Jerome A. Vanek - 2007 Trail Veternarian

My love affair with sled dogs began in the 1950s, when Sergeant Preston debuted on TV and a stray husky named “Timber” wandered onto our Northern Minnesota farm. In the ‘60s, I trained my first sled dog, although I didn’t know what I was doing. Still don’t.


I began sprint racing in the ‘70s and competed in every class from 3-dog to unlimited, in nearly every state and province from Saskatchewan to Rhode Island, finishing in every position from first place to last. Mostly last.


To fulfill my arctic mushing dreams, I joined the Air Force and volunteered for Alaska! They sent me to Okinawa. Eventually, I did wrangle an assignment to New England, where I befriended mushing icons like Doc Lombard and Ed Moody. Just as I was settling in, I was discharged home to Minnesota.
After abbreviated careers in public radio and military engineering, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life sticking needles into helpless little animals, so I returned to college to complete degrees in biology, zoology, and veterinary medicine. After my doctorate, I continued training in parasitology, public health, and infectious disease epidemiology. Yet, I never strayed far from mushing.


In 1992, I became a race veterinarian and, over the next 15 seasons, served as Chief or Trail Veterinarian at more sled dog races than any other doctor. The Beargrease, Quest, Iditarod, UP 200, Empire, Can-Am, Race to the Sky, Great Trail, Grand Portage, numerous sprint races, and the World and Junior World Championships had to suffer my assistance.


I joined the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association as one of its charter board members, and later became its second president.
I still live in Bemidji, where I have a consulting practice limited to sled dogs. I also am an adjunct professor of cell biology and parasitology at Bemidji State, and I’m a wilderness EMT, with a ham radio license, ostensibly to save my own hide whenever I screw up in the woods.


I met Colonel Vaughan in 1991, and in 1993, I served as veterinarian on the historic Mount Vaughan Antarctic Expedition. He was my friend and he will always be my hero. In 1997, my wife and I accompanied the serum by train from Anchorage to Nenana for the start of that first Serum Run to Nome. This is the tenth anniversary of that inaugural journey and I am humbled to be helping out. I only wish I could be traveling this trail with Norman. His guiding spirit will have to suffice.

Jerome A. Vanek, DVM
Huskyvet Consulting
P.O. Box 163
Bemidji, MN 56619-0163
218-586-2518