When Jim Lanier, a pathologist, and Scott Janssen, a funeral homeowner, got trapped last week in a subzero blizzard in the Alaskan wilderness, they knew that at a certain point, Mother Nature would win. They just didn’t know when. Both men were participating in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the famous 1,000-mile trek from Anchorage to Nome. It was during the last 45 miles of this year’s race, in a section known as “the blowhole,” that Lanier and his team ran into trouble. Janssen decided to wait with Lanier for help to arrive, but then they both got pinned by 50 mph wind gusts. Frostbite and hypothermia crept in. They huddled together, trading stories and chastising each other about their politics (Lanier is a Democrat, Janssen is a Trump-supporting Republican). “I didn’t think I was going to die,” Janssen told The Washington Post. “I knew I was going to die if someone didn’t come along.” This year marked Lanier’s 20th time racing in the Iditarod. He is 77. Flu hit many teams this year, and snow and wind wrecked havoc on teams. As for the 57-year-old Janssen, who calls himself “The Mushin’ Mortician,” it was his seventh year. When the two got stuck in the blowhole, Janssen called his wife on the satellite phone and told her to alert race authorities that they needed help. Eventually, two riders came across the freezing duo and helped them activate an SOS device that alerted authorities to their GPS location. But the riders needed to get to safety too, so again, Janssen and Lanier were alone. Janssen called his wife again, this time to say that they might not make it. But after about five hours in the storm, rescuers came, and Lanier and Janssen, and their dogs, all made it out unharmed.
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