Small update

I´m in Karasjok now and it looks not that bad ;) I guess that I can take all 8 dogs with me to Jergul when I start at 19:51 this evening. Until now I had a lot of fun with our youngsters and they really rock the sled :)))
Vino was a bit stiff in his left backleg when we came into Levajok, but after a good massage and Algyval it went well and he had no problems during the run. Tschmil start now and has a bit blood in his pooh, so I look how he is after the rest and decide it together with the vet. Otherwise I take him with me to Jergul and look if it become better.
That´s all for now, I wait now how the times of the other compeditors are, especially Ole Wingren. Then I will sleep one hour and take more care of the dogs.
See you in Alta!

We sit in our cabin with a good breakfast. Only 4 hours until we start out from downtown Alta with bibnumber 27 :) I´m very happy that it start soon, all the meetings and banquets before the race are nice, but we are here to drive dogs. The dogs look good, they where eating and drinking well this morning and are interested in what all other teams around are doing.
I will thank all the wellwishers and sms I received. I thank all of you in this way, so I must not answer every single sms ;)))
Hope you all enjoy the race like I will do it! Maybe I have sometimes the mood and write two or three words, will see :) Otherwise, we see us in Alta on moday evening!

We had also a visit from our sponsor Magne Östby today. He is the owner of Vom og Hundemat och makes the best meatproducts for dogs. We made our snacks from his food and the meat at the checkpoints is of course also from his company.
He want´s me to win the race ;)))))))

Today we where out for the last small trainingsround with the dogs. We went over to Mattisdalen, on the Alta River was even less snow then there. Alta had the whole winter fights between to less snow and to much wind, so the little snow was blowing in the wind like you see in the pictures. On the two small videos you can see that it´s really windy today,too. It was fine for the dogs, now we pack the car and the sled and do the last preparations for tomorrow. At 4:45 pm we go to the banquett and then only one more night and I can start with our 8 dogs ;))))))))))))))

Litte snow and much wind Here we nearly blown away

How to make your handler happy...

...find his absolutely norwegian favorite-chips in the store and buy arms full of it ;))))))))))))))

We are here!!!

Finally in Alta! We arrived early in the morning at the campingarea in Alta. Here it is very busy, many dogdrivers and dogs around and a lot of mandatory thinks to do.

If you think the world ends and you fall into the sea - then you are in Alta.
All dogs look good and are in fine mood. Tomorrow we will go out for a last small trainingsround with them - only to move their legs a bit after the long journey.

Today we have a big programm, the control of the chipnumbers and the vaccination

Packing the depotbags. Here it looks a bit like chaos :)

Where did I put this...the bags are really big!

Found it and myself again ;)))

Good to have a strong handler (Jörg) who can deliver the depotbags onto the car :)

Once again they made a big effort in Alta for the opening cermonial and the whole Finnmarkslopet - here some ice-sculptures

We where at the registration to make everything clear and now we wait to go to the musher-meeting, then to the opening ceremonial. And then the day is over for us :)

Tomorrow we have a calm day, only dogtraining and the startbanquett in the evening.

Finnmarkslopet

We had again a few busy days with touristdriving behind us. But now we can focus us on Finnmarkslopet. On wednesday we will drive towards Alta and have planned to arrive there on thursday. Luckily nearly everything is done and we need only to pack it into the car. We have still not decided which dog we will take with us, it´s Luis or Vino we have to choose between. The other 7 dogs are sure, it´s Didi, Sean, Tchmil, Fränk, Jaja, Tony and Frederico. Until friday I will post something here about Alta, afterwords it´s Jörgs part to do that. We don´t know yet how much time and pation he will have to do that while wainting that I´m coming into the checkpoints. You can follow the whole race here www.finnmarkslopet.no . The mainside is in norwegian, but they have also good artikels in english and german. So feel free to look at that side, I guess it will be interesting! Every driver has also a GPS in his sled, so you will know all the time at what part of the trail we will be - as long as we have coverage for the GPS in the mountains. See you next time in Alta!