March 9, 2014 - When visiting Kiruna it's a given to book/participate in many of their winter activities. This morning was dog sledging (or sledding if you're from the U.S.). Any place offering accommodations also offers winter activities or you can book with an independent guide like we did.
Mikael from
www.kirunanature.com was very accommodating. He picked us up from the Ice Hotel at 9:40am. A quick stop at the Kiruna Hostel to pick up three students also going on the tour then we met up with the second guide who already had the sleds and dogs waiting.
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| patiently waiting |
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| 10 dogs to pull each sledge |
While the dogs are getting harnessed and we're getting settled on the sledges the dogs are barking and jumping, impatient to take off. It sounds crazy! Once we take off though, it's silent.
Here's a video Gabby put together to show a snapshot of the whole experience beginning to end. Notice, when the dogs are returning to the parking area, Gordon (dressed in all black) is taking pictures, they run straight into him... he was standing in their path and they were not changing course!
The dogs follow voice commands, our guide only had to give a command once: stanna = stop. The dogs stopped immediately, looked back, waiting for the command to go: ruter = go (or something like it... with a really long rolled 'r' and silent r on the end).
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| sledging selfies |
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| everyone got a turn to ride on the back with the guide |
The one image I will never get out of my head is the dog right in front of us squatting, pooping and running, all at the same time! We could always tell when a dog had pooped... luckily the smell went away quickly as the sledge runners ran over and passed it!
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| No they are not tired... they're hot, so they're cooling down by rolling in the snow! |
These are Siberian huskies, our guide said the big, fluffy, blue-eyed huskies are Alaskan huskies... and they call them 'Hollywood' dogs!
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| our lead sledge dog... clearly a Hollywood dog! |
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| back of the sledge where the guide stands |
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| the sledge anchor, one on each side, keeps the dogs from pulling |
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| a stop at a traditional Sami style tent for coffee and sandwiches by the fire |
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| according to Sami beliefs the spout of the tea kettle has to face away from the tent opening or all the good luck will run out |
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| all done! |
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