What´s happening

It is a long time since my last entry on the blog. So what is going on? Yesterday we finally got some snow, about 20 cm. This is the first snow we have had since long before Christmas. I have not been able to train the dogs whit sled from back home since the first days of December. This has made a lot of work, or more precisely, a lot of time in the car.
In December we could do some training in the mountains of Dividalen. I have also been some (6) times in Kiruna, since November, a four hour drive each way. We even had to do some training with the ATV in January!!!!!! just to get the dogs out. Lake Altevatn, that usually provide good training conditions have also suffered lack of snow. It has up to recently been more or less just ice up there. But some days ago we could finally go there as well.
So what do this mean for the training of the team? It means that we have been training longer distances but not so often. I have had three trips of 200km and a lot of 50-60 km trips, but no short, fast and fun runs. So the dogs have the same distance as last year, but they lack a little of the spirit needed to run fast.
Now that we finally have got snow we are going to do some short trips back home this week before I do some longer trips over the weekend.
The situation in the dog yard is that 13 of 14 dogs are in good shape. Smirre, one of my yearlings have had problems whit a sore wrist and have been resting quite a lot. So I don't think he will be ready for the Finnmarka race. This mean that I have to borrow one or two dogs. And that should be no problem.
That's it for now. So its just to hope for good snow conditions for the last 6 weeks.

The turning of the sun

The darkest day of the winter is over, from now the days get longer. At this time of the year we normally have lots of snow. And we celebrate Christmas. This year December have been a long search for good conditions for sledding. Kiruna in Sweden have been the rescue, but this weekend it was just hard and icy conditions. So whit no hope I went to Devvdes, just to have a look. I was quite sure that the warm weather had stolen the snow. But I was wrong! It ended up a happy day! Really good conditions. So now I can at least run the dogs up there, in days that get longer and longer. And who knows, maybe one day we will have snow back home as well. OK, it is not totally black Christmas. We have a thin layer down here in the wally, but not much.
The Christmas celebration. For the first year in a long time I am going to spend it whit the family.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of you.

In the moutains.

At last, on December the 4Th, we were back in the mountains around Devdes and Dærta. Its not much snow, but enough for teams up to 8 dogs. Being back up there with the dogs is great. Now the winter season on for real.
Many times before have I tried to describe the light in the mountain this time of the year. The sun is under the horizon, but its pink light reflects in the sky. And all the shades of blue. You have to see it to understand it.
We ended up whit three trips up there this week. Tomorrow its back, and I am going to stay there a couple of days. I am on schedule whit the training, and if conditions are not getting bad I will be able to get the miles I need. Life is good and the dogs are healthy

On the sled again!!

Monday last week (November 5th) the snow finally came. But still it is not enough to go out whit sleds. It still helps to have some snow. It is better for the paws to run on snow than on gravel. But for me it is the boring task of sitting on the ATV. And when the temperature drops down to -15c it is cold. So when I heard that it was half a meter of snow in Kiruna in Sweden I loaded up the dogs for the four hour drive over to the white stuff. What a joy for man and dogs!!! The first day we took two teams of seven dogs for a 25 kilometer run and the next day we did 50 kilometer. Yesterday I took all 14 dogs in one team and went for another 50 kilometer run. Pure joy. The dogs was happily running, and I could feel the power in the team!
Back home again it is the same conditions than when I left, 10 cm of snow. So I am afraid it is back on the ATV for still some days.
Anyway, I am on schedule, the team is getting stronger, and everything looks fine. I think I am the one who have the biggest need to get going whit the sled, not the dogs.

Although it is little snow Espen is training our 3 half year old together whit one good old leader on the sled, doing 5 kilometer runs. For them it is all about learning the basic.
So for now it is just to hope for snow. I have a hope that it will at least be possible to go up into the mountains in the end of the week to do some sledding. Time will show.

The team

As written before, I have 14 dogs in training for the Finnmarksløpet this season. I can start whit as many as 14 dogs, so I hope that all dogs are fit for fight at March 8. The big question is if I will get Trangia in shape for the race. As you will see in the last post she is doing mummy duty right now. But I am going to start training her soon.
I don't have any good profile pictures of the team right now, but here is the dogs I hope will take me around Finnmark in March:
Gunnar: Leader. Finnmark 500: 2006, 2007
Sting: Leader. Finnmark 500: 2006, 2007, Finnmark 1000: 2005, Femund500: 2005
Skare: Leader. Finnmark 500: 2006, 2007, Finnmark 1000: 2005, Femund500: 2005, Femund400: 2006
Trangia: Leader. Finnmark 500: 2006,2007, Finnmark 1000, 2005, Femund500, 2005
Dønning: Finnmark 500, 2006, 2007. Finnmark 1000, 2005, Femund 500, 2005
Kesam: Finnmark 500, 2006, 2007
Momba: Leader. Finnmark 500, 2007
Kaos: Leader. Finnmark 500, 2007
Elvira: Leader. Finnmark 500, 2007
Vosko: Finnmark 500, 2007
Elton: Finnmark 500, 2007
Sunda: Finnmark 500, 2007
Smirre: In training to be a leader. Rookie
Tutta. Rookie
In 2006 we never reached the finish line, at Femund500km they had to scratch afer 400 kilometer. In 2007 we had two teams on Finnmark 500km. Trangia, Sting, Kesam and Sunda were dropped. Trangia and Sting reached the finish line at Finnmark 1000km in 2005 with Espen. This mean that 10 of my dogs have seen the finish line in Alta, which mean that this is the most experienced team we have ever sent to Finnmarksløpet.

The young ones

On the third of October Trangia gave birth to six puppies. I now I am late whit this update, but it is quite a lot to do for the moment. The training for the upcoming season takes lot of time on top of all the other tings that needs to be done before the winter. And speaking about winter; we almost had it. For almost a week the white stuff was covering the ground. But it was not enough for sledding :-(

Back to the young ones. We are going to keep four of them, and two are going to be sold. Who we are going to keep, we don't know yet, except for Gunn, the only yellow of the bunch. The rest of them are black and white. We have name for two of them, Bård and Kari. Named after some friends of mine. If anyone have a name for the last one you can come with a suggestion. It has to be a human name, since the other three have human names as well as the six month old bunch (Pelle, Herman and Wilma).

News from the dogs

The training for next winter officially started at August 15. By now I am doing 13 kilometer runs, whit two days on, and one day of. The weather has been good for us the last weeks, cold and gray weather. Just how i like it while training. And training we need. I have now officially signed up for the 1000 kilometer long Finnmarksløpet, and its just to hope that we will reach the start, which is the first finishline. I have 14 dogs in training, and need at least 12 to start. But hopefully I will get all 14 to the start.
There is also two new members in the dog family. Pelle, born in June, and Herman, born in May. They spend their days playing in the puppy pen or running around in the woods on small trips. More news will be posted through the season, so stay tuned.