polaris founders to retrace alaska trip
Amsnow
On March 15, Edgar Hetteen, 79, will set out on an eight day- 900 mile trek to Alaska. Hetteen and David Johnson, 77, will travel the same route used in 1960 when a group of four traveled 21 days from Bethel, Alaska to Fairbanks.
The original trip was an effort to save Polaris from going under. The first Polaris snowmobiles were built in 1956, the Sno-Travelers. The sleds weren't a big hit right away- and the company was struggling. The group decided to take a journey to see if snowmobiles could do the job. Their trek was a success- and it helped increase the popularity of Polaris snowmobiles.
This time, Hetteen and Johnson will be joined by several other riders, including current President and CEO of Polaris, Tom Tiller, 38. The team will be accompanied by GPS satellite phones which will be used to broadcast their position to the Polaris website which will be updated twice daily throughout the trip with the team's progress. (Log on to www.polarisindustries.com/alaska after March 5th.)
This trip is also being used as a fund-raiser for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. A Polaris engineer was diagnosed with the disease recently and Polaris will be matching contributions by its employees to the National ALS Foundation.