The lush rainforest and intense humidity of tropical Queensland may be the last place you'd expect to find a contender for the world's most famous dog sled race.
But Mackay builder Christian Turner has his sights firmly set on competing in the iconic Iditarod across Alaska in March.
Mr Turner moved to Canada from Sydney when he was 18 and discovered his love for snow dog sledding when he began doing it as a side job taking people on tours.
"And from there I went into racing and did all the races I could in Canada; then I moved up to Alaska to pursue the big ones.
And there is no bigger race than the Iditarod.
The Iditarod is known as The Last Great Race for a good reason.
It's a 1,000-mile (1,600km) trek that traverses North America's highest mountain range, a treacherous river system and even the Bering Sea.
The race has a prize pool of $US500,000 ($738,225) and an equally rich history.
"They do a huge ceremonial start through Anchorage, which is the biggest city [in Alaska]," Mr Turner said.
"If there's no snow at the time, they'll bring in snow from the mountains and put it through the main streets and you're mushing through the skyscrapers.
"The whole city comes out and they line the streets and you do a couple of hours' loops through the city."
Iditarod chief executive Rob Urbach said the event was for tenacious adventure athletes with a wide variety of skills.
"It's iconic, it's legendary, it channels the history of native peoples of Alaska.
"It is very authentic at a time where most of our races now are using technology or some form of adaptation; this honours an old tradition through rural Alaska."
Glory in his sights
A daunting challenge awaits Mr Turner but he's not naive to the task, having finished the race in 2014 and 2015.
At his most recent attempt he finished 15th of 70, making him the highest-ranked Australian and the fastest musher from the Southern Hemisphere.
Mr Turner will face no shortage of adversity throughout the eight-to-11-day journey from one side of Alaska to the other.
"Minus-40 temperatures, camping in the wilderness, moose are pretty dangerous — they'll charge your dogs and stuff, [they are] very territorial and big.
"If there's a ground storm or a big windstorm, [nobody's] going to come and rescue you, you're on your own."
During the mountainous part of the course he will move through small passes at high altitudes that are prone to avalanches.
"That's a bit sketchy, especially when you're going at night, but then you get down the other side and she's a bit nicer, a bit flatter, and then you hit the rivers and the oceans," Mr Turner said.
But the frozen rivers and oceans aren't much safer, with warm currents and snowdrifts causing the occasional ice melt.
"Then water will pop up on top of the ice, so you can be on your trail and it can be firm pack and the next minute you're in six metres of water."
These are obstacles every competitor will attempt to overcome, but Mr Turner also has to deal with acclimatisation.
"That's going to be really hard because normally I'll be there physically six months before the race; this time I'm going over a month or a bit less than that before the race from the Mackay summer to the dead of winter."
The engine
Mr Turner will be assisted by his team of 14 dogs.
"The first times I did it, I had puppies that were two years old. This year, I've got a professional [dog] team from a champion [racer] that's won it three times before. He's unable to run so I'm going to take his dogs," he said.
"It's all about the conditioning on the dogs; like a marathon runner you build up to your race, so these dogs are incredibly fit and they start at five miles in October and by the end of February or March they're running 1,000 miles."
The dogs burn 13,000 calories a day, so they rely on a high-protein meat diet which they eat on the go.
It is tough work for the animals that power the sled, but Mr Turner believes they really enjoy it.
"It's what they're bred for and what they love to do."
Mr Urbach said the relationship between competitors and dogs was vital.
"The mushers will tell you that they will need to connect emotionally, maybe even more so than with their kids," he said.
"The dogs need to believe in the musher."
The Iditarod is not supported by everyone and has been accused of cruelty by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
"In the gruelling Iditarod, dogs are forced to pull heavy sleds through some of the most extreme weather conditions on the planet," it said in a statement.
"Forcing dogs, humans' oldest animal companions, to run against their will for our entertainment is a form of speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview."
