Yukon Quest: Rookie Canadian musher Damon Tedford in top 5

• Editor's note: Damon Tedford crossed the finish line of the Yukon Quest at 1:32 a.m. Alaska Standard Time on the morning of February 18th, officially finishing in fourth place and as the race's top rookie musher.

Damon Tedford, a rookie Canadian musher who took up the sport just last year, is set to finish among the top five in one of the most gruelling sled dog races in the world: the 1,600-kilometre Yukon Quest. 

Tedford moved to Alaska this fall, found a one-room cabin to rent and a team of well-trained sled dogs to lease. He entered his first sled dog race just weeks before the Quest began in Whitehorse on Feb. 7.

His entry in the big race raised eyebrows, but Tedford is proving himself on the trail. After 11 days, he's expected to cross the finish line sometime overnight, a little more than a day after this year's winner, Brent Sass. 

"I know that he is frostbitten on his face," says Tedford's wife, Lauren Kimball, from her hotel room in Fairbanks, Alaska. 

"When he crosses that line I will be very glad and I will be counting all fingers and toes. And then, honestly, we're going to get back to our real lives." 

Their daily lives are far from the mushing world. Both are doctors. Tedford works as an emergency room physician in Vancouver, but his family isn't surprised he's in the Yukon Quest, or even that's he's among the fastest mushers. 

"I would have been more surprised if he didn't do well," says his mother, Heather Tedford, from her home in Charlottetown. 

She says her son has always had big dreams and big goals. He's served with the Canadian Forces in Bosnia and Afghanistan, then went to medical school. He's an ultramarathon runner who loves adventure.

"He's not foolhardy," says his mother. "As much as he kind of amazes us and sometimes worries us with what he does, we always know he will be very well planned."

'He just really liked it'

Tedford was  introduced to mushing when his wife bought them a half-day sled dog tour in Ontario's Algonquin Park.

"He just really liked it and started talking about it for the next few years," says Kimball. "He's a driven person and he kind of got a little obsessed about it."

Last year, Tedford headed north and spent a few weeks learning the ropes with former Yukon Quest winner Sebastian Schnuelle. 

"He has all the things you need to be as a successful racer," Schnuelle says, adding that Tedford's army background is particularly helpful. "He can take directions, he's methodical, he's perfectly fit and it all comes together and shows in the placings."

But Schnuelle says he wasn't expecting Tedford to do quite so well. 

"For me, I'm surprised to see him up that high, but considering what I would call six of the top 10 teams have fallen by the wayside, it explains the standings. So he's doing extremely well, but he's very methodical and it's being rewarded now at the end of the race." 

Schnuelle expects Tedford will be awarded rookie of the year honours for his Yukon Quest performance. 

'Pretty amazing'

Schnuelle says there are many factors that account for Tedford's excellent showing. 

"If the other guys had stayed in the race, he probably would have been a 10th or 11th place finish. Now it happens to be a 4th or 5th place finish, which is pretty amazing and pretty good for him." 

His wife agrees.

"I think it's an alignment of everything that's allowed him to be so successful," says Kimball.

She says his dog team is to be commended too. 

"To be fair, he's got these amazing dogs from Mitch Seavey's kennels," she says.  

​But this is it, she's quick to add. Tedford is not going to make mushing his career.

"It's one and done," Kimball says. "This is not a lifestyle. We're not going to get a dog yard and 40 dogs. This is a thing to be done and proud of and accomplished."