Undervegs in Northern Norway

Back in Alta

2010-03-20T08:12:00.003+01:00

At 01.58 last night, Espen arrived in Alta. Look here to see a photo from the finishing line:
http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/article.jsp?id=4602

Last leg on this years Finnmarksløp!

2010-03-20T00:31:00.002+01:00

In the next hours Espen will reach the finishing line in Alta! He has now 7 dogs in his team. Kaos was dropped off in Karasjok as she was very stiff. I guess all dogs, the musher and the handlers are looking forward to a good night's sleep. And we are looking forward to get them home again on Sunday!

On the Tana river

2010-03-18T21:38:00.002+01:00

Espen is now on his way to Karasjok. He rested for almost 8 h in Sirmba and had the second fastest leg time to Levajokk 2 (4.19)! Resting in the sun do good for tired dogs :)! He had a short stop in Levajokk were he dropped off Elton due to a wound shoulder and continued with 8 dogs. The 89 km between Levajokk and Karasjok is on the Tana river, so this may be cold night for Mr Prestbakmo. Last night it reached 40 below!

Sun in Sirbma

2010-03-18T13:35:00.002+01:00

While the mushers in the front are rushing towards Alta and the finishing line, Espen and his team (dogs and handlers) are resting in the sun in Sirbma, preparing for the next leg and for the coming cold night (-40?) on Tana River.

Kirkenes-Neiden-Varangerbotn

2010-03-17T12:51:00.002+01:00

Espen just left Neiden II after 5.5 h rest. He is very pleased with the team and he continues with 11 dogs towards Varangerbotn. Kaifa, the youngest dog in the team was dropped off at Neiden I since she was a bit thin and didn't have any appetite. Wilma was taken out of the race in Neiden II as she was tired and had a wound ankle. All the others are well and Bård who was tired in Kirkenes had rested in the sled on their way to Neiden II.

Kari- the mini husky

2010-03-16T17:39:00.004+01:00

Kari has been resting for a while in the sled on their way to Kirkenes. And that is fair- you should have some previledges when you are the smallest dog in the team (15 kg). Espen and the dogs are expect to arrive in Kirkenes around 6 or 7 p.m!

Neiden

2010-03-15T21:13:00.003+01:00

Espen is now having his 16h mandatory rest. He is taking it in Neiden. Coming in here this afternoon he was wery happy whit his team so far. They have been working very good all the way. But coming in here they were tired. He hope that the rest will get them fresh again. Right now Espen is sleeping. He has put up a tent that he and the dogs are resting in together. Hopefully it is not to cold there, outside it is now -30c.
He think that he will drop Kaifa before going on to kirkenes to morrow morning at 0600. That mean he is going whit 12 dogs.

Resting on the trail

2010-03-15T09:45:00.003+01:00

Espen and Arne Liaklev (on the picture) have been resting on the trail instead of on the checkpoints. They are now on their way to Neiden.

Levajokk

2010-03-14T16:33:00.002+01:00

Espen and his team stopped for 4 h on their way over to Levajokk. Their actual leg time was therefore approximately 5.18 h, and that is good! On Levajokk they stayed for almost 6 h and left around 14.00 this afternoon. Espen had to leave Baska (one of the dogs from Mats) behind as she was limping, so he continues with 13 dogs. All the others were fresh and healthy and were very eager to continue. So was also the musher. The handling team almost overslept Espen's arrival this morning, so I guess they are not suffering from lack of sleep...yet.

The updates on Finnmarksløpets webpage is sometimes slow, so currently it looks like Espen is still in Levajokk, although that is not correct.

Photo from the starting line

2010-03-14T07:53:00.003+01:00

Kaifa and Gross up front, Kari and Elton behind (and Aslak).

Espen had the 6th (!) best leg time from Jotka to Skoganvarre (however he rested for 2.22 h at Joatka and some of the others didn't). The team is now on their way to Levajokk. The night has been nice and cold ( -25), and considering the time the team already spent on this last leg (9h so far), Espen has probably been sleeping some hours in the sled somewhere on the track.

