2016 January to July a pictorial account.

July 22, 2016

It's been quite a year so far.

January: mushing in Karasjok, Norway with Henry, my elder son. We stayed at Engholm Husky Lodge last summer on the Midnight Sun rally. Obviously, it was all rather different in January. It was -27C for a start ~! A magical, ethereal wonderland. Mushing was hard work, huge fun and, for me anyway, involved plenty of falling off. The dogs keep going and, as I was lying spread eagled in the deep powder snow, other teams were rushing past me. Getting up in such soft snow when wearing more layers of clothing than I ever thought possible, was quite a feat. We also went out with Sami reindeer herders for the day, taken up to the plateau on a snowmobile sleigh. We sat on skins on the snow around a fire ingeniously made in a snow hole, drinking coffee brewed on the fire and chewing on reindeer jerky. All the while hundreds of reindeer were gathered around us. The cold was hard to bear - taking our two pairs of gloves off for 5 seconds made the fingers numb. As you breath in at those temperatures, ice crystals firm in your nose, defrosting as you breath out, only for them to refreeze with the next breath intake. A not unpleasant, but very strange experience.