Ambitions for racing 2021/2022
Same as all other kennels with small and big ambitions to enter some of the more challenging long-distance races this year, we are more than ready to get our fantastic team of dogs on the trails!
So. We are planning to enter one or more teams into as many early-season races as we can preparing for the main goals this year, Femundløpet 650 og Finnmarksløpet 1200.
Our pack of dogs are at the moment doing very well in training. Getting ready and looking forward to some longer trips once we have some stable snowconditions. With some exciting new talent in the group we are aiming to get enough km and variation. We also want to bring them on a few campingtrips before february.
We started trainingseason with 24 dogs, 18 from last years and 6 youngsters. In August our main trainingtrack went directly from the kennel in Furuflaten and up Lyngsdalen. This is also the trail that we use for bringing our guests on cart-tours. In August we mainly want to get our dogs out moving their muscles and tendons after a longer summer vacation. This year we also had the advantage of our new free-running pen for this start up month. And the dogs loved it!
By mid-September we moved our gang across the fjord to Skibotn, the birth place of the famous Leonard Seppala: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Seppala. In Skibotn we have the possibility for some longer runs on more varied terrain and softer surface. Which is nice for their paws. Also new for this season is the recently discovered trails in Rosta. We are lucky to be able to keep our younger dogs, as well as some of those that we have not had a chance to try out previous seasons, in the care of one of our good friends. Having more than one option for training trails is very useful in the months of October and November. This is when the changes in temperatures can result in some very challenging conditions. It is not the first season we go “sled-sliding” with our carts! So having options for how much we slide is very welcome.
As we now are moving into darker times, we are getting back to headtorches and frostbites. But once the first snow appears, all pains and problems disappear and the mountains open as a huge white dancefloor. Drawing the first lines of travel across these surfaces is why we do this in the first place.
Spending all this time with our dogs in training is a huge privilege. Even though we have high ambitions for the races, this is not the main motivation. Seeing the dogs developing through the season and exploring new options for improving our methods is as much of a motivational factor as the races themselves.
