We’re offering two winter courses this year, both focused on teamwork.
Peak Experience is running two university courses in the field this winter. Both focus on dog mushing and are designed to teach leadership and team building through hands-on experience, not lectures. These courses do not follow the traditional college model.
The University of Alaska Anchorage course starts in late January. It’s worth one credit and is open to everyone.
The Alaska Pacific University course begins in early February. It offers two credits and is open to students enrolled in a degree program. This course focuses on outdoor leadership.
In this class, you will get an introduction to the world of mushing, including dog-powered sports, some history, and plenty of time working with a team where titles don’t matter. Classes take place at Team Ineka in Willow. Students will learn how to lead a team, handle dogs, and keep things moving even when everything feels chaotic. Staying on the sled is just a small part of it. The real lesson is learning to understand what your team needs and responding to it, that’s what leadership is about.
A dog team is a bit like a small company: there’s someone leading, others in the middle, and someone taking up the rear. If everyone isn’t working together, the run doesn’t succeed. Leaders and followers need to cooperate, not just as a saying, but as a real requirement for progress.
Students who haven’t met before are grouped into crews and rotate through different roles. One person drives, another manages the pit (like a NASCAR team), and another handles the dogs. Then they switch. The goal isn’t to assign permanent roles, but to make sure everyone tries each job, even the ones they might want to avoid, while still working together to leave on time.
The dogs are real working Alaskan Huskies, and they are there to run. The chaos you’ will experience is not staged, whether it’s gear issues, unpredictable weather, a stubborn dog, or a teammate who’s new to handling lines. Outdoor leadership is about what you do in those moments, with the group you’re given, before you’ve even had a chance to bond.
It’s clear what students should take away from this course: the ability to work with a crew when plans change, the habit of understanding the team instead of just stating a leadership style, and new connections with people they didn’t know before. These lessons go beyond the course credit, which is just how the university tracks your weekends.
UAA offers the open enrollment course for one credit in late January, with no degree requirement. APU’s course is a longer outdoor leadership block for two credits, running from early February into March, and is only for degree students. Both courses use the same kennel and hold the same standards, but have different entry points.
If you want to register, please use the university’s registration system.
