October Interview with Philip Walters:
Music Teacher Questions:
3A: What instruments do you play? What is your favorite instrument?
Philip: As a middle school band teacher, I have to be familiar with all of the band instruments. I can play all of
the brass instruments (trumpet, trombone, horn, baritone, tuba) very well. I can play saxophone and clarinet
pretty well. I’m OK at flute (but not great), and pretty awful at oboe and bassoon. I can play all of the
percussion instruments very well, except for drumset. When I was growing up, I took private lessons on piano,
euphonium (another name for baritone), viola (like a big violin), and tuba. I majored in music in college as a
tuba player.
My favorite instrument is tuba, because that’s the instrument I can play the best!
3A: Can you tell us about the school where you work?
Philip: Begich Middle School is in the northern part of Anchorage, which is Alaska’s biggest city. It is one of the
newest schools in the Anchorage School District, and has over 1000 students! We have students in grades 6
through 8, so a little bit older than you guys, but not by much! I love working at Begich-- the teachers are a lot
of fun, and the students are really enthusiastic and friendly!
3A: What does your classroom look like? Do you have mushing posters hung up?
Philip: My classroom is HUGE! I have the biggest room in the whole school (besides the cafeteria and the
gym, of course) because I have big classes! (My biggest band class-- Advanced Band-- has 54 people in it!) It
has lots of windows, which I love-- we don’t get very much light in the wintertime and so I like to be able to
“soak in the rays” when I can get them! I do have one mushing poster in my room, from Iditarod a few years
ago. It’s a photo of my friend Karen Ramstead and her “Pretty Sled Dogs” Siberian husky team. I must
confess-- I don’t have much in the way of mushing decorations, or any decorations, for that matter-- I’m not
very decorative, though I want to be!
Maryland Questions:
3A: Were you born in Baltimore? What part of the state are you from?
Philip: I wasn’t born in Baltimore, though I enjoyed many visits to the Inner Harbor when I was growing up.
We took many field trips to the aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. I also enjoyed visiting Fort
McHenry! (Do YOU know why Fort McHenry is important?) I grew up in Lanham, in Prince George’s County,
about 15 minutes northeast of Washington, D.C. I spent 18 years living in the same house. In January, I will
have lived in Alaska for 10 years, so I’ve still got a few years to go before I beat my 18-year record in
Maryland!
3A: What was your favorite thing about Maryland?
Philip: I really love the Eastern Shore-- I enjoyed many trips to the beach when I was growing up. I also
enjoyed being so close to Washington, D.C. and all of the opportunities available there. We could go to a free
concert on the National Mall every night of the week in the summertime, and could visit the best museum in the
world-- the Smithsonian-- whenever we wanted! You guys may not realize how good you’ve got it, living so
close to D.C., but trust me-- when you live in a remote place like Alaska, you really miss being able to do things
like go to a free concert of one of the best musical groups in the world-- the United States Marine Band-- or
visit a REAL zoo (the Alaska one isn’t great).
3A: When did you move to Alaska and why?
Philip: I moved to Alaska in January 2005. I had visited here in 2002 on a vacation with my brother. I really
fell in love with everything about the state-- I’ve always been a big fan of the outdoors, and Alaska is an
outdoor playground! When I graduated from the University of Georgia in 2004, I moved up here to begin my
teaching career! The great thing about teaching is, you can do it anywhere-- everyone in the world needs good
teachers!
Mushing Questions:
3A: How old are the dogs you will be running? Are they really puppies?
Philip: Some of the dogs I’ll be running are very young. We call them “yearlings” because they’ll be a little
over one year old when Iditarod rolls around. These are the “Plunderer” pups (named after some friends of
Snowhook Kennel) that were born last November. There are five of them-- Maury, Kirby, Melanie, Amalia, and
Rose. I’ve been training them along with the older dogs in my team. About half of my team will be 2-4-yearolds who I worked with last year as well as this year. They have some running experience but no race
experience yet. Then about ¼ of my team will be older, 7-8-year-olds who have run Iditarod with my training
partner Justin. These Iditarod veterans will be incredibly valuable to my team, because they know the way to
Nome!
