Dokken: Interview leads to story about 1968 snowmobile trip to the North Pole

Nearly every interview I’ve ever done has included information that never makes it to print. Knowing what to leave out of a story – as opposed to just opening the notebook and letting the words spill out – can be more difficult than knowing what to include.

That’s been my experience, at least.

Such was the case earlier this week, when I interviewed Rob Hallstrom, the snowmobile enthusiast and adventure seeker from Park Rapids, Minnesota, who is one of the “3 Old Guys” about to embark on a snowmobile trip of nearly 4,000 miles from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to Newfoundland and Labrador in eastern Canada.

Hallstrom and his partners – Rex Hibbert of Soda Springs, Idaho, and Paul Dick of Grand Rapids – are making the trip on state-of-the-art Arctic Cat 600 Riot snowmobiles.

The futuristic-looking sleds are a far cry from the vintage snowmobiles that Hallstrom and others who grew up in the 1960s and early ’70s remember riding.

I asked Hallstrom how much more difficult their upcoming trip would be on snowmobiles like the old Ski-Doo he drove as a teenager.

The difference between the sleds of yore and the snowmobiles of today, he says, is “unbelievable.”

Hallstrom then shared a story about Ralph Plaisted, a Minnesota explorer who was part of the first crew to reach the North Pole by snowmobile in April 1968.

Hallstrom lived in Centerville, Minnesota, until his mid-teens, when the family moved north to St. Hilaire. Plaisted didn’t live far from Centerville, Hallstrom recalls.

“I’m 12-13 years old,” Hallstrom said. “We had our first Ski-Doo snowmobile, and I’m riding on the ball diamond behind our house dreaming that I’m Ralph Plaisted going to the North Pole.”

Years later, Hallstrom attended a small gathering where Plaisted spoke. He asked the explorer how much easier the trip to the North Pole would have been if he’d been riding one of today’s modern snowmobiles, as opposed to the primitive Ski-Doo that Plaisted drove.

“He said, ‘Well, two things,’ ” Hallstrom said. “He said, ‘We had lots of ice heaves that would be 20-30 feet high. We would physically pick the snowmobiles up and lift them over these ice heaves.’ ”

That’s not an option with modern snowmobiles, which Hallstrom says weigh 500 to 600 pounds, as opposed to the old machines that weighed “maybe 200 pounds or something.”

There’s more.

“(Plaisted) said, ‘It was so cold, we’d get up in the morning, take some gas into the tent, warm up that gas so that it would burn, pour it on the carburetor of the snowmobile (and) light the snowmobile on fire to warm the carburetor up enough to start the engine,’ ” Hallstrom said.

Hallstrom laughed at the ingenuity.

“You do that with a modern snowmobile, there’d be nothing but a pile of melted plastic and aluminum,” he said. “But for what we’re doing, we couldn’t do this at our age with those old vintage snowmobiles.”

For more about the 3 Old Guys’ upcoming snowmobile trip to Newfoundland and Labrador, check out the story on C1 of Saturday’s Grand Forks Herald or online at grandforksherald.com.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about three area people – Pat Adrian of Roseau, Minnesota; Ryan Haug of Fargo; and Rachel Utecht of Fargo – who were competing in the Arrowhead Ultra 135, a winter endurance race from International Falls to Tower, Minnesota.

The race – open to competitors on bike, foot, kick sled and skis – got underway at 7 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27, at Kerry Park Arena in International Falls, and participants had until 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29, to reach the finish line at Fortune Bay Casino in Tower.

In the bike category, Haug placed second with a time of 19 hours, 19 minutes. Adrian placed third, finishing the race in 21 hours, 14 minutes. Adrian’s finish marked the 10th time in as many years that he has finished among the Top 10 bikers.

Utecht, who competed on foot, was forced to drop out of the race. “No regrets, just not my finish to be had,” she wrote in a Facebook post after the race.

Only 25 of the 70-plus participants who competed on foot finished the race.

Just preparing for a race like the Arrowhead requires an effort most people would find difficult to comprehend, and anyone with the drive to enter should be commended.

For a full rundown on results, check out the Arrowhead Ultra website at arrowheadultra.com/2025-results .