The practical part

Learning the ropes

On the first day the guides show you how to harness and unharness your team. Mushers usually help feed their huskies too, as it builds a closer partnership between musher and dogs. The guides are happy to pass on their many years of dog sledding experience, informally, all week long.

On safari we usually run teams of four to ten dogs, adjusted to suit each musher. In a team of six or more, the dogs are harnessed in pairs: the two nearest the sled are the wheel dogs, the pairs in the middle are the team dogs, and the front two are the leaders.

Just us, the dogs and the trail

Our tours vary in how physically demanding they are. On the trail we depend only on ourselves — no snowmobiles or other back-up — because we want dog sledding to be as close and personal as possible. In our experience it is the only way to bring people, dogs and nature together as one whole.

The tours start right from the lodge, over hilly ground, lakes and marshes. We drive through varied terrain and stop for lunch around an open fire, close to nature. We go far off the beaten track and break our own trail, using the freedom that good sled dogs give us — which is how you get to experience the wilderness, and perhaps meet its wildlife.

Tandem or your own team?

Guests with solid dog sledding experience usually drive their own team. Guests without previous experience normally start with a tandem team: two sleds and eight dogs. It has several advantages. There are two people to brake and hold the team. When — not if — one of you tips over with the sled, it is safe and reassuring to have a second person on the brake. And if the dogs need a hand for some reason, one of you can sort it out while the other stays on the brake.

We use this method a lot. The guides always do, and most guests, adults and young people alike, choose tandem for the comfort of sharing the responsibility. It does not make the experience any less. It is a big misunderstanding to think that having your own team is better, or that the bigger the team, the better.

We will always work for satisfied, happy guests — they are our livelihood — but never at the cost of safety and control. The sleds are easy to uncouple into two single teams, and the guide and the guests decide together whether a double or a single team is best. On week-long tours more and more guests move on to single teams; on three-day tours that is less common, as three days is too short for most people to learn to drive a sled safely — and losing a team can seriously harm the dogs.

The start

Starts are high-adrenaline moments, for the huskies and the mushers alike. On average there are four to six mushers on a safari, plus the guides — some forty to fifty huskies who all know it is time for “walkies”. The atmosphere can be electric, and deafening.

At rest, the sleds are tied to something that cannot move, such as a tree. At the start, hold the sled firmly with both hands (the huskies will be pulling hard), and stand with one foot on a runner and the other on the brake while the knot is untied.

Corners

When cornering, lean into the turn as you would on a bike and shift your weight onto the inside runner. On tight, fast corners, also lower your centre of gravity by crouching down. Mushers who lean in, put their weight on the inside runner and crouch low rarely fall off.

Going round a corner, the line of huskies curves as each pair follows the trail. If you brake in the corner, the line straightens — and the wheel dogs, the sled and you end up cutting across the corner through deep snow, often tangled in bushes and trees. So do not brake in corners unless the trail is blocked.

Relax

The most common difficulty for novice mushers is relaxing. Adrenaline and the fear of falling off make beginners tense up — the neck, shoulders and arms go almost rigid as they hold on tight. That tires you out very quickly, and makes a fall more likely. What you want is a loose, relaxed stance that moves freely with the twists, turns and bumps of the trail. A good test of advanced mushing is to close your eyes for a moment as you go along: it encourages a light, fluid stance that reacts quickly to the trail — and it tests your trust in the huskies.

Following the guide

Every safari is led by an experienced guide who knows the route. The other teams follow the lead sled, even when it is out of sight. We use trails where the snow is packed, as deep snow is very hard going for huskies and mushers alike — a heavy snowfall overnight can make the next day’s mushing hard work.

Brakes, commands and hills

Every sled has a brake, which you stand on to stop. There is no need to shout commands — the dogs have excellent hearing. A good musher works calmly, in harmony with the huskies, and never yells at them.

Stamping on the brake again and again to keep the speed down tires the dogs very quickly. It is much better to brake gently and steadily.

On a steep uphill, a good musher runs between the runners, or at least pushes with one foot, as on a scooter. The huskies notice very quickly whether you are working as part of the team or expecting to be pulled along as a passenger.

Getting to know your dogs

The huskies may be a little distant on the first day or two, but usually by the third morning they start to recognise you. Try to learn the names of your dogs — but don’t get too attached to any one dog straight away, as dogs are sometimes swapped between teams during the first two days so that every team moves at an even pace.

Probably, yes — Karasjok often has more stable and clear weather than the coast, especially on cold winter nights. A clear sky matters more than a high KP index, since Karasjok is so far north that even low solar activity can bring vibrant northern lights. You can see them from the beginning of September to early April, normally between 6 pm and 2 am. October, February and March are the best months. Between April and late August it is too bright to see them.

Clear skies, dark nights

Here in Karasjok we have a continental climate, which usually means clear, stable weather with little cloud or rain and snow. The country around the lodge is free of light pollution, so with no competing light the night sky is exceptionally clear.

December and January belong to the Arctic night, with its unique tranquillity and atmosphere: the long twilight hours are coloured in shades of blue, like something out of a fairy tale. From the beginning of February the days gradually grow longer as the sun returns. For the northern lights, we recommend coming before the end of March, while the nights are still properly dark.

When the aurora is strongest

The aurora is often at its most frequent and intense between 10 pm and midnight. Brilliant displays tend to come back at 27-day intervals, as the active areas on the sun’s surface face the Earth again during its 27-day rotation. Auroras are most frequent in late autumn and early spring, and their activity follows the sun’s eleven-year sunspot cycle.

What the northern lights are

“Aurora borealis”, the Latin name for the northern lights, means “northern dawn”. They appear high in the atmosphere and can be seen during the dark hours in the polar regions of the northern hemisphere.

