Growing up with sailing and surrounded by golden beaches on the East Coast, Susannah Tuminelli has travelled a long way, when she now starts on the trail.

 From Golden Beaches To Arctic Trails

There are 12 rookies in Iditarod this year, and one of them is Susannah Tuminelli, or Suz as her friends call her. She has competed in a number of mid-distance races, and has completed the qualifying races necessary to sign up for the 2021 Iditarod.

Susannah Tuminelli grew up in the small coastal town Plymouth, Massachusetts, known as "America's Hometown", and the site of the first colony founded in 1620 by the Mayflower Pilgrims. Through history it's been a center of rope making, fishing, and shipping, but as for today, the surroundings of golden beaches have twisted Plymouth into a popular resort packed with tourists during the summer months. And for mushing – well, that was something exotic - or should we say - arctic? 

But Susannah, has always been attracted to cold places, and she started her long journey and went to college in Vermont.  Upon graduating she decided to try something complete different. For nearly two years she lived and worked in the mountains of Montana building and fixing hiking trails with the National Park Service and Forest Service. She really enjoyed being outdoors, and in the wintertime she moved to of Minnesota. In the Northwoods she mushed retired race Alaskan Huskies and guidied winter camping trips. After two seasons, she wanted to get further into mushing, and moved to Alaska. 

Handler Duty At Shameless Huskies Kennel

The fall of 2018 Susannah started as a handler for Kathleen Frederick at the Shameless Huskies Kennel in Willow, Alaska. Kathy, who has a full time job as a judge for the State of Alaska, is an experienced musher. She attended Iditarod in 2010, and after covering 202 miles, she hit a bad stretch of thinly covered ice over Dalzell Creek, not far from the Rohn checkpoint. She deployed her drag brake, which caused the sled to skid and crash. Neither she nor her dogs were hurt, but the sled was. Trail sweeps helped her mend the sled, but due to the rule stating that no musher may receive outside assistance, she scratched from the race. At the age of 58 years, she knew it was likely her first and only attempt.

Kathy Frederick’s Successor

But now she has found a successor in Susannah Tuminelli. With assistance of her boyfriend Adam as handler and Kathys 31 dogs, Suz has completed the necessary qualifying races and learned cold wilderness survival. The first was the Tustemena 200 in January of 2019, the next was Copper Basin 300 in January of 2020 and finally Willow 300 in February same year. 

Susannah Tuminelli and the dogs Homer, Hope, Honor, Laurakins, Fiesty, Aurora, Tok, Caswell, Justice, Louis, George, Cherish, Bride and Groom are now ready for the big adventure – the Iditarod 2021. 

Sources: Coffee or Die, Dog Works Radio, Iditarod.com Shameless Huskies Kennel, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Public Media, Instagram, Facebook.