Sibling teamwork propelled Katherine Scheck to victory in the weekend’s biennial Silver Sled skijor race in Haines Junction.

“They’re totally used to running with each other,” said Scheck of her team.

“They’re pretty cute on the trail.”

Running together, the dogs would look at each other, lick one another and cheer each other on, said Scheck after she’d pulled into the checkpoint at Silver City, the halfway point of the 100-mile stage race.

Named after the latin names of fish, Lota, Salmo, Esox, Articus and Guppy ran Scheck to a day one stage win Saturday, completing the 50-mile leg in four hours, four minutes and 38 seconds.

Scheck was tired as she cared for the dogs at her truck in Silver City, once a bustling community in the early 1900s thanks to its trading post, but that now hosts the Arctic Institute of North America’s Kluane Lake Research Centre.

She commended Esox, one of her boys. “This guy right here is a total rock star. At times I was like, ‘I should just put him up front and see what he does.’”

From the race’s start in Haines Junction, the Silver Sled trails travels north towards Pine Lake, before veering northwest along the Alaska Highway to Silver City. The trail gains in altitude before cresting at Bear Creek Summit and dropping towards the shores of Kluane Lake.

Scheck said the climb was a slog.

“But that section of trail always is because the sun hits it and it gets really soft, so even when it’s cold, the trail is so soft.”

Scheck ended up dropping a dog at the summit. “Not because anything happened, but because I didn’t have a good feeling.”

After some food and rest at Silver City, Scheck and her team of four siblings started day 2, the run back to the finish.

They completed the return run in 3:41:46, for a final time of 7:46:24, good enough for first in the 100-mile skijor and second overall.

First-place in 100-mile sled category and overall race winner was Marine Gastard.

She beat the next fastest team into the checkpoint by at least 15 minutes and after taking care of her dogs, went inside to rest.

Meanwhile, second-place musher Gerry Willomitzer, fresh off the Yukon Quest 300 at the beginning of February, fed his dogs a frozen meaty snack before bedding them in his truck.

Competing in the Silver Sled off and on since the early 2000s, Willomitzer said that he’s never done better than fourth.

“From what I see here I should be in second place at this point,” he said with a laugh. “That’s as good as it gets. Realistically, I mean there’s no way I’m going to catch her [Gastard]. I might have to do a sneaky move tonight, come over with a bottle of whisky.”

Running a team of mostly two- and three-year olds, Willomitzer said he was impressed with his two young leaders, Tundra and Loonie, who last ran the trail as yearlings.

From a litter of eight, Willomitzer said the duo showed a lot of promise, even when they were younger.

“She’s [Loonie] not that responsive when it comes to commands, but she likes to drive the team, likes to put up the pace,” he said. “Tundra is a bit more responsive when it comes to gee and haw. Between the two of them, we got here.”