While Norwegian musher Joar Leifseth Ulsom pulled into Nome a little after 3:00 am on Wednesday morning to be crowned the Champion of the 46th running of the Iditarod dog sled race, Anchorage mortician, Scott Janssen, remains on the trail in his 8th attempt at arguably one of the world’s most grueling events for man or dog.

At the time of my writing of this article (Wednesday evening), Janssen, age 56, had passed the Shaktoolik checkpoint and remains in 43rd place about 171 miles from the finish line in Nome, Alaska, entering his 10th day on the trail.  The Iditarod course is roughly 998 miles between the start in Anchorage to the end in Nome thru some of Alaska’s very rugged landscape.  I’ll keep you updated as we know a little more where our funeral director colleague is on the route until he finishes.

As I said, this is the 8th attempt at the Iditarod for Janssen as he finished 42nd in 2011 and 38th in 2012.  He has failed to finish in his last five starts.  Here is the official Iditarod biography of Janssen and here is a map of the Iditarod route.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I have the pleasure to know Scott Janssen as his sister-in-law lives in my community and we have been at  funerals and visitations together.  Scott is an adventurous  guy and listening to his stories about his adventures and mis-adventures in the Iditarod give me goose bumps.  He has also had his truck, with his dogs, in our community during the summer as an educational experience for people to see.

Scott is a native of Minnesota and a graduate of the University of Minnesota Mortuary Science program.  He owns and operates the Janssen Funeral Homes in Anchorage and Wassila, Alaska.

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