Thanks

A quick update:

Thanks to the Anchor for raising £58.20 in our absence and thank to Marie Ayers for paying £100 for this single photo of Arctic madness by Mark Nussey.

He is quite mad...

Thursday lunchtime

This morning's drive ended with two memorable quotes: Laura to Gaynor - "I didn't realise we'd signed up for Dog Sledding Extreme!" and Miloš to Rob - "Challenging enough for you...?" So you'll get the gist.

We started early this morning as Miloš gave us two options last night, we either travel for a few km by road, which would have meant a bit of man handling of sleds and a lot of slush or we risked a short cut across a region not normally used as a trail by sleds or snowmobiles. Gaynor and Miloš had tried this route the previous year and had found the snow so soft that it had taken them 2 and a half hours to cross as they'd had to push the sleds through. This year there is a thin, crispy crust of ice over the snow, which only yields if the dogs' paws pierce it and there are only 8 sleds, so we voted to leave before the sun's warmth had thawed the upper layer. It was the right decision. This was the most exhilarating route I'd taken. 

Short cut

The dogs rose to the challenge and when their feet pierced the ice and they plunged into the soft fluff beneath they forged on, even though they must have felt as if the ground was disappearing below them. It felt amazing to be crossing virgin snow, following Miloš as he chose our route. We had to go slowly for the majority of the journey as it's necessary to brake whenever the dogs hit a soft patch so that we don't run into them, then we have to release the brake immediately as they pull themselves out and onwards. It was an exhilarating drive, which lasted for about 45 minutes.


Then it all went a bit Pete Tong. We stopped for water at a stream and Rob and Gaynor filled the containers and we also had to go onto the road for a very short run. At the top of a ridge Miloš dug through a drift to get us back into the snow and the dogs had to climb through whilst we pushed. Those in front of me managed, with some effort, to jump back onto their runners as the dogs gained speed but I just couldn't. My team is so strong and they took off downhill at a pace with me dragging behind, hanging on with the words "never let go of your dogs" ringing in my ears and snow covering me (apparently) as I tried to get up but just kept falling between the runners. Eventually we ran into the back of the team in front of us and I managed to get my sled almost upright, but exactly the same thing happened again as I saw them all disappear over the horizon. At the bottom of the hill my dogs stopped. Not because they were ready for me to get on at last, but because by now the leaders had disappeared altogether. We couldn't see a track at all, other than and old one going vertically up the hill to our right. Andy weighed anchor to help me pull me team around and get them going up the hill but within 100 yards Zero lay down and refused to go any further. It took me at least 3 minutes to realise he'd slipped his collar and this was why he wouldn't move, thank goodness for Andy, he saved me. Sadly I was so jiggered that I fell off the edge of the top drift, landing on the road and covering the sled, my coat, boots and trousers with sludge. I felt terribly guilty, their beautiful new kit was filthy.

Mud 

Lunch 

When we stopped for lunch I realised I was still shaking and necked half a bottle of rescue remedy, before settling down to hot dogs round the fire. Having got through 'the worst', according to Miloš, we relaxed and recouped for about 2 hours. Actually it was the best as well as the worst, the short cut had given me a notion of how it would be without human evidence in the snow and it had sent my mind into dreamland, or that could have been the rescue remedy...

Camp

The sky is full of squiggles, I'm sure that's not a technical term but they're not technically clouds but strings of white that twist all over the sky and have followed us from Soppero for most of the day.

Setting up for camp for the first time was an education. Once Miloš finds a site he's happy with - sheltered, deep snow, enough room for 41 dogs, 4 tents and 8 sleds - he pulls off the hard, compacted snow and we trudge into the soft deeper stuff. The idea is to make a coral, much like the old western camps, so the all the dogs can be secured to the one in front and behind and this is done be making a huge circle. Once Miloš begins to close on the last team he stops and anchors his team. On this occasion the team were anchored to a birch tree, the birch tree was rotten and his team were over excited. As
he left them to secure Laura behind him the team broke loose and took off alone. He was so confident that they would stop, the anchor being loose and the team being his prize dogs that he didn't seem too concerned at first but Cute was on a mission and off she went, leading her team towards the horizon. We realised things were serious when Miloš set off after them at speed. It was important that none of us moved and the natural instinct of all the others is to 'follow the leader' so we dug in our heels and hung on.