Skoganvarre

2010-03-13T23:38:00.003+01:00

Espen came in to Skoganvarre a bit before 23.00 tonight, picked up some food and continued immediately towards Levajokk. His so far very pleased with his team!

Latest news from Alta

2010-03-13T11:47:00.003+01:00

Espen, Aslak and Knut report nice and sunny weather from Alta! Starting time for Espen is approximately 12.45. We wish the team all the best for the coming week's challenges!

Alta

2010-03-11T21:46:00.002+01:00

The Undervegs raceing team has now arrived in Alta. Espen came yesterday and has been to the mandatory drivers meeting and done his registration. The rest of the team; Aslak, Knut and the dogs arrived this evening. Team member, and last years Finnmarksløp contestant, Lotta is in Tromsø doing her very last bit on her Phd. She is following the race on the web, between her writing. We wish her the very best.
So the we (Aslak and Knut) are here following the race and giving Espen the best service we are able to. Stay tuned, we will update when possible.

Online at Finnmarksløpet

2010-03-09T23:11:00.002+01:00

During the next two weeks we hope to use this site for the last updates on Finnmarksløpet and how things develop with Espen and the dogs.... For further information check www.finnmarkslopet.no

New Blog Site

2010-01-18T21:19:00.001+01:00

I have now upgraded the www.undervegs.no website and moved the blog to this site.

For future updates please visit http://www.undervegs.no/UNDERVEGS/News/News.html

New Year

2010-01-05T22:01:00.008+01:00

Normally we feed the dogs on their chains or harnessed in the team, but when they stay in the dog room in the barn I have fed them loose all 17. It is interesting to see how they behave in this situation. No one is allowed to touch the meet in the bucket and Vosko is making sure it does not happen...

Tuva got her first sled for christmas and is now taking her share in the training.

After long distances on relatively hard surface before christmas we are now having some days of workout with steep hills and soft snow. It does not go fast, but the dogs have to work hard and it gives good lead dog training. On the cold days it is also much warmer up in the mountains than here down in the valley. We started home at 80 meter above sea level and climbed a peak of 1200m. On the way we went trough several mountains passes and some interesting places, specially when my brake broke...

2009-12-26T23:27:00.000+01:00

Training in the mountains

2009-12-13T21:20:00.005+01:00

Finally we have started the trips into the mountain areas of Indre Troms. This last week we have had good trips to Dærta and Altevatn. It was not plenty of snow, but acceptable, to Derta. At Altevatn the snow and trail conditions were really good. All the dogs seems happy after this hard training week, and no major injuries so far is also a good sign. In the barn we have re established the dog-room in the old stable, so that they can get maximum recovery after training on cold days.

Hard November soon over

2009-11-30T10:28:00.005+01:00

Ideally a hard November should mean hard training for the dogs, but not this year. November has been hard of solid ice on roads and everywhere else making the training difficult. We have almost managed to do the planned training, but it has involved a lot of traveling to Kiruna, Skibotn, Dividalen and Øvre Sopero. Finally the snow has arrived again making doglife a little lighter... But we have also had some really good trips the last weeks. Cart training in the mountains of Skibotn and sledding in Soppero with expert mushers imported all the way from Australia. In Soppero we did long runs during the day and warmed up in the sauna afterwards.

Training updates

2009-10-21T21:03:00.004+02:00

Snow has come and left us again, but we reached some good trips with the sled. I had one grate trip when I took the dogs moose hunting and we managed to get as close as 70 m to a moose. Only problem was that It was 200 m into the neighbour territory...
At the moment we are back on the atv training. I did a 32 km run with all 17 dogs this afternoon and they all seamed to do it easily.
Coming weekend we go to Nordreisa to train together with other teams from Tromsø, Norreisa and Alta and we look forward to this. Our goal is to manage 500 km of training in October, we will see if we get that far.... Most important is that the dogs seems healthy and eager to go on with the training.

Training starts

2009-08-20T20:40:00.003+02:00

Even with a warm start of August we have managed to get started at the training and is almost on our schedule... The thing that I am most happy with is that the culture in the dogyard seems relaxed and good. All dogs behave well when they are running loose and the new, chaos style, line system is working good. The 17 dogs run on a line that is as long as a normal 10 dog string, without neck lines and with shorter pulling lines. This gives good control of the team and the dogs must learn to behave in the harnessing/starting situation.

