Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Going into this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Zack Steer was a relative unknown, a lodge owner with a small kennel who had last completed the race in 2000.

He came out with a third-place finish, $59,800 in prize money and a solid lock on a reputation as a competitive musher.

His finish surprised many, coming ahead of such heavyweights as past champions Jeff King and Martin Buser. But it wasn't a shock to Steer or mushers familiar with his competitive nature and talent for getting the best out of his dog team.

"Not as a musher was anyone blown away by his finishing third," said Jon Little, a musher and online Iditarod race commentator for Cabela's "He's very good with his dogs and very sharp."

Steer, 33, who last week returned to his and his wife's, Anjanette's, Sheep Mountain Lodge, said he knew he had a good team this year, although third place was a bit better than he imagined.

"I knew I had a legitimate Top 10 contender. Top 5 was pushing it," he said. "If everything worked out right. ... And we had one of those races where everything just worked out right."

Steer chalked his smooth trip up to a good dog team, a lot of training and a bit of luck on rough stretches of trail that knocked out even perennial contenders like DeeDee Jonrowe and Doug Swingley.

"It all came together," he said.

He also credited the Unalakleet cross-country ski team, which loaned him a ski pole to replace one he broke midway through the race. He used the pole to push his team past King and Buser, moving from fifth to third place, he said.

"I call that my $4,000 ski pole because that got me past Jeff and probably past Martin too," he said. "So I'll be making a little donation to the Unalakleet ski team shortly."

Steer's magical ride this year was in stark contrast to his last race in 2005 when he scratched after breaking his ribs in a crash and nearly losing a dog.

Recalling that race, he said his team went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in less than an hour. He was running in the dark just outside Rohn when a dog slipped on a patch of ice and was dragged by the team.

Unable to use his snow hook, Steer said he crashed his sled into a tree to stop the team. By that time, however, the dog had no pulse and wasn't breathing.

He revived the dog using cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and then tucked it into his sled bag. At that point, Steer might still have been all right, but then he crashed again, flipping his sled and falling on a stump. The impact broke two of his ribs.

Steer said he mushed on for another day and a half before deciding to scratch because of the pain from his ribs; in addition to everything else, his wife was due to give birth to their second son at any moment.

"It was kind of like, 'How many signs do I need to go home?' " he said.

While new to the Top 10 of the Iditarod, Steer is no rookie to mushing. He has previously finished second in the Yukon Quest and won the Copper Basin 300 in 2003.

He runs a relatively small kennel of about 40 dogs, compared with the 100 of some mushers. He splits his time between mushing and running the lodge located about 50 miles north of Sutton on the Glenn Highway where he lives with his wife and their two sons -- Glenn, 4, and Clayton, 2.

Steer said the biggest difference this year from past Iditarods is that he felt like he belonged with the front-runners.

He remembers waking up in a wall tent in Ophir and marveling at his company. Five other mushers -- Buser, King, Hans Gatt, Robert Sorlie and Jim Lanier -- were in the tent. He turned to Lanier:

"I said, 'Jim look around us. There's 10 Iditarod championships in this room. There's six Yukon Quest championships in this room There's a bunch of Finnmarkslopet (a Norwegian mushing race) championships in this room. There's some really quality mushers in here, and then there's you and I.' "

Leaving Unalakleet, Steer said, he made a critical decision.

He could take it easy, conserve his dogs' energy and almost certainly have a lock on a fifth-place finish, or he could push his team and try to chase down King and Buser. At the time, he was still four hours behind Buser and King, a lot of time to make up at the end of the race when teams struggle just to get to Nome.

"I thought about it: 'What should I do?' " he said. "My conclusion: 'I'm in fifth place. I'm already way better than I imagined. You know, why not try?' "

Steer eventually ended up passing King in Koyuk, then chased down Buser in the last 30 miles, passing him just outside Safety to seal a third-place finish behind Lance Mackey and Paul Gebhardt.

While he'll savor this year's finish, Steer said he's not certain about his plans for next year.

The $59,800 in prize money put him just slightly ahead when he takes out expenses and adds up costs like closing the lodge restaurant for several months to train his dogs, he said, and that's not to mention time away from his family.

The only way to race next year is to have some kind of financial sponsorship, he said.

Still, he admitted it would be hard to resist the lure of trying to improve his finish.

"I've got a heck of a dog team; you hate not to race them to your ability," he said.

Reporter S.J. Komarnitsky can be reached at skomarnitsky@adn.com or 352-6714.