After what seemed like an eternity he appeared at speed with the team looking under control and yet rather pleased with themselves.

Girlie latrine

The snow that is drifted up against the rise in the land, by which we are camped, is deep with a crisp layer on top. We dug out our tent spaces to a depth of around 2 feet and erected the tent in no time, in fact we cheated by stamping the snow down rather than digging as the "shuffles" (as Miloš calls them) aren't really man enough. The tents are very simple and when pitched in a hole they don't even need to be pegged. There was much discussion about where the communal latrine should be dug but Laura and I felt that we had time to dig our own personal one. It is a work of art, with a twig arrangement and a loo roll holder made from a stump. There's even a little hand cleaning area with soft powdery snow.

Night night

Tuesday morning - from my iPhone

Regardless of the verycoldclaire tag it was a delight to be able to feel the sun on my face and the joy of warm toes and fingers made me realise that there is a possibility that we could actually be comfortable en route. Of course the temperatures will be much lower further north and they will drop at night, but it was a blissfully different experience from last year (we are not allowed to say 'last year' today, it's been vetoed)


We've just had the expedition food meeting and shopping trip. Very exciting. We have 5 camp days once we leave Soppero, tomorrow, where we will be using Per Nils and Britt Marie's facilities and I think the plan so far is the following:
Day 1 Lunch - niste which is Rob's term for take with you food and we will have pålegg (on bread things) as we will be tight for time. Supper - Miloš burgers (as in made by Miloš not of Miloš) and cooked on the new camp stove with potato in white sauce, this comes ready made and in a bag.
Day 2 Lunch - BBQ pork cutlets.
Supper - Gulaš (already made by Miloš)
Day 3 Lunch - hot dogs cooked in the tin. We tried these yesterday, quick and tasty, not sure about the nutritional value but needs must etc...
Supper - reindeer steaks on a BBQ grill type thing with something frozen and frozen mixed vegetables.
Day 4- today we are dependent upon our success with the fishing rods, so there is a plan B of pytt ypanne. We all got our fishing licences this morning, which came with a brilliant map of the area we will be covering. The hope is that we will get to the cabin in time for our rest day and catch enough fish to feed us all.
Gaynor and I are keen to have some fruit but Miloš say bananas are sensitive to the cold and go black too easily, so we bought pineapple chunks in tins and dried fruit as neither of us would naturally chose a menu of meat but we know we're going to need it. We bought the meat and fish from a huge truck, parked in Kiruna this morning.













Reindeer steaks
Then we went to the hypermarket for all the other supplies.









Now Miloš is packing up and once we've had Andy's delicious looking kebabs we are off to Soppero. Food sorted.

Hanging about

I can think of worse places to hang about but it's still not my favourite occupation. Rob, Andy and Milos are sharing responsibility for food for the camp and over breakfast there was a discussion about meals and a long shopping list was written. I posted a blog by iPhone this day, explaining what had been decided upon and showing the images of the butchers and supermarket so I'll skip over that. Steve came back to the lodge and then set off on his snowmobiling session with Jan, returning exhausted and grinning from ear to ear just in time for a chicken kebab.

Once everything was sorted into boxes for the sleds and loaded, along with the equipment and clothing we'd need we set off for Soppero at about 4.30pm. The rest of us are a bit jaded today, not having any activity other than shopping made us all a bit grouchy and sleepy. Jan will bring the dogs and the rest of the sleds in the morning so that they can sleep at home in their huts tonight.

We arrived to a warm welcome from Per Nils and Brit Marie, and the familiar attic space with bed slots. No fire this time, just a little electric stove, a sign of how much warmer everywhere is. There are some gorgeous puppies here at the homestead, Per Nils said he wouldn't miss the one with the patch over his eye...



We settled in to a lazy Soppero evening of sauna, sunsets, salmon and songs with Gaynor valiantly attempting to get a tune out of a squeeze box that per Nils magicked out of thin air. Andy played the guitar and blew everyone away with his ability to listen to a track on an iPod and play it straight back at us.

