Local Yukon Quest champ Sebastian Schnuelle is running in second place, 10 days into this year’s Iditarod sled dog race.

Schnuelle’s trick is avoiding checkpoints as much as possible.

They’re too distracting, he said during the Quest.

It’s easy to waste time chatting, said Schnuelle.

Instead, he prefers his dogs’ company – camping along the trail.

“I plan to do the same thing during the Iditarod,” he said in Fairbanks, after winning the Quest.

Four-time Quest champ Lance Mackey, the first musher to win the Quest and the Iditarod back-to-back – and he’s done that twice – is leading this year’s race.

Mackey is more than 90 kilometres and a checkpoint ahead of Schnuelle and the rest of the pack.

Annie Lake musher Hugh Neff is running in seventh place.

Neff placed second in this year’s Quest.

And Hans Gatt, who scratched during this year’s Quest to focus his efforts on the Iditarod, is in eight place.

Mackey is less than 430 kilometres from Nome, and the finish line. (Genesee Keevil)