The Dogs

Finnmarksløpet (The Finnmark Race) is getting closer. The main priority now is to keep the dogs happy, healthy and fit for fight. The time for the long and hard runs are over. To morrow I will go for a 80 kilometer run, the last long run before the race. Right now I got the dogs were I want them to be. They are happy and eager to run. There are no injuries or other problems. We are getting ready. Although I didn't have many dogs to chose from I had more in training than I am going to use in the race. The team, as it looks now is:
Sting: Main leader. 8 years. Sting is a running machine. He is really good at keeping up the speed, working hard up front. A bit arrogant, not the one that comes up to you wanting to be petted. But he is there when he is needed. His weakness is soft trails and deep snow.
Petra. Main leader, 8 years. This hardworking female is half Greenland Husky. A bit shy and not an attention seeker. But she know her job. If there is no trail, snowing and blowing and a long way home, Petra is the dog to put in lead. If she was just a little faster she would have been the complete lead dog.
Trangia :Leader, 7 years. My little running machine. She just love to run. On good trails she is the one to put up front. When the going gets tough and the mils long she prefer to run an other place than lead.
Gunnar: Leader, 4 years. Son of Petra. Gunnar is a happy dog, always seeking attention. He is the one that it´s hard to get the harness of after a 120 kilometer run. He is just happy, never tired. Will go in lead in all conditions, but when there is no trail he sometimes need someone to help him remembering the difference on left and right.
Kesam: Team dog, 4 years. Hard working dog, loves speed. But he is also the dog that gives me most headache. He sometimes could need psychological help. For no reason he sometime start going backward, just looking at me. And I can´t find the reason for it. And other times he don´t want to eat. He behave like the food dish is going to attack him. He hates running in lead.
Dønning: Team dog, 5 years He is just there, doing his job. You don't notice him before it´s time to take a shit. Then he stops. An honest dog who trust you and that I trust.
Pompen: Team dog, 4 years. Pompens dream is to run lose in a forest, being able to pee on every tree there is whit out interruption for an hour and then get a big meal. Pompen is not a hardworking maniac and he don´t like speed. But after 30-40 kilometers he is on, when the going gets tough, he pulls. He never gets tired. He is the dog that is happily pulling in the end of a long day.
Vosko: Team dog, 3 years. Big and happy dog. Loves attention. An honest worker who just keep on going where ever in the team I put him. He wont pick up speed in lead, but he will go on. When I was swimming (post: dog swimming) through almost a meter of snow, Vosko was the one who had to lead. He don´t care if its a good trail, a bad trail or no trail; he keeps on going. But he have no clue about the difference on left and right, its just one way, straight ahead.


Whit this not especially streamlined team I am going to run the Finnmarksløpet. It´s not a wining team, but it´s a team I think I will have a good time together whit.

Cold Weather

Just back from a week long trip in Finnmark. Due to cold weather and my British companions we did not do very long days of mushing. But we spent long relaxing evenings in cosy mountains cabins on Finnmarksvidda (the Finnmark high plateau).
After almost drowning in snow in Alta the first day, the temperatures fell. The quick-silver in the thermometer were hiding in the bottom, and hardly dared to show itself. Officially the temperature was -29,8c, but the real temperature dropped to -34c at some nights. The chilliest we had during daytime was down to -32. But at least its clear. Very clear! And the sun is up, bathing the landscape in its arctic colors so special for this time of the year when the sun is still hanging low on the sky.
Running dogs in this cold is very special. You are so dressed up it almost feels like you are watching the world from inside your own cocoon. In a way you looses contact whit the world outside. Well, enough writing, I will let the pictures talk on its own.

ice

At last there is a post that is not about dogs. On Saturday I left the dogs at home and went to Tamokdalen to play a bit on some ice. For those who don't know Tamokkdalen its also known under the name Powder valley due to its good skiing, and often exelent skiing conditions. But on Saturday the avalanche risk was to big for skiing. But its other fun things to do. So together whit Tamoks own ski and climbing master Aadne, Mr Letto and the Lyngen squad I brought along my ice-axes to do some playing on ice. As a retired climber it was good that today's action was going to be on a small ice crag. I am no longer up too long and hard climbs. But who know what will happen in the future?

