an Arctic explorer again.

The thrill of the adventure and peaceful solitude is exhilarating for

Henderson. “A lot of the places the team and I go are places that

no one has ever gone in history with a dog team,” he said.

All of Henderson’s adventures are unsupported – meaning he has

to carry everything he and the 22 dogs will need for the entire

journey into the raw wilderness. No one will rendezvous with

supplies along the trip. For this trek, he’s packing about a ton of dog

food among the 3,000 pounds of gear and supplies for himself and

the dog team on two sleds.

The 52-year-old adventurer’s longest solo trip in the past lasted

around five months, deep in the Brooks Range. During that time, he

didn’t see another human being. He doesn’t expect to see anyone

else on this trip, either.

Henderson is making this trek using custom, 72-inch snowshoes

designed and built by Iverson. “Six-foot shoes keep you up on top,”

he said. Not only is staying on top of the snow important, it also

helps Henderson stay ahead of the dog team, which is always on his heels. “They want to go right behind you at three miles an hour sometimes, so that’s a challenge,” he

said. Other times, the team hits really deep snowdrifts, and Henderson has to trudge ahead to break the trail and double back to help the struggling team, which triples his

distance.

The Iverson snowshoes are vital to the adventure. “You can go anywhere you want and it doesn’t matter the depth or texture of the snow,” he said. “With skis, of course,

you hit deep snow and you’re pretty much stopped.”

His gear includes his own customized tent, designed to withstand hurricane-force winds that can reach 85 miles per hour in the bitter cold and protect him from frigid

temperatures.

When Henderson starts the journey, the tundra will be enveloped in bleak darkness for most of the day. This far north, the sun doesn’t come out until the end of January.

“The sun will peek up on the 23rd for about 30 seconds,” he said. The most light outside of that will be a few hours of dusk, so Henderson and the dogs will travel by

headlamp for a while.

In addition to the darkness, Henderson and the dogs will face blizzard season, which usually begins the third week of January. Despite the fierce, unforgiving winds,

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SNOWSHOE MAGAZINE FEATURED ARTICLE:

Mechanic by Day, Arctic Explorer by Life

Written by Erin McIntyrePublished on July 9, 2014

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Henderson planned his trip to take advantage of this

time and cover more ground.

“People think I’m a bit nuts for going during blizzard

season,” he said. “But when you get up there in

December and the beginning of January, the snow is

deep and soft. It’s a lot of work. Those hurricane-force

winds pound the snow and fill in all the creeks and

rivers. All your cliffs get filled in. That’s the time to

travel.”

This adventure is mentally and physically grueling. “If

you were to run a marathon every day, that’s basically

what I’m doing,” he said, noting that he has to be

careful to monitor his exhaustion as well as the

condition of the dogs.

“They pull so hard, they don’t know when they’re

getting tired,” he said. “You have to stay in tune with

them.”

He frequently scans the team for drooping tails.

“Those curled tails, if they start to droop just a little bit,

it’s over,” he said. Unlike huskies favored for sled

racing teams, Alaskan malamutes prefer a slow,

steady pace, and enjoy pulling weight. But Henderson

knows they don’t recognize their own limits and

would follow him anywhere, for as long as they could

walk.

Part of the key to enduring a solo trek like this is

knowing limits – for the dog team and Henderson

himself. On a day with low humidity, the team might

be able to travel for only five hours, because the low

humidity causes friction on the sled’s runners. This is

something Henderson monitors closely with his keen

sense of hearing. His experienced ears are trained to

listen for the grinding of the runners across the Arctic

desert snow.

“The noise can get so loud that you really can’t hear

the dogs panting sometimes,” he said. “The noise

lessens, the humidity is rising so maybe we can get

another hour in.”

Although Henderson’s dog team is made of working

dogs, they are also pets.

“All the dogs are family,” he said. “They’re friendly,

they come in the house. They’re like big babies.

They’re like a big team of 12-year-old kids.”

The leader of the pack is Farmer, Henderson’s go-to

dog that can break trail like no other. “He’s invincible

but he’s eight years old and he’s starting to slow down

a little,” Henderson said. Farmer leads the team with

his son, five-year-old Junior, who is quickly becoming

a strong member of the team.

Henderson’s dogs are well-trained for this

experience. “It takes about three years for dogs to

learn to break trail,” he said, adding that he begins

training most of the pack when they reach two years

of age. Besides the experience level, Henderson uses

his knowledge of each of his dogs’ personalities and

strengths to find the perfect arrangement to pull the

sleds.

“It’s like a fine-tuned engine and you eventually find a

combination where everybody is happy to work next

to each other,” he said.

The last few months have been about preparing for

this solitary quest – putting in daily hours on the

Stairmaster set on its highest level, organizing the

logistics of getting all the provisions in order, and

eating “whatever the hell I want,” Henderson said. Out

in the wild, he’ll continue to eat as much as his body

will absorb to stave off exhaustion. This means lots of

peanut butter, meat, cheese, rice and coffee. The

dogs will thrive on dry food and oil to boost their

caloric intake. Henderson wants them to come back

“fat and sassy” so they want to go again.

Henderson’s passion for exploration, snowshoeing

and solitude is helping him to raise awareness for

another one of his passions: dog rescue organizations.

This year’s solo expedition is dedicated to raising

awareness about a growing worldwide homeless dog

population in rescue shelters. Henderson has pledged

to contribute a large percentage of the expedition

donations to shelters in the United States and United

Kingdom.

Right now, Henderson is anxious to get going and

immerse himself in adventure, away from the

Internet, Facebook and civilization. He can’t wait to

begin the next item on the bucket list when he’s

dropped off for months of solitude.

“I love to see their tailgate – prettiest site in the world

to see them drive away and it’s just me and the dogs.”

For more information on Joe Henderson, visit

http://alaskanarcticexpedition.com.

ONE THOUGHT ON “MECHANIC BY DAY, ARCTIC EXPLORER BY LIFE”

Pingback: What to do this weekend: 1/17/14

About Erin McIntyre

Erin is an entrepreneur and freelance writer living in Grand Junction, CO. She enjoys snowshoeing with her husband, Mike, and dog, Maxwell, as well as

hiking, traveling around the world, baking, reading and writing.

View all posts by Erin McIntyre →

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