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Husky Survival

2007

I might have guessed that it would get off to a bad start when the captain of my flight announced that they had lost three passengers, so had to remove their baggage. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we eventually took off. Apparently the bags couldn't be found!

Almost two hours later we were landing at a snow-covered Stockholm Airport .

I raced through the terminals and managed to get onto my connecting flight by the skin of my teeth. Then, my new Captain announced that because of the extreme conditions, the plane was too frozen & that we might have to disembark! A further Two hours later, the plane was doused with antifreeze once more and we followed the convoy of snowploughs onto the runway. An hour later, we touched down at Froson Airbase.

I stood by the baggage carousel & watched the same bags go round and around, unfortunately, none of them were mine!

I met the unmistakeable Bergsvein at arrivals. A good 6' 4" with long hair and a huge beard, only a horned helmet away from looking like a text book Viking! We hooked up with the rest of the team, Ian, Tracy, Marsha, Erwin & Volkmar & headed off another 50 km north. Once at Kim & Bergsvein's home, we ate a huge dinner and prepared ourselves mentally for the week ahead.

At breakfast time it was -20 C outside!

After breakfast we went to feed the dogs.I can't begin to explain the foul smell that the fish/meat/kibble mix gives off, but each dog needs to consume approximately 5000 calories a day, so there must be some goodness in it!

Training took the form of being towed on a sled behind a snowmobile through the forest, which was exhilarating. It was at this stage that I discovered that falling off a sled isn't particularly unpleasant. nice soft snow. Getting up however was a completely different story, as the snow was as deep as every limb that I planted in it. Eventually, after a floundering type of crawl I clambered back onto the sled.

Back at the dog yard we had to put booties onto their paws. These are to stop ice build up between the toes. It's a tricky procedure but we soon got the hang of it. We then harnessed six dogs each, hooked them up to our sleds, removed our anchors and WOOAAR.!!!

We covered something like 20km that first day. Then came feeding time again.

It didn't rise above -14 C all day.

The next morning it was a much milder -10 C. we fed, bootied & hooked up our teams and set off. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful spot and discovered that Bergsvein's box of matches contained considerably more dead matches than live ones.. In fact..that'll be live ONE! Still, we lit the fire and ate a hearty lunch.

It was at this point that we discovered Bergsvein's compulsion with force feeding us!

After lunch we headed back to camp. Whilst crossing one of the frozen lakes, Tracy screeched to a halt in front of me, one of her dogs had collapsed and was having a fit in the snow. We managed to get the rope neckline out of his mouth and he eventually stood up again. Jenny, one of our guides, switched a few of the dogs around and we started off again.

The journey wasn't without its heart stopping moments for me, as a tree jumped out of the side of the narrow path through the forest and nearly knocked me off, as my sled moved away from me, I dived forwards and caught the foot brake with my hands, digging it into the snow as hard as I could. My dogs stopped pulling and I climbed aboard again.

Back at camp that night Bergsvein got the weather report for the next night.a shocking -28 C was forecast. We had a vote and decided to carry on and camp as planned. Unfortunately Tracy was taken ill so decided not to come, and Ian, who had previously told me that he had "Never met anyone from the South with any substance", also made his excuses & said that he would look after Tracy . Strange situation really as he had previously boasted that it was all in his blood as he was brought up in the Pennines ! Go figure.

The five of us left and headed for the tracks.on the way, I tipped my sled into a ditch, with it fully laden. It took two of us to pull it out, Volkmar taking control of my dogs and me attempting to lift the sled back into an upright position. No sooner had we got the sled back onto the path, my anchor became caught on my runner, poor Volkmar was struggling with six dogs trying to pull them backwards, while I tried to free the anchor. Eventually we got it free and continued our journey.

As we were nearing our planned camping destination, it was getting so cold that every time you blinked, you could feel your eyelashes sticking together.

My watch recorded -19 C.

We covered about 30km before arriving at the lake, getting there just before sunset. Our first job was to get the auger out and drill a hole in the ice covering the lake, so that we had a water supply.

We needed hot water to defrost the dog food. It took ages for the pan to boil due to the temperature. Eventually, dogs fed, dog jackets on and straw beds down for them, it was time to look after ourselves. We put our tents up, got the pans on the fire and once again were treated to vast amounts of dinner!

We sat around the fire on reindeer skins trying to convince ourselves that it wasn't really that cold. My watch stopped working at -24 C and I daren't bring the camera out after that. the cold eats batteries at a ridiculous rate. We took some marshmallows out of the thermal food box and no sooner had we taken them out; they were like little lumps of white china, brittle and frozen solid.

Bergsvein wandered off and came back with a bottle ofsingle malt whiskey;

I'm convinced that I saw a halo above his head at that point!!!

We polished it off between us and headed for bed. Surprisingly I managed about five or six hours of broken sleep that night, waking up to frost inside the tent, my jacket was as stiff as a board with frost and gloves were in a similar state. We uncovered the dog food that we buried the previous night and fed them. (Snow is a very good form of insulation!)

We had porridge for breakfast, needless to say..too much porridge.

............

After clearing up the tents, straw bedding & poo, fitting booties & harnesses and hooking up our teams, we were again ready to hit the tracks.

Today my face was burning...wind burn is similar to sunburn. My lips and nose were sore and my eyes were stinging.

On the way back we stopped off at the side of yet another frozen lake. Yet another beautiful location. The food came out, then more food, then blueberry soup, then more food. It was at this point that I started to doubt Bergsvein's theory that it meant less weight to carry home on the sled.

I think that Kim & he were conducting an experiment to see how much someone could eat before physically exploding.

We eventually got back to the house and into hot showers, after de rigging and feeding the dogs of course. That evening we went to the lovely Linda's house to eat and drink!

Friday was a fun day. we hooked up a long sled to the back of a snowmobile and headed off to the lake to drill holes and set fish traps, leaving them we returned to the dogs and took them for a 20km round trip. By that time the traps would be ready, so once again, onto the snowmobiles and back to the lake.

We only caught one fish between us, but true to form, the box on the back of Bergsvein's ski was full of food. Once again, we ate until bursting point. That night we returned to Linda's house for another fine feast.

Before I left the UK , I was feeling quite anxious about the whole trip, seeing the long range weather forecast made me a bit nervous. But with the hospitality and expertise provided by Kim & Bergsvein, not to mention the fact that we ate like kings every day, I considered the trip to be a fantastic experience. Once in a lifetime some would say, but I feel that there's a very strong chance that I'll return for more. One thing that I will do before returning, is spend a bit more time in the gym, as at times it can be quite energy consuming.

Husky-Holiday cover various adventures throughout the year, but for me, seeing the snow laden forests and silently gliding through them on the snow tracks is what it's all about.

An experience never to be forgotten.