Husky Trip across the Arctic Circle

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It was an ambition I'd had for many years so on the 21st February I embarked on an adventure to take a team of Huskies across the Arctic Circle. As there was no electicity, never mind web access, I had to save my experiences in a hand written notebook until my return.

I arrived at the base camp after a flight via Stockholm to a small town called Kiruna located in northern Sweden well inside the arctic circle. Kiruna is a mining town which is why there is an airport located there. By the time I arrived it was getting quite late so it was a quick introduction to the rest of the team before climbing into my sleeping bag for the night.

The following morning we had breakfast before being introduced to our Husky team. This is where the fun started! The first bit of advice was to put two pairs of socks on. The second "golden rule" was to NEVER let go of the sled! If you are going to fall off, take the sled over with you otherwise you will never see your dogs or sled again.

Basically there are four ways of stopping the sled; firstly a quick release rope that you attach to a nearby tree. The only problem with this is that when the huskies are champing at the bit ready to go they're likely to uproot the tree and when you do pull the release mechanism if you're not careful the sled takes off from under your feet leaving you keeping a fir tree company. The second method of stopping the sled is the snow anchor that you push into the snow and then stamp on. This is about as effective as tethering a Chieften tank with a length of dental floss. Thirdly you can attempt to halt the dogs with a metal snow brake that you step on and dig into the snow. However the huskies seem totaly oblivious to this and continue charging on while you push harder and harder on the brake desperately trying to slow the team down until cramp sets in and you simply give up. And forth; the snow plate, this is a clever device that you press down on with either foot to slow the sled down. This does have some effect but unfortunately the person behind gets covered in a plume of snow that is hardly conducive to team building.

Still once we had been given the basics of handling the dogs and how to harness them it was time to load the sleds with the weeks provisons (not forgetting the frozen dog food), pull the release line and charge off into the wilderness hanging on for grim death.

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Comments

[maddy]

THIS IS SO COOL
i think what you have done is magnificent and you should do it again and again

[Andy137]

Huskey Trip
Hi Maddy, Thanks for your comment. I might just do so :-)

[Chris and Nikki]

Cool picture!