Midnight sun and new trips

2009-05-21T22:43:00.003+02:00

We had a few grate days on Senja last weekend, camping in Ballesvika with the sun just quickly dipping down into the ocean before rising again.

At the same time as the winter season is definitely over, we have already started planning next season. For those who want to learn more about training a team of sled dogs for the long races or look for a challenging trip we have a special offer in November and December.

More info about the trip here at our website...

Springtime

2009-05-04T23:00:00.004+02:00

The winter is coming to an end. Lotta did a grate Finnmarksløp in march and ended 23 with all the 8 dogs to the finish line. My self I have had some grate trips to the mountains, specially last weekend when we found tracks from 4 bears that we probably had scared away.

Hopefully we will get some more midnight sledding trips before all the snow is gone, but we are beginning to look at the atv again for summer training of the dogs.

Next season we will have 17 dogs in training for Finnmarksløpet 1000 km which is our main goal in 2010 race season.

Indre Troms February Trip

2009-02-26T23:49:00.006+01:00

We had a grate trip last week, nice cold weather and good snow conditions made the trip a good preparation for the upcoming Finnmarksløpet. We started from Devddes and took the route Derta, Havga, Kiepan, Vouma, Gaskas, Innset. I think I have never seen so few Ptarmigan or tracks before, saw three birds and hardly no tracks, but a lot of reindeer in the area and more wolverine tracks than ever before. The dogs did a good job also, I had one adult lead dog in my team and the rest was youngsters. Pelle and Bård both got valuable lead dog training, braking trail in new terrain and keeping a straight course in the white mountains together with Momba. Kafka that i borrowed from Magne and Ragnhild also did a grate job, not bad doing this trip when in front of a sled for the second time and normally living life as a pet dog... Thanks to the team for a good week.

Handler work

2009-02-01T20:25:00.002+01:00

After last weeks TQ I have not had the chance to run the dogs. Lotta is doing as much training and dog work as possible to prepare for Finnmarkslopet, and this weekend they did another 160 km. The Troms Quest went fine for the team. They did not perform extraordinary good, but they did a good job, and none of them seemed to tired after the race. They had the same speed on both legs, which is also a good sign.

It is strange not spending more time with the dogs, but it will be better. In a couple of weeks I will take them for a week in the mountains again. But first I will join Femundsløpet as handler for Olav om the 600km. I really look forward to that happening, first time to Femund and actually first time as race handler...

Working on the trails

2009-01-18T22:36:00.002+01:00

The last and probably also coming week main focus has been on preparations for Troms Quest race next weekend. With a few exceptions the trail is now marked and a few teams has tried out the trail and the response is positive. If the trail conditions stay like it is now, my guess is winning times around 10 to 11 hours plus the rest time next week...

New Year - New wesite

2009-01-10T22:53:00.002+01:00

Finally I have managed to get a new website up and going. Check out the www.undervegs.no site.

Changing weather

2009-01-10T22:28:00.004+01:00

Focus the last week has been planning our upcoming sleddog race, Troms Quest, but it is difficult to get going with trail braking when weather is changeing all the time. Arriving home from christmas holiday in Sweden the 29.dec we had zero snow and green fields, one week later we where swimming around in 1m of soft snow, and today it is warm and raining again... To morrow we go out to start the trail braking, and hopefully the conditions will stabilize and give us some good weeks of training and racing.

On Troms Quest I will work as race leader, so I don´t get the chance to race my self. Aslak will take care of racing the adults on the 160 km while Our Australian Friend Donald McIntyre will race the youngsters on 55 km.

Longer distances

2008-12-10T11:57:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we had our first long training trip. We combined the training with freight transport of firewood to Dærtahytta. Aslak first did one trip out and return from Dividalen to Dærtahytta, then the dogs got a 4 hour rest before I took the same trip once more. The conditions where perfect, full moon, hard trails -10 c and no wind. The dogs were doing fine and did not seem to tired. The last leg was covered in the same speed as the first. I was specially happy to see that all the seven youngsters in the team managed the long distance, Kari even did the last two legs in lead.

