Arctic sleddogcenter

Another 5 day safari has passed again. Nice groupe, great clear weather and some free running teams... ( to make sure nobody gets bored... )
 Dogs are in really good shape at the moment and the trails are really fast. Friday we came home from Saukkooja 44km in 4 hours inclouding 1 hour lunchbreak...
Comming week some snowfall is promised, that might slow us down a bit.

Joiku and Aragon

Baikal, Chico, Fjäll, Coyote and Sumu

Arctic sleddogcenter

Finally the sun has come back. After 4 weeks without the sun it was great to welcome her back in a long sunrise/sunset hour... Many pictures were taken, so that at some point the dogs probably started to wonder what is going on, so many stops were made.... fortunately the dogs were patient with us, so  no jewed harnesses or lines resulted from our photosessions...

Pallastunturi

Merlin and Remu waiting to go on...

Hilla getting ready for start...

This week Hilla one of my 4 month old puppies joined us on the trip being a sleddog in every meaning of the word...( sitting on the sled...) Lunchbrakes and evenings got some more activities with her and she found some new friends cuddeling with her...

Hilla with her father Merlin

Arctic sleddogcenter

Two really different weeks... First Christmasweek with temperatures going down to -37 and then the New Years week with temperatures just bellow 0...!

In very cold temperatures it is important to wear the right clothes, using many layers so that the air in between gives some more insulations, then protect your head as well as possible, no cream on your face but rather no washing in the morning and then covering your skin with a buff or a scarf. All hills on the way are very welcome of course because there is the only chance the dogs slow down so that you have a chance to run behind them and get warm again...
With cold temperatures the sky is of course most beautyfull, yellow, orange and pink going over the whole sky as the sun didn't appear yet.

lake Vuontisjärvi

"Warm weather" is more a problem for the dogs than for the mushers. Last week Hetfielt needed to get a ride in a sled to reach lunchplace, his "batteries" were just empty, because of soft snow and warm conditions. (Now wonder as he has at least three times as much hair as the others...) After a break, a little snack and a change into my team, he was ok again for the rest of the week. The temperatures also went down gradually again so that on friday reaching -20 again must have been a great thing for him...

Hetfielt