This is our last day of communication with home and we will not have any signal until our return. In case of emergency we call 112 and this will connect us to the satellite, Gaynor said that we don't really need it as the most efficient back up is for the Sami people to be aware of your trip. Apparently they appear from nowhere when you need them. Let's hope we don't.

Training day

It's Monday April 11th and the weather could not have been better for dog sled training. The sun glinted off the shiny new sleds Milos has built; they are sleek and have additional soft brakes which fall between the extra wide runners, just behind the main brake and their addition makes downhills much easier. The runners have a kind of poly carbon material underneath and this makes them smooth, even over the wet roads which are melting fast. We spent some time getting to know our way around the sleds and harnessing up 4 dogs each, not the teams we will take on the main trip, but some familiar faces nonetheless.






The first run itself went smoothly, Rob came off at the first corner - he said he'd forgotten everything Milos told us about not being able to steer the sled and the fact that this is nothing like skiing - but it was a good place to come off and to get it out of the way. Despite the slushy nature of the snow we were able to get up some speed and travelling along the river, by the Ice Hotel was infinitely preferable to last year's run in the same spot, when we had temperatures of -30 and windchill on top of that. For Steve, Laura and I it was a revelation to be sledding in this weather. None of us really had any sense that the trip could be enjoyable!

We travelled for around 26 km before stopping to practice lining out with the cables that we'll be using in camp. Each team is secured to the team in front with a thick cable, which we carry in our sleds and any lines which are not wire are removed from biting distance for our overnight and long stops. It seemed very complicated but as usual Milos made it look simple. He also made the cooking of hot dogs in tins very straight forward: hit the tin with a knife a few times and shove it in the fire, delicious hot dogs 10 minutes later. We did a big loop home and by the time we returned the boys all had big grins on their faces, they are naturals and now none of us can wait to get going.

In the evening we went in to town as Steve was staying at the Ice Hotel, so we had a tour of the dripping, melting and slightly dingy site. What a difference a month makes. It was sad to see it like this, having been blown away last year, especially as I'm determined to build a room there one day. We had a drink on Mertz and then went back to Mushers for supper, connect 4 and backgammon. There is no need for an early night tonight as we will not be sledding tomorrow, there was a sense of real disappointment when we realised this. Now that we're here we just want to be sledding everyday.

Cryophiles

It is Sunday April 10th and a bright, crisp evening in Kiruna. The hand picked team of cryophiles are getting to know the dogs, learning the feeding ritual, being fitted for the new boots that Gaynor has provided and trying on various other items of protective clothing. The kit we will be using this year is far superior to anything we had before, even the sleds are brand new and hand made by Milos. Tomorrow we will acquaint ourselves with the sleds and take a team of 4 dogs for days local sledding by way of training. I'm delighted to see that Rune and Refat are still here and they are on the list of possible team members for the big trip. It's also good to see Milos's dogs - the champs!

We travelled as a group from the UK today and the signs that this team will be a joy to work with were not hard to spot as we moved through airports and connections smoothly. Meeting Gaynor and Milos at Kiruna airport was wonderful, additionally so as I haven't seen them together since their relationship developed from being purely professional. They are so good together.

Mushers Lodge has also changed, the business has split since we were here last and the combination of the local season being almost over and Daniella and Jan having taken over the lodge itself means that we are in a quiet, clean and dry environment, which we have to ourselves. A stark contrast to the steamy, bustling and slightly smelly lodge of last year. Laura and I have a lovely twin room, overlooking the kennels and the boys are either side of us.

We are a day early due to flight changes, when given the choice we decided to enable ourselves to do some training and to get more involved in the planning of food etc. which is certainly the right decision, but I do feel that we are all chomping at the bit and can't wait to get out there. Steve, Laura and I have the itch because we know we love sledding and the boys are all so keen having committed to this 6 months ago. It's not cold enough for Mark, he wants silly temperatures, but I'm pleased that it won't be crippling.

Tonight it's fondue and briefing and a nice early night, tomorrow we can get our mushing boots on.