A Norwegian Thanksgiving

All bundled up for sledding!

Hei hei!

I am still in exam mode so I haven’t done many exciting things this week. I’m also preparing for syttende mai (the Norwegian Constitution Day or the National Day of Norway), which is tomorrow! It’s the biggest holiday in Norway and apparently the whole day is a a giant, country-wide party. I’ll be dedicating my next blog post to telling you all about my experience. Today, I’m going to lead you through my favorite experience I’ve had so far in Norway, which is dogsledding in Tromso. It’s a throwback post, as I went in November, but I’m hoping you enjoy hearing about it as much as I enjoyed doing it!

Have any of you ever been dogsledding before?

In November, my two friends (Jamie&Anna) and I headed to Tromso to get a taste for what it’s like to live in the Arctic circle during the winter. We weren’t quite brave enough to go in December when there is no daylight, but during our time there we only had about three to four hours of light a day, which was enough for me to get the feel for spending days on end in darkness. I was very hesitant about spending four nights there as I thought there wouldn’t be much to do, but I was pleasantly surprised by the town and it’s surroundings and promptly fell in love with the area. If you haven’t been able to tell by now, falling in love with places instantly is a feeling I’m frequently subject to. 

Tromso is the dot farthest north and Oslo is the dot farthest south. 

While the whole trip was wonderful, there was one day in particular that I could relive over and over again. We decided to go on an Aurora Borealis & Dogsledding overnight trip for the last night we were there. A bus came and picked us up from outside our hotel, drove for about an hour into the dark Norwegian wilderness, and dropped us in the middle of nowhere  at a dogsledding camp. The camp consisted of a bunch of little huts that were based off of traditional Sami tents (mentioned in a previous post, but if you would like a refreshers here’s the Wikipedia page), a large bonfire pit, and a field of dog houses.

Field of dogs! My dream!

Our evening consisted of some uneventful searching for the northern lights (I still haven’t seen them! Have any of you ever seen the lights?) and a home-cooked meal in the big dining hut. Until we sat down to eat I had completely forgotten that it was Thanksgiving in America and I had a little rush of homesickness that was quickly replaced by warm soup and chocolate cake. It’s strange how you can forget about things that are so important at home when you’re so far away.

Koselig fire at dinner.

Dogsledding 

The next morning it was time for the main event. We woke up bright and early to the sound of 300 eager huskies howling for their morning run. These dogs love to run and do it two to three times a week, but would probably do it every day if they had the chance. They are the most energetic, skinniest dogs I’ve ever seen (we were told they eat 10% of their body weight in food every day).

They’re also incredibly friendly and sweet.

The sledding tours are done with about five or six sleds going at the same time in a line. I was lucky enough to be in the sled at the front of the pack and the dogs leading my sled were actually in training to compete in Finnmarksløpet, which is the longest dogsledding competition in Europe. They were the best (fastest and smartest) dogs in the camp and the dynamic between them and their musher was incredible. The musher guiding our dogs was the son of the woman who owned the camp and had been training to mush his whole life. We spent a lot of time on the tour asking him questions about the sport and his own experiences with dog sledding.

The team.

Some things our musher taught us:

1. There are eight dogs in the teams that he races and each dog in the team plays a different role. The ones at the front are the leaders who have the responsibility of making sure all the other dogs are cooperating, the ones at the back are the strongest and pull the most weight, etc. A great team consists of each dog playing their role perfectly and all of them working together with the musher.
2. Some of the best dogs are the craziest dogs (example: some of the best lead dogs have actually tried to eat other dogs in the camp).
3. There are two big dog sledding races in the world: the one in Finnmark and one in Alaska.
4. Races last many days, so there are backup dogs to relieve dogs in the team that get too tired (just like in human sports!)
5. He spends the majority of his time training his dogs and hanging out with them. He plans on mushing as a career for as long as he possibly can and can’t imagine having another career. I’ll be looking out for him in the big races in the next couple years!
6. Bonus: When the dogs retire they are given away free to people with enough time and energy to keep them healthy and happy. Would any of you ever adopt a retired racing dog?

So happy to be running!

The tour lasted about an hour and consisted of bumping over snowy trails and through woods in the fjords. We were cozy under reindeer skins, thick snowsuits, and the sun peeking out over the mountains. The dogs were able to jump streams and the musher barely had to tap the reins for them to turn whichever way he wanted. There was even one point where we a pack of wild reindeer running through the trees. I have never been so content and so in my element in my entire life. Of course, words can’t describe the whole thing, so below are a few more pictures to top off my story.

Would you ever like to try driving a dog sled? Do you think you could live somewhere without sun in the winter? 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Ha det,

Megan