Day 8 (7 April 2007)

There was much more snow in Tromso than for our arrival. Our hotel looked out over the harbour.

After a wonderful shower and a leisurely breakfast, it was time for the speeches and presentations by our hosts. It was clear that conditions had been very difficult - much more difficult than any other similar events that they had run.

Finally, we travelled to Tromso Airport and back to Heathrow, via Oslo. It was time to say goodbye and exchange email addresses with my colleagues.

My challenge had really been a challenge, and the memory of it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Day 7 (6 April 2007)

The plan was to get up at 06:00 and drive in style to the Ice Hotel, have a look round (and a drink in the ice bar), take the 6 hour road journey back to Tromso, followed by a shower and a presentation dinner.

But first, we had to get our huskies ready. This was a sad time, as we knew that we would soon have to say goodbye to our faithful companions. It was also the time for final photographs - with Pepsi and Sprite, of course.

However, we soon learned that the mountain road from Norway to Sweden was blocked, so instead of a one km sled ride, we did a 58 km sled ride through forests and over frozen lakes. This was delightful, but we were in for another very long day.

We spent an hour or so in the Ice Hotel, which is all it is cracked up to be. The hotel has small dormitories, suites and two deluxe suites (these being the only rooms with locks on). The suites are designed by famous architects from all over the world. I did get my drink in the ice bar.

Eventually, our transport arrived. The conditions on the mountain roads seemed truly appalling to British eyes (even to the Scots in the group), but our Norwegian drivers took it in their stride. We stopped to have a look at the Aurora Borealis, which was truly amazing.

We had our dinner (but not the presentation) at the Viking Hotel in Narvic, and arrived at the hotel at around 01:30. The day wasn't over for our Norwegian hosts, however. They had to take the huskies back to the Wilderness Centre, unload then and feed them.

Day 6 (5 April 2007)

Our huskies had had to sleep outside through all of the bad weather. Their technique is to walk in small circles, digging a hole in the snow to sleep in.

Another superb morning, with blue skies, little wind and excellent visibility. This was to be another very long day, as we needed to catch up on our schedule. The first part of the day was delightful, as we came off the mountain into the forest. The highlight was a sharp left turn, followed by driving the dog team over a very rickety narrow bridge over a small river. The bridge wasn't very long, but icy water below and the gaps in very low side rails made it even more exciting! We stopped for a lunch break after crossing another, more substantial bridge.

The second half of the day saw us travelling across about 10 frozen lakes, with an average size of around two km. This improved our average speed, but we did have to cope with a very cold wind.

We travelled over 70 km today, and stopped overnight 1 km from the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi. This was a very difficult overnight stay, as we were all very tired and the dogs had to be tethered in the forest in snow over two foot deep.

Day 5 (4 April 2007)

This day was horrendous. Our main objective was to get off the mountain, and down into better conditions in the forest. The day's sledding was in 3 main parts:

• A blizzard with a strong wind, horizontal snow and limited visibility, which varied between 50 and 200 metres. This was very tricky, but much worse was to come!
• In the lull before the storm, the snow stopped falling and the visibilty improved. It was a real pleasure sledding in the mountains well above the tree line.
• For the final part of the day, the wind increased to Storm Force 10 (around 60 mph). It wasn't snowing, but the wind blew fine snow along the ground. The conditions appeared to be very similar to a sand storm in the desert. The visibility at times was less than 20 metres. The strength of the wind, the very poor visibility and the blowing snow caused the illusion of rapid movement when you were actually stationary. The dog sled train got split up into two groups, and it took ages to get back together again. This was really quite scary, but we had every confidence that our leader would lead us to safety.

We travelled around 60 km today, but we could not get off the mountain. In the end, we stayed the night in a single hut - very crowded and very cosy. This was a long long day, and it was dark before we had finished feeding the dogs, never mind ourselves.

We learned on our return to Tromso that the airport, the harbour and all of the mountain roads in Northern Norway had been closed due to the weather. The only movement seemed to be our team of dog sledders in the mountains!

Finally, the conditions were so bad, that I did not take any photographs!

Day 4 (3 April 2007)

This was a super day. We were all getting the hang of controlling the sleds and the dogs, and the conditions were much better - colder and less windy.









We climbed steadily and camped at around 670 metres above sea level. Here a "treat" had been arranged for us - we were to stay in 5 huts. It was a good job that we did, as it was very cold overnight, and we woke the next day to a blizzard. However, the huskies had been parked 200 metres from the huts, so Jan had to stay in his tent near to the dogs!

Day 3 (2 April 2007)

After a very windy night, in which one tent blew over, we awoke to find 6 inches of fresh snow and a very picturesque scene. This proved to be the second most difficult day's sledding - partly because we were all learning the ropes, but also because the wet fresh snow made the sledding more tricky.









Most people fell off their sled several times. When this happened, you had to try to hang on to the sled or the dogs would just carry on running! There were several minor injuries, but nothing too serious.

We only succeeded in sledding 17 km today, but we did cross the border into Sweden.

Day 2 (1 April 2007)

The day started with a briefing by Tore, who owns the centre with his wife Tove. Tore led our expedition, supported by Jan, our other guide. We used around half of the 200 huskies from the centre. We helped put our huskies in their cages (often two or three dogs in one cage!), and put the 18 sleds onto the roofs of two trailers for the two hour journey to Helligskogen in the mountains, where our expedition started.

We were briefed on how to steer and brake the sled, and what commands the huskies would understand (in Norwegian, naturally!). It was at this point, that we were each introduced to our dog teams.

My two lead dogs were two sisters - Sprite and Pepsi. Sprite is the dog with the white face. The overall standard of the huskies was very high, and many of the dogs had been on major sledding expeditions. For example, both Sprite and Pepsi had been on the 1,151 mile 10 day 2006 Iditarod Great Sled Race from Anchorage to Nome in Alaska. Indeed, Sprite helped pull Tore's sled for the full 1,151 miles.

My middle two dogs were also female - Divi and Verti; named after mountain huts on our route.

The back two dogs were huge powerful males - Gappo and Cola. They were all wonderful dogs, and over the trip I would get to know them and their personalities. All of the dogs were very friendly, and many just wanted to jump up and lick your face. The dogs are very lean and in superb condition. They each weigh around 20 kg and eat 9,000 calories per day on the expedition!

The weather was very poor - lots of rain and sleet, which meant that most of our kit got very wet - despite being in waterproof bags. This was to be the bane of the trip, as it was to prove very difficult to dry our clothes.

We had an enormous amount of very good food. Breakfast was generally instant porridge with bread. Lunch was sandwiches of cheese, ham and salami, often taken on the hoof. Dinner was various boil in a bag meals, which were much better than they sound. These were cooked on a parafin stove, inside the tent.

One of the physically hardest tasks was staking out the dogs after a hard day's sledding. This involves taking a cable with 12 clips and a rope at each end. The cable is fixed to two trees, or to a board buried in the snow when we were above the tree line. The hardest part is when you have to wade through snow 2 to 3 feet deep while wrestling with very strong huskies.

The other major challenge is finding enough water for ourselves and for the dogs. It proved very easy to get dehydrated. The options are to take water from a river, drilling a hole in a frozen lake and melting snow on the stove.