HUMAN
Name: Alex Blutinger
Age: 35
Residence: New York City, New York
Occupation: Emergency and Critical Care Specialist in Manhattan
Years involved with Iditarod: This is my first year on the Iditarod trail
Iditarod Role: I’m one of the volunteer veterinarians
Current Location: We’re currently in Wasilla, but I’m stationed at Ophir as my checkpoint
Date of Photo: March 1, 2023
Temperature: 14 degrees
What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?
So I got involved with the Iditarod through a mentor of mine who’s from Kodiak Island, Dr. Horn. He practices on the East coast, and he had been doing this event for many, many years. And since I started becoming interested in veterinary medicine, he had told me about his experiences on the trail and how special this was, and how it really connected him to veterinary medicine and to the outdoors and on so many different levels. And for over a decade, I’ve been meaning to do this, and this year I finally realized if it’s not now, it’s never. So I committed and here I am.
What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?
I’m here today and involved with the Iditarod because I felt like I wanted a really unique experience, not just an experience in the outdoors and in a different terrain, but in veterinary medicine. And this is sort of, in my mind, the core of what defines veterinary medicine at sort of its primal level. Dealing with animals that are doing what they’re meant to be doing, bred for this purpose, and they love doing it. And I really wanted to connect on that level with the profession, and I feel like I’ve never had that sort of experience before.
Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences:
One of the most memorable Iditarod experiences for me was actually flying into Alaska. I’d been here once before at a young age, and as I was getting close, it was a long flight from the East coast. But as I was getting close and kind of flying in through the mountain ranges and seeing all the snow and the terrain, it really hit me that this was going to be an experience of a lifetime. And I’m really just fortunate that I have the ability to do this. That was really special for me.
What in life do you know for sure?
That’s a deep question. Honestly, not to sound cliche, but veterinary medicine is the greatest profession in the world. To be able to have experiences like this and to be able to do things like this, pick up and go to a terrain that is so raw, and it’s just something that most people can never have the opportunity to do, and it just defines veterinary medicine. All these opportunities that exist for pets all over the world, for animals all over the world, and this is just one of them. So I’m thrilled that I picked this profession and I had this opportunity.