This night we had the first real frost. It was -6 degrees in the morning and the lake starts freezing. But the forecast promise warmer days for the next weekend :( But the winter will come, that´s for sure ;)

The first ice on the lake
Jörg was training the dogs - and you see he has the downjacket on. It was really cold.

Pedro in the front and Didi behind him. They thought it´s better when it´s colder ;))

Finnmarkslopet

Now the first starting order for Finnmarkslopet is online. I got the bibnumber 35 - if nobody withdraw until march. The whole list you can find here http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/media/dokument/2011-10/Forste%20trekning%202012%20PDF.pdf

Kiruna symposium

This weekend I drove with my ManMat-equipment to Kiruna at the sleddog-symposium who was arranged of the Kiruna sleddog club. First, everybody who had the time to come and didn´t show up missed really a lot and should blame him/her self! Second, many thanks to Mats Pettersson and Lotta for their hospitality. Sven Engholm and I slept over in their house and we had a lot of interesting dogtalks until late at night.

Dr. Jerome A. Vanek spoke about stretching and massage of dogs. And he did it in a really funny and understandable way. We all laughs a lot :)))
So, forget about stretching your dogs before the race if you see this ;))) But he explains also a way to warm up dogs without that much time :)

After this we heard from Hans Gatt how he treats his dogs with respect and about his training before the Quest and Iditarod.

Here one of his trainings-shedules. Are you now sad that you didn´t show up :))) BUT I have a bit more informations, I did some secret-talk with Hans after the symposium ;))

Here Hans and I philosophize about harnesses. He took a skibelt and a Lash-harness from ManMat home to Whitehorse :)

Make an educated guess who is creeping under every sled in Kiruna?

Tim White of course!!! I guess there is nobody else in the whole world who is that interested in dogsleds! He spokes at the symposium about sleddogs in general - and everybody can feel that this came really from the bottom of his heard!

Nice weekend

This weekend was very nice, and absolutely NO rain :))) So we went to a part of our trail that we want to change. We had to drive up with the dogs at a mountain, turn and drive the same way back. But now we can drive about 3 km over the mountain where are no trees and go down at the other side. Could be a good training ;))) Our two housedogs Susan and Kuchen where of course with us, a nice and slow adventure for our 13 years old Kuchen!

This is a part of the mountain we drive with the dogs in wintertime
Old Kuchen in the sunshine - she liked it!

Jörg reads the map, Susan controlls if he does it right ;)))

Where is the beginning and where is the end of this band for marking the trail where we have to turn to the right???

Our puppies grow up now. They had the first part of their education to be a sleddog - getting food at the chain. Here Sivtsov on the left and José on the right. Look at Josés nice curls :)))

Andrew looks not that happy...

We trained of course also our dogs. We have to cross a bridge with a lot of water, sometimes the young dogs are a little bit afraid.

Coming home with the dogs

Here a small video from out trainingstrip today. Jörg is at the turningpoint and screams to me in the end that I should go out of the way. He was afraid that the camera gets some water.

Harestua

This weekend I was turning to the south to the sleddog seminarium in Harestua. I was there with my ManMat equipment and to listen Roger Dahl and Arleigh Reynolds. My fall-booties were like usual soon sold out and the other equipment was also very popular.
Like last year I slept over by Nina Skramstad and this time I had even the time to drive a trainings round with her dogs. Many thanks to Nina and Didrik for their hospitality and the talks about dogs until 2 o´clock in the morning ;)))
In about two weeks I pack again and went over to Kiruna to their seminarium.

Loading out my ManMat-equipment
Slide show from Roger Dahl

Arleigh Reynolds spoke about the nutrition of racing dogs

September is a good month for our dogs. Not only because of the regulary training and the - normally- lower temperatures (this year is really warm, about 10 degrees warmer then usual with a lot of rain). Last monday the moose hunting season was starting and yesterday we got the first bones for the dogs. They really liked it!

This bloody monster with the yellow eyes is Miguel.
Vino found a big bone

Even for the small ones where some bones left. Little Tyler to the left together with her friend Bartali.

Finnmarkslopet

Today there is a nice article about me and my start at Finnmarkslopet 2012. I hope that I can do something in the future against my reputation of the eternal second ;))))


Katy tilbake

Noe av det mange sikkert husker godt fra Finnmarksløpet 2008 var duellen mellom den evige toer, Katy Meier (40) fra Slagnäs, og Jan Vidar Dahle (43) fra Båtsfjord. Meier hadde to andreplasser i sekken fra før av og fortalte at dette ble hennes siste sjanse til å vinne. Hun ledet med en god halvtime ut fra Jergul, men på Jotkavannet kom spannet til Dahle opp på siden av henne. Det var da begge stoppet. Dahle gav henne en klem og beklaget at han var nødt til å ta fra henne denne seieren. I mål skilte det 25 minutter i favør Jan Vidar Dahle. Meier kjempet tappert men måtte ta til takke med nest øverste trinn på pallen – igjen. Nå er hun tilbake, ut fra presentasjonen hennes ser det ut som om det blir et løp med unghunder som skal lære dette gamet. Likevel, Katy er en glitrende kjører og det blir spennende å følge henne i FL-2012. Gledelig nok er også Jan Vidar Dahle tilbake i manesjen. Denne gangen ser det ikke ut som om det blir noen duell med Meier. Han vil kjøre FL-1000 med en ungt spann som skal gis mye hvile.

BACK ON TRACK: Katy Meier er påmeldt til FL-500. Foto: Reiulf Grønnevik (Altaposten)
(Artikel by Finnmarkslopet.no)