The light is emitted when charged particles from the sun are guided by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmosphere near the magnetic poles. When these particles collide with molecules in the atmosphere — mainly oxygen and nitrogen — 100 to 300 kilometres up, some of the energy from the collisions turns into visible light: the northern lights.

A brief history

The Sámi live in the northern parts of four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia (the Kola Peninsula). In earlier times Sápmi — the land of the Sámi — covered a much larger part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and probably more of northern Russia too.

As far as we know today, the Sámi are the indigenous people of this north-western corner of Europe. Many researchers believe they descend from the Komsa people, who lived along the northern coast as far back as eight to ten thousand years ago.

Over the ages Sámi culture has changed a great deal, and grown more varied in the process. For thousands of years the Sámi were hunters and gatherers — and perhaps farmers too. Wild reindeer inland, and fish from the rivers, lakes and coastal waters, were among their most important sources of food.

The Sámi never formed a state, but they had a well-organised society built on the siida. A siida was an area along a river, a lake or a fjord, shared by up to twelve families, who had a different place to live for each season. A siida council decided how the resources were to be harvested through the year — a very democratic system, at the heart of a way of life that never threatened the resources it depended on.

As the wild reindeer declined after the Middle Ages, some families in the inland siidas began to keep reindeer herds. No single siida had enough grazing land for herds that size, so the reindeer had to be moved from the inland plains to the coast and back every year, across many siidas. This was one of the reasons the siida system declined; pressure from other peoples — Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Russians — settling on Sámi land was another.

In the coastal areas most Sámi never kept reindeer. They lived as farmers and fishermen, the traditional combination along the Norwegian coast. In later centuries other groups settled among them, mainly Norwegians and Kvens (immigrants from Finland).

From the 1700s the pressure on Sámi culture grew. In Norway the authorities set out to “Norwegianise” the Sámi, using the school, the church and the law; social Darwinist and nationalist ideas provided the ideological basis. In recent decades things have changed for the better.

This is only a rough sketch of the always fascinating and sometimes tragic history of the Sámi people. There is plenty of good information online if you would like to learn more — the Sámi Parliament’s own website is a good place to start.

Lapps or Sámi?

In earlier times the Sámi were called Lapps — as in Lapland and Lappmarken. During the centuries when they were oppressed by their majority neighbours, the name “Lapp” took on a disparaging meaning. In recent decades it has been replaced by Sámi (same in Norwegian and Swedish), from their own word, sámit.

How many Sámi are there?

Assimilation makes it hard to give an exact figure for the Sámi population today; estimates range from around 50,000 to 80,000. Most live in Norway, where the numbers are also the most uncertain: assimilation has gone very far in many areas, and many Sámi have moved to other parts of the country.

The smallest group lives in Russia — around two thousand Sámi on the Kola Peninsula, fighting to survive as a people, where a badly damaged environment is only one of the threats they face.

The language

The Sámi language is related to — but very different from — Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. It is divided into many dialects, and over the centuries most of them grew so far apart that their speakers can no longer understand one another. North Sámi, however, is spoken by the majority, and is the one most used in literature and education.

Almost all Sámi speak the official language of the country they live in, but far from all speak Sámi. Today, though, the language is spreading again among the groups who lost it through assimilation and cultural oppression.

Is there a Sámi look?

Tall or short and every height in between, blue eyes or brown, very fair hair or very dark, high cheekbones or low — there is no single Sámi look.

You can, of course, recognise Sámi people when they wear their traditional dress, the gákti. But here too the variety is great: there are many different costumes, depending on the region a person belongs to and the kind of occasion.

The Sámi and the reindeer

Reindeer-herding Sámi are a minority within their own culture — in Norway, less than 10% of the Sámi population. But this group has always been the proud keeper of the traditional values of the culture, be it dress, joik (the Sámi song), the lavvu (the tent), the language or other traditions.

Traditional reindeer herding is threatened in many ways, yet Sámi culture is more vital than it was a hundred years ago. Today you will find well-educated, gifted Sámi in almost every occupation and at every level of society. They may not have a reindeer herd in the mountains, but they are Sámi without a doubt, and proud of it.

The Sámi Parliament

The Sámi Parliament (Sámediggi) is a national, elected body. Its areas of work, its right to give advice and its authority are laid down in the Sámi Act, and it makes decisions wherever the Sámi Act or other legislation gives it that power.

Its representatives are elected by direct ballot by the Sámi listed in the Sámi electoral register, and its work is run by its own administration here in Karasjok. Among the major issues of its first years were the situation for reindeer herding and fishing, the language question, and the Norwegian Armed Forces’ construction plans on Sámi land.

A guided tour of the Parliament, the National Sámi Museum and much more is a day trip from the lodge — and on several journeys you meet reindeer-herding families at work, not on display.

Sven raced from 1977 to 2000. He won Finnmarksløpet — Europe’s longest sled dog race, which he and his fellow mushers created — eleven times, a record that still stands. He won Femundløpet three times, in 1991, 1992 and 1994 (the last as the 500 km “Olympic dog race”), took 3rd place in the Beargrease in the USA in 1993, and finished the 1 800 km Iditarod in Alaska four times: 20th in 1996, 12th in 1997, 14th in 1998 and 9th in 1999.

Race results 1977–2000

All meals from dinner at 19.00 on the first day until breakfast on the last; all tour equipment; Arctic clothing on mushing tours; the guide and the activities of the programme; design-cabin accommodation at the lodge and dormitory beds at the mountain cabins. Not included: personal equipment, individual services, insurance, and transport to and from the lodge.

Very possibly — we can arrange for guests with disabilities or other physical limitations, from a passenger place on the guide’s sled to adapted programmes. Contact us and we will figure out honestly together what works.

Sledding for everyone — children and guests with disabilities ride in the guide’s sled →