Dogswimming

Out again whit the dogs last night. Both me and Espen were going for a work out session. We started out of the dog yard in each our direction, hoping to break up most of the trail system. I took the wrong way. I met some serious amounts of snow. Between 30 and 70 cm. On the worst part I used one hour to cover 1,5 km of trail. Espen had some more luck in Iselvdalen. After the swimming trip I took a 4 hours rest on "check point Lilleng" and went out again. This time I went up Iselvdalen. The snow conditions there were quite a bit better. During this session I, at last, got past the 3000km of training milestone.
Now I am having a cup of coffee before going out on the last part. When that is done the dogs and I have been on out for 20-22 hours, whit two breaks of 4 hours. Posting some blurred pictures, one of dogs swimming in snow and one of Sting, Petra, Vosko and Dønning resting on check point Lilleng

Snow

It is snowing outside, and the last week it has come quite a bit of the white powder. A week ago, Espen took all the dogs to Snarbyeidet outside of Tromsø for some wood hauling to some of Troms Turlags cabins there. The report I got from that trip sounded more like swimming than running. And I could see for my self this last weekend, when Tromsø Trekkhundklubb (mushing club http://www.ken-g.nu/tthk/ ) arranged a social gathering at Snarbyeidet. The purpose was to have a small race, to haul wood to the cabins at the same time and to meet other mushers at a time of the year when training takes much time for the competitive mushers. The longest tracks was planed to 60 kilometers and a shorter track on 30 kilometers. The problem was to much snow. There was no chance that the trail breakers could put in the longest trail. It was so much snow in places that the snowmachins had no chance to get anyway. But they was able to put in the shortest track. When I started out as the first team an hour after the trailbreakers returned there was all readdy 5 cm of snow in the tracks, and deeper snowdrifts in some places. Running whit a head lamp was not possible, I was blinded by the lights reflections in the falling snow. I had no chance to see my dogs unless I turned of the light. Just after the half way point ( at the cabin we were hauling wood for) Tommy came up behind my. That is no good, I never like it when my friends are faster than me. But I got my revenge. Tommy proudly says he has the best uphill team there is. So in the steepest hill I gave the dogs their speed command and ran as h.... myself as well. On top of the hill I had left Tommy behind! And he stayed behind.
On Sunday the plan was to at least run the same round as Saturday. But it was even more snow and wind now. The trailbreakers couldent even find there own tracks in places when returning from the half-way point. So we decided for a shorter rout and do that two times.
So, although snow is a blessing for us winter addicts, it sometimes creates problems. And whit the weather we have at the moment, it makes for some problems in a modern society. Listening to the morning news, there is a long list of roads that is closed due to weather conditions. Either because of tough conditions above the tree-line or because of ( the risk for) avalanches.
But anyway. I have to get the dogs out and running again this afternoon. The plan was to go to Altevann (Lake Altevann) for a work out. But again, quite a lot of snow there. So instead me and Espen are going to break up the trail we have back home and have a work out here. For the young dogs a part of having a work out is to learn to rest by the trail instead of in the dog yard, so we are going to make a check point in the forest at my place. I will see if I can post some pictures of that as soon as he arrives at cheek point Lilleng.

