57 pages • 1 hour read
Gary PaulsenWinterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
Nonfiction | Book | YA | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Yukon”
Paulsen knows the Yukon River has a reputation as the worst part of the trip. However, sunny conditions and a scenic landscape during the day lull him into thinking it’s not so bad. Then, that night, “the bottom dropped out” (228), as the temperature plunges to about 60 degrees below zero. He describes the cold as needles penetrating his body.
When Paulsen stops to check the dogs for frostbite, he discovers that moving is one way to keep the stinging cold at bay. Therefore, he decides to run next to the sled for periods of time.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Unalakleet”
Paulsen comments on the sharp contrast between the cold, dark interior and the coast: “The Bering coast was all light and sun and soft weather” (231). In Kaltag, he runs into a lot of drunk villagers who want to party and pet the dogs. He doesn’t stay long because he realizes the dogs can’t get any rest there.
He spends a night in Unalakleet, where the race rules allow the mushers to stay in houses, so villagers sign up to host them (236). The family that hosts him is very hospitable and feeds him a lavish meal that includes caribou steaks.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Norton Sound”
Cookie alerts Paulsen that something is wrong by lifting her tail. Paulsen figures out that the team is on a new sheet of thin ice. He commands Cookie to lead the team out of the danger area. Paulsen notes that the ice has claimed many lives, and he thinks the team would have fallen through if they had arrived two hours earlier (245).
Chapters 17-19 Analysis
As he nears the end of the race, Paulsen comes to a full realization of how he has changed and the knowledge he has acquired. In fact, he has developed a sixth sense about surviving in the wilderness, an instinct not unlike that of his four-legged friends. He has developed a new respect not only for the dogs’ human-like qualities but also for their super-human attributes, as evidenced by Cookie’s instinctively knowing that the ice is thin in Norton Sound and warning Paulsen with her tail. Paulsen ponders his new mindset: “I had changed, re-formed. I had gained knowledge that I didn’t understand. I reflexively knew where the wind would be the worst on a hill, knew where to watch for moose, knew in my mind the shoulder rhythms of trotting and running dogs and what it meant when they changed” (238). He also puts his new knowledge to good use, saving the team from dangerous and potentially deadly situations with good decisions.
Meeting the old man in Unalakleet validates his new life running dogs in the wilderness. By remarking that Paulsen is now “one of them” (238), meaning the dogs, the old man reinforces Paulsen’s identity as a musher who sees dogs, in many ways, as equals to humans.
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