3A: How do you arrange your busy life?
Philip: How about I let you know once this year is over? Needless to say, I’ve learned a hard lesson in
prioritizing. As I write this (at 9:23pm), I SHOULD be getting ready for bed, because my 5:30am wake-up call
comes pretty early. I’ve learned that, whatever I do, I have to do it with everything I’ve got. When I’m at home,
I’m a husband and a dad as best as I can be. When I’m at school, I’m 100% band teacher. And when I’m with
the dogs, I’m trying to be the best musher I can be. Whatever you do, do it well, or don’t do it.
3A: What is the most dangerous thing you have encountered on the trail?
Philip: Last year during a training run, my team crossed a partially-frozen creek. Most of the team made it
across, but a few of the dogs broke through and had to swim, and pull themselves up onto the ice on the other
side. One of the dogs, Marco, was wearing booties and couldn’t pull himself up (because his claws were
covered with the booties). I ended up having to wade into the chest-deep water to pull him out and get him to
safety. The rest of the run was pretty cold. Thank goodness for good gear that kept me alive in cold weather!
Compared to other stories I’ve heard from other folks on the trail, this is a pretty tame story, but it was pretty
scary at the time. I hope that I don’t have any scarier stories than this after Iditarod!
3A: When did you start mushing?
Philip: I started running dogs in 2007. I had become intrigued with the idea of mushing after reading the book
Winterdance by Gary Paulsen (who also wrote the book Hatchet which, if you haven’t already read it, you
should!). I had been introduced to Kurt and Val Jokela, local recreational mushers in Chugiak, AK (just north of
where I live), who needed somebody to help them with dog chores and housesitting-- in exchange, they let me
use their equipment and their dogs, and taught me how to mush! My first run was a 32-mile training run on a
“tag sled” (a second sled trailing behind the main sled, like they do for the Iditarod ceremonial start). It was so
much work! I had NO IDEA how hard it was to stay balanced and not fall off the sled! Even still, I loved
working with the dogs and was completely hooked after only a week!
Iditarod Questions:
3A: What is your biggest fear of the race?
Philip: Where do I start? I think my biggest fears are the things that are completely out of my control. (By the
way, worrying about things you can’t control is pretty pointless. But it doesn’t keep us from doing it!) The
biggest thing I’m afraid of is that my team will come down with an illness that will knock them out of the race. I
can train them to deal with most anything else, but when you get sick, you’re just sick, and you can’t do
anything about it. I’m also afraid of breaking my sled during the technical parts of the trail-- the Dalzell Gorge
and the Farewell Burn-- especially if we don’t have much snow (like last year!).
3A: What is the upside of the race for you? The downside?
Philip: The upside would have to be the fact that I am FINALLY getting to do this thing that I’ve wanted to do
for years. It used to be that, when people found out that I’m a musher, they’d ask me, “Are you going to do the
Iditarod?” And I’d answer, “I dunno… maybe someday?” Now, I can say, “YUP! I’m racing this year!” It’s
incredibly exciting!
The downside is all of the sacrifices being made for this race. The race is expensive-- I’m estimating it will cost
about $30,000 by the time it’s all over, and if I finish, I’ll win back $1,049 of that. But the money is the
SMALLEST sacrifice I’m making. I am spending so much time away from my wife and new son, Peter, and
every time I have to leave them at home while I go out on a training run, I get very sad. I want to be around
them, but I know I need to be out training. My wife knows that this is my dream, so she’s been very
supportive, but I know it’s hard for her. Somebody once told me that running Iditarod is a very selfish
endeavor. Not selfish in a mean way, but selfish in that fact that you have to spend so much time doing things
that nobody else can help you with, you end up spending a lot of time feeling very alone. That being said,
realizing that this is temporary, and in just under 6 months I’ll be crossing under that burled arch in Nome, I
know I can handle it.
3A: Are you excited for the race?
Philip: Nah. :) OF COURSE I’M EXCITED! And I’m excited for you guys to be following me every step of the
way!