Hello everyone, my name is Crystal and I live in Reno Nevada. This area is great for many outdoor recreation activities and events, especially living 25 minutes from Lake Tahoe. For many years I've kicked around the idea of competitive dog sledding. Being a spectator at events, research, articles on participants and more. Finally, last winter while driving through Lake Tahoe there were a handful of Mushers and there teams plowing through the meadows. I then had to ask myself,” Self? what's the hold up on making this happen?" My answers, it's me mostly. The need for the right equipment and ultimately after that having the ambition to go after it. There are all kinds of dog sled races and derby’s that happen all across our Northern, Western and Mid-Western States. Many of these competitions will even draw participants from other continents’. I do have my sites on the biggest of all races, the Yukon Quest and Iditarod but realized I have to start with a few of the smaller races until my team grows. Looking at this winters race schedule I'm pleased to find that there's plenty for me to be involved in that's not to far from home. I'm most interested in Skijor (1or 2 dog team pulling a single skier), Sprint (4 to 6 dog team pulling sled and Musher 5miles plus) and mid distance (6 or more dogs pulling sled and Musher up to 300 miles). This is an extreme winter sport and for those of you that don’t know much about the dangers here is a little knowledge of what can go wrong on the trail. My team and I fall through the ice, Lake or River. We could get lost on the trail because of Gail force winds and snow. Temperatures that can fall anywhere between -50 to -140, hungry Wolves and Bears and the occasional angry Moose. I can break my sled, break my bones, sick dogs and yes sometimes they die and I can’t forget the Avalanche areas. Crazy but this is my passion, one of the most challenging tests of survival and perseverance left to experience