There has been countless debates on this for years, most arguments stating that running both races in the same year competitivly cannot be done. Until three years ago when Lance won the Quest and had a top ten finish in the Iditarod. So many stories have be written on Lance with his successes in the past two seasons winning both races I wont dwell on it, or him. I will say great job though.

So is it becoming a viable trend to do both ? Ken tried it last year placing 2nd in the Quest and top 5 in the Iditarod.
A few others have tried with not much success, Although finishing both is still quite an accomplishment!

We decided this year on racing both,  Our reasons? here are a few,
- We have a large group of talented dogs this year, 
- Logistically we can make doing both work with a lot of summer and fall  planning
- Its on the way to Iditarod (literally)
And I feel that we can run a competitive race in the Quest and still  have a dog team for Iditarod( which is why we have some feelers out to run some of our "iditarod dogs either in the Quest  or the YQ 300 (in a leisurely manner) 
The last point is almost the most important key to the whole operation.

One of the most common questions are

-Are  you going to use the same dogs in both?
No we are not, I cannot give an exact number but I do know that some will run both .

- How(and where) are we going to do food drops

We will be readying both races  drops here in Yellowknife and  then packing up a heading to Fairbanks and doing both Yukon quest drops and Iditarod drops from there ( as well as the Vet check )

We also will be running the last part of the trail into Fairbanks as a final shake down of the teams. 200 - 300 mile run.
Last year I ran 140 miles the Friday before Iditarod ,  My only regret was that I did not run further, and that I did not run them again after that until the race start.. I feel that some still had some lactic acid in their system that should have been "worked out" pre race.

So with the season started last week,  We will be training steady  from now on..

BTW 

Filbert has been bred to Dobie again, So I guess that she will not be racing ( we'll keep her running though in case it does not take) , The intention was   to have her on the Quest team She is 9 years old and still moves like a young pup. Nonetheless   She has huge worth as a Brood bitch, all the dogs she has thrown over her years are leading teams all over the world, She is one of the most important dogs in the Kennel.  Her First ltter with us are two now and are very good dogs , all are leaders, the females right from the start, the males were a bit longer to mature, but are real keeners now! 
Very exciting season coming up!


Warren