Troms quest

2008-11-27T00:00:00.003+01:00

The new sleddog race in the region is getting closer. I was out to day braking trails and preparing some tricky parts of the route.

Training is going well and we have tried to so several shorter runs this week to keep the dogs happy and motivated. I have spent some time finding new trails and Gunnar is getting really good in finding a good route trough dense forest and other places where a dogteam in never meant to be...

Check out the new website of Troms Quest. www.tromsquest.com

2008-11-07T21:23:00.003+01:00

First trip with the sled for the season. We had a grate trip to the mountains of above Devddes. To say that is was good snow conditions is maybe to much, but it was posible...
The young dogs handled the long trip well and had their first experience of deep snow, bue ice and overwater.

2008-08-28T14:23:00.002+02:00

Two new puppies arrived yesterday, one of them is on his way to Svalbard in a few weeks, ut the other is going to stay with us. They both have the same father, Rumba from Mats Petterson in Kiruna, but the mothers are different, Sara from Sigbjørn Solvang and a lead dog of Wenke Offerdal.

Summer 2008

2008-08-28T13:06:00.004+02:00

Time is running fast as usual. The summer is used for as much different activities as possible, but of course I would have liked to do more of everything. Highligts has been WW kayaking course, two weeks of guiding around in Troms, as much PG flying as possible, one week in Danmark and some nice trips with the family in our nearby area...

Tough decision

2008-03-13T09:06:00.001+01:00

After a lot of up and down during the race Aslak finally made the decision to quit the race. He is still shivering from fever and this combined with Vosko leaving the team made him take the final decision.

Kirkenes

2008-03-12T13:22:00.002+01:00

Aslak arrived Kirkenes this morning and should according to the plan have left now at 13.00 But this time it seems like it is the musher that has got problems. Freezing and svetting at the same time during the brake it seems like he has got fever, so he is spending some more time in bed trying to get back on his feet before the night.

2008-03-11T23:45:00.002+01:00

On the trail to Kirkenes. Aslak found it tough on the leg to Neiden with slow trails, but the dogs did their job and they arrived a little bit past midnight. The dogs seems fine and they left again at five this afternoon after 16 hours rest. All the dogs looked fine and ate, some of them better than others. Kesam that usually is hard to get to eat has really done well and is one of the best eaters. I talked to Aslak after four hours on the trail and he was very happy with the team, the trail was good and the dogs were running good. He was wondering how long he should rest on the trail and my advice since the dogs where doing so well was to rest four hours instead of three. This might sound a bit strange, but now he is on his way to get the good rhythm and spirit of distance mushing into his team and he must do what he can to keep it. If he keeps the team happy towards the end of the race he can gain a lot of hours on that. Braking the magic by running to far when the dogs are doing well can easily spoil the race. Long distance mushing if much like balancing on a knife edge and our team still has a lot to learn about balancing.
All the dogs are doing well, but Aslak specially mentioned Kaos that has done a fantastic job in the lead running all but one leg as a leader. If everything goes after the plan he should be in Kirkenes between seven and eight to morrow morning.

Jan Vidar Dahle got a very deserved victory on the 500 km. I know no one else spending so much time with the dogs and being so enthusiastic about his team. Those seeing the team arrive in Alta last night told about a good looking team that was still in top shape after running 500 km. Well done and congratulations Jan Vidar.

Up in the front of 1000 km Stein Håvard Fjestad was first out of Kirkenes, he has had the fastest team so far, but all the nine up in front are potential winners. Ralph has got diarrhea in his team and seams to be hooked of the top fight, but he still might come back.