Racing

An important part of running dogs is competing whit them in races. The main goal for the season is the Finnmarksløpet in March. But on the way there we are always looking for answers to some questions: how are the dogs compared to others and are my dogs faster than my friends dogs? When we are training alone most of the time we never get the answers. We have a feeling about how the dogs are doing, but to really know you have to compare them to other dogs. So last weekend I took my team and my brothers yearlings over to Kiruna in Sweden for a small race. We were racing over two days, 80 kilometers each day. 10 teams in the open class and 5 in the 8-dog class. I was competing in open class whit 14 dogs.
The race is called " Tobacco Trail" after the name of the trail we were following. The trail has its name from former times when it was used to smuggle tobacco from Finland over to Sweden and Norway. Its the first time the race is run since 1993, so its not a big happening, yet. But it was a quite strong field of mushers. Most of us aiming for Finnmarksløpet or Femundsløpet, or both.
The start was from Kiruna sled-dog clubs(www.kshk.se) cabin outside Kiruna, and the mid way point was the Sami village of Soppero where we staid at Per-Nils and Britt-Mari Paivo´s lodge (www.mineallin.com). The trail is quite flat running through pine and birch forests, over frozen lakes and marshland.
The start was at 2 p.m, and we were running into the early darkness of the arctic night. The temperature was 18 below at the start and dropping to about 30 below over the lakes. But when you are well dressed, its OK. For the dogs it OK as well. I have some dogs in my team that I run in coats at this temperatures, mostly males. There is one part on the males that is prone to frostbites, and that is the main reason for putting coats on them. I don't think I have to say anymore about it, the men who read this will understand.
The trail was quite soft the first day, and some parts was slow going. I have been thinking that my dogs is slow on conditions like this, but I was not slow compared to other teams. After day one I was in fourth place out of ten, and I was satisfied. The fastest team was half an hour in front of me, but between second and seventh position it was a time difference of only seven minutes. I had completed the 77 kilometers in 4h 52 m, and was really happy whit my dogs. They were in good shape, and if I had asked them to take me back after a short rest they would have. But we had to wait for the start on Sunday morning. At 8 a.m, at the early light of dawn, the first team took of, and the rest of us followed whit two minutes between each team. This day the trail had settled, and were it had been soft snow the day before it was now a hard and fast trail. This was favourable for the Swedish and finish mid-distance teams that was competing, and I ended up as #6 in the final standing. But who cares? The dogs was 20 minutes faster on Sunday, they were happy and they were performing good. The dogs kept a good speed all the way, and we had more or less the same speed at the end of the day as we had in the start. This is what I am looking for in a long distance team. Dogs that is rolling along whit a steady pace.
Well, did I get any answers? Yes i did. The dogs are faster than I expected, I have more power in the team that I thought I have, and I was faster than Tommy. And I am doing o.k compared to team it is naturally to compare with.
At last I am sorry to say that I did not take any pictures this time, but I am posting some pictures of the dogs in stead.
For results and pictures from the race:www.kshk.se/
Petra
Gunnar
Vosko

workout

This weekend I went to Lake Altevatn together whit Ivar, an other Finnmarksløpet contestant, for a work out for the dogs. So, what did we do? The plan was to run tree series of five hours whit five hours of rest between each session. What we want whit this is to make the dogs used to work for a long time on limited rest, in a way crating a situation they will meet in races.
The run took us over Altevatn and Leinavatn before we took the first five hours rest. At nine in the evening we took of again, and crossed the border to Sweden. The weather was almost to good; clear sky and a bright moon, we hardly had to use our head lamps at all. Being out there on a night like this is just plain pleasure. You don't care about the cold, you just enjoy. And feel a little sorry for all those who never experience a night like this. There is a Norwegian song that says " you should not sleep away the mid-summer night, it is to bright for that". I would say that you should not sleep away the mid-winter night. Nights like this I can live on for a long time.
After crossing Lake Vosko we continued into the Swedish forests before returning to Leinavatn for some rest. Although it was three o´clock before i was in the sleeping bag I was not tired at all. I think I slept for two hours under the stars whit the dogs curled up around me before it was time to get up to feed and care for my four legged friends. Then at seven o´clock Sunday morning we were ready for the last leg, starting under under the bright moon before meeting the day standing on the sled.