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Welcome to Wicksypedia[]

Wicksypedia is your checkpoint for ~~all~~ most ~~some~~ information about the BraverMountain Mushing team.

You should be able to find info about the team, the dogs, the races, the stories and the international sledblob smuggling trips which unite Karen's Ugly Dogs around the world. We're still working on the barn cats, but can confirm they are named Winter and Summer. They were joined in 2020 by Spring.

This wiki is currently at:

~~Iditarod Winner Stage: up-to-date indexing of every possible piece of Ugly Dog trivia ever~~

~~Iditarod Finisher Stage: Complete recording of all the important and unimportant facts~~

~~Boss Bitch Stage: All information is as complete as it should be. Or Else.~~

Soaking Wet and Full of Cheese Stage: Everything is ~~very~~ mostly satisfactory. Now to focus on growth!

~~ABBWABABAA! Stage: There is some information, but let's be honest, it doesn't make a lot of sense.~~

~~Sledblob Stage: Still in it's infancy, this Wiki is really only working out how stuff works~~

~~Blowhole Stage: For some reason, things are not working as they should be. Has someone checked the brakelines?~~

BraverMountain Mushing[]

BraverMountain Mushing is a sled dog kennel owned and raced by wife and husband team, Blair Braverman and Quince Mountain. The team is based in Mountain, WI and spent the winter of 2018-19 training for the 2019 Iditarod in Alaska. BraverMountain's human team members also include Handler Chrissie and Handler Sarah.

BraverMountain started when Blair and Quince acquired six dogs from Ryan Redington. The "original six" were Epson, Jenga, Flame, Queen, Donut, and Badger. Blair and Quince then acquired 15 more dogs, including Grinch, Hari, and Refried, from another musher, Andrew Letzing, who was retiring from the sport, immediately increasing their team from 6 to 21 in one fell swoop. Since that time, the team has remained around 21 adults, although many of the dogs have changed as older dogs retired and other dogs were transferred to teams which were a better fit for that particular dog. BraverMountain has also welcomed four litters of puppies, the Buffypups and Journopups in 2016 and the Adventupups and Photopups in 2018. Information about most of the dogs and puppies who are, or were, a part of BraverMountain can be found at the links further down on this page.

Here's a thread from Blair about a day in the life of a musher and team training for the 2019 Iditarod in Alaska.

BraverMountain Stories[]

Here is a non-exhaustive list of BraverMountain Twitter Stories, including fan favorites such as "Grinch only goes South" and "Donut gets an exorcism." If you are looking for an old twitter thread, there is a good chance it will be on the list (and if it's not now, it will hopefully get there eventually).

BraverMountain Races[]

2021 MUSHING SEASON STILL UP IN THE AIR. Given the ongoing pandemic, it is unclear what the 2021 mushing season will look like for Blair and Q. They are signed up for a few races, including the Beargrease Marathon, but everything is still uncertain. Will update with more information when it is available.

Blair ran her first ever dogsled race in approximately 2013 at the Apostle Island Sled Dog race. At the time she was working as a handler for another musher who offered her the chance to race as well. Since that first race, Blair and Q have run many other races, many of the them before they were active on Twitter. Below are links to recaps of recent racing seasons, including Blair's 2019 rookie Iditarod finish and Q's 2020 rookie Iditarod race.

Recap of the 2017-18 Season.

Recap of the 2018-19 Season

Recap of the 2019-20 Season

Real Time Updates and Blair stories from the 2019 Iditarod.

Real Time Updates from the 2020 Iditarod.

IMPORTANT INFO FOR FOLLOWING GPS TRACKERS FROM UNCLE JEEMS (aka @JamesFrye). James put together a great and detailed twitter thread on the best way to get good info from the GPS trackers when following a race. It starts here [1]

Support BraverMountain Mushing[]

Running a competitive sled dog kennel is more than a full-time job and any support is always greatly appreciated by Blair and Quince, but never, ever, required or expected.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of the team, BraverMountain Mushing has a Patreon page here:

Fundraising!!

The 2021 mushing season is about to begin, albeit uncertainly due to the ongoing pandemic. If you want to provide some support for ongoing dog expenses, donations can be made via PayPal at bravermountainmushing@gmail.com. As always, donations are greatly appreciated by Blair and Q, but never expected or required to be a fan of the team!!

2021 BRAVERMOUNTAIN CALENDARS ARE AVAILABLE TO ORDER!! GET YOURS NOW!!

https://www.createphotocalendars.com/Store/BraverMountain+Mushing+2021-1044881319

Merch!!

https://bravermountain-mushing-2.creator-spring.com/

Karen's Ugly Dogs[]

Karen's Ugly Dogs are the supporters, followers, and friends of Blair Braverman and Quince Mountain, who run BraverMountain Mushing. The name originates from a twitter troll who told Blair to "go back to your ugly dogs, Karen." (original tweet ) The team supporters chose to turn that negative into a positive, and after a report by Beargrease race stated that Braverman "has a large presence on social media", decided to name themselves the Ugly Dogs (original tweet by @calimelissa with the idea). This causes confusion for new supporters who aren't sure why we are calling Blair's dogs ugly, and Blair often explains it. Rest assured, it's nothing but a positive thing and a way to show our support and pride in the team.

BraverMountain Sled Dogs (and puppies)[]

The BraverMountain sled dogs consist of a multitude of adult dogs, active and retired, and puppies ('sledblobs'). All of the dogs are Alaskan Huskies, which Blair talks about in detail in this thread.

On the BraverMountain dogs page, you can find information on all current and many former BraverMountain dogs, including those who have retired, moved to new teams, or earned their silver harnesses. This page also includes a few dogs that have never been official BraverMountain dogs but are important to the Ugly Dogs, such as Timmy the Moose and Clash. You can also click on the specific categories below to see which pups belonged to which litter.

Contemporary Composers

The links below are other ways to get info on the BraverMountain dogs.

Genealogy Charts

Soulpup Flowchart (UPDATED with 2019 Iditarod version!!)

Sled Dog Softness Index (SDSI) and Matt Power Size Scale graphs from the amazing @haleyksteele.