Ups and downs

2008-03-10T21:30:00.003+01:00

On of the most fascinating things about mushing are the big ups and downs you experience during the race. For Aslak the race so far has given a lot of them, Skoganvarre was a happy team and a happy musher, Levajok was a big down, having to leave four dogs and being afraid having to scratch. Coming to Skippagura this morning Aslak was happy again. The dogs worked well, they had a good spirit and three hours of rest on the trail kept all the ten dogs fit and healthy. In Skippagurra the team ate well, even Kesam where looking for more food, this is the kind of details that makes a musher happy.
They where 20 min in front of the schedule Aslak is following so they had 20 min extra rest, leaving 15.55 after 6 hour 14 min rest. I expect them to arrive in Neiden around 24.00 if everything goes according to the plan and not another down is coming... In Neiden they will have their 16 hour stop and i guess this will be good for man and dogs.

Up in the front nothing is clear, there are a lot of teams doing very well and some have had their 16 hour in Skippagura while other are resting in Neiden. Stein Håvard Fjestad and Bjørnar Østigård are moving fastest so far. Wiith Ralph no one really know because he is resting a lot on the trail and run trough the checkpoints, will he continue to Kirkenes for the 16 hour...?

Mats Is Also doing fine, running the race much the same way as Aslak and I think he started out about an hour after from Skippagura.

2008-03-09T21:00:00.000+01:00

Aslak left Levajok 19.25 and hopefully he will have a good night crossing the mountains to Skippagura. He have had some tough moments in Levajok having to leave four dogs behind. All the dogs were fit and ate well, but Sara, Chilli and Smirre had to quit due to sore shoulders and Momba due to a sore wrist. This is minor injures that will be fine after a day of resting, but it is impossible to continue the race for dogs with this injures. The rest of the dogs are fresh and ate well. This is of corse not a good situation, but if he continues to race in a smart and careful way, taking one leg at the time, and keeping a positive attitude then he has a good chance to come trough.

Levajok

2008-03-09T14:01:00.003+01:00

While we are giving the puppies Fido and Bård their first run in front of he sled here at home (see photo) Aslak has reached Levajok.

He did a fine leg over the mountains, not the fastest, but not to far behind the leaders. The original plan was to rest for some hours in the mountains, but cold weather and ok trail conditions made him push on. There will be more rest on Levajok instead, if this was a smart move will remain to see... Sara from Arne Liaklev got a sore shoulder after two hours and had to ride in the sled most of the leg, she is most likely out of the race. It was also a question about a couple of other sore shoulders and it remains to see what the next seven hours of rest on Levajok will do. Next leg starting in the evening will be 110 km to Skippagura and the plan is to rest for some hours half way. This will bring them to Skippagura Monday morning if everything goes according to the plan.

The front runners has now left Levajok with Brennodden, Tunheim and Ørslien first. Bergby was first in, but with very little rest in Skoganvarre he rested a little longer in Levajok, the question is if it is enough. Ralph Johannesen and Elisabet Edland is resting longer and moving fast than the front and it will be interesting to see if this will give results, maybe we will see some new strategies this year...

2008-03-09T00:38:00.002+01:00

Just waiting for a rapport from Skoganvarre before going to sleep. Aslak seem to have moved well, resting 20 min on the trail gives a ok time on the leg. Inga was having problems with Ravna up to Joatka, but seems to have got up the steam over to Skoganvarre. I am still waiting for more inside information from her to...

2008-03-07T22:41:00.002+01:00

The start of this years big event for mushers and dogs is just hours away and Alta is the place to be, not here at home where I am in front of my Mac...
I have tried to get some rumors and behind the scenes info from the teams in Alta. Inga and Aslak from the neighborhood is ready, and most of all wondering about which runners to use. Is the weather going to be warm or cold to morrow?

About the potential winning teams, there are a lot of favorites this year. On the 500 km Katy Mayer is mentioned as one of the main favorites, but there are a lot of other strong teams. Among my personal favorites are May-Conny Johansen, Svein Sødal Kvam, Jon Øyvind Selmer, Geir Wik, Kjetil Haugersveen and Jan Vidar Dale, but there are also many other strong teams.

On 1000 km I will keep a special eye to the teams of Aslak, our training friend in Kiruna, Mats Peterson, and Stein Johnsen from Norreisa, but none of these are (sad to say) very big favorites to win the race. Rumors from Alta is saying that both Kjell Brennodden and Ralph Johannesen has strong teams this year. Stein Håvard Fjestad has a strong team to, and him self is in top shape to having lost 20 kg since last year... Other favorites is of course Harald Tunheim, Bjørnar Andersen and Tore Bergby. It will also be very interesting to see how Elisabeth Edland will do. She has dominated the 8 dog class the last years with her fast mid distance dogs, how will this bee on the 1000 km? The forecast says warm temperatures and ok weather the next week and this will favor her team, maybe we will have the first woman winning 1000 km this year?

Espen Prestbakmo reporting from the kitchen table in Målselv

The 1000km team almost ready

2008-03-03T22:23:00.003+01:00

STING, sitting here in the snow is the experienced man of the team. He has started at Finnmarksløpet four times before and finished FM 500 and 1000 with me in 2002 and 2005
TRANGIA has finnished fm 1000 with me and started two times with Aslak at fm 500
DØNNING has finished fm 1000 with me and fm 500 with Aslak.
MOMBA, ELTON AND KAOS has finished fm 500 with me last year.
GUNNAR, VOSKO and KESAM was at Aslaks fm 500 team last year.
TUTTA and SMIRRE are newcomers this year. Smirre migh stay home as he have had some injure problems early in the season. In addition on the team is three dogs from Arne Liaklev PUMA, SARA and CHILLI.
Elvira got a shoulder injure last weak and is not starting, Sunda has become epileptic and is a bit to risky to use, and Skare decided to join his father, Faun, running at the forewer dreamteam of Leonard Seppala.

Getting closer to Finnmarksløpet

2008-03-03T22:09:00.002+01:00

I have not made to many rapports from this years dog training, but I must admit that Aslak has done most of the training. He is now ready for the 1000 km Finnmarkslopet, starting 8. March.
I will stay home checking the uppdates at Internet and try to give some rapports from the trail to this blog and to the f2.no wesite from neighbour Inga that is going for the 500km.

Puppies

2007-11-05T23:50:00.000+01:00

The next generation of the team arrived in the beginning of october...

Film work

2007-11-05T23:26:00.000+01:00

Last year september and october was hard work taking part in the film Far North. I had dogs that took part as actors and apart to taking care of the dogs I worked with logistics and was cast for two weeks. Now the results are comming, the film had premiere at the filmfestival in Venezia in August. Here is a video telling more about Far North:

Kajak Course

2007-09-21T21:50:00.000+02:00

First weekend of September we had a WW kayaking course in Målselva and Salangselva...

Autumn paragliding

2007-09-21T21:45:00.000+02:00

Trying to get out flying as often as possible. There is so much to learn, so I hope to do as much flying as possible during the autumn and winter.

Summer activities

2007-09-21T21:24:00.000+02:00

Long, or maybe short, summer is gone with new experiences and trips. Highlight of the summer was one month traveling around in the alps with hiking, paragliding course, good food, visiting
friends and more...

Greate skiing

2007-05-27T23:14:00.001+02:00

Getting more used to my new skies and enjoying good skiing in Tamokfjellet and Mårtind...

Spring

2007-05-20T22:40:00.000+02:00

May means changes towards summer activities, but still trying to get the last out of the remaining snow. Most of the time is spent at home fixing the barn and preparing next years firewood, but I have got the chance to test my new rando skies and had a day with diving on Senja. There might still bee some sledding possibilities in the mountains, but our team is back in front of the ATV getting ready for shorter trips the next two months.
Lena started working again 50 % in the end of April and this also means a bit more time at home to make shore everything is fine with Tuva.

New camera

2007-04-22T15:20:00.000+02:00

After some months without camera I finaly got my new Olympus camera which is supposed to be waterproof and shock proof. Hopefully this one lasts longer than the normal one week after the warranty cameras I have had before. Now I hope to be able to publish more posts and pix again.

The last weeks I have been mostly out in the mountains. First on dog sledding trips from Dividalen in Norway over to the ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi. We were lucky and had two grate trips with good weather.
After the last dog trip I went to the Lyngen alps ski guiding. We had two god days. Friday the plan was to cross the Lyngen peninsula from Gamvika to Nord-Lenangen over the top of Stor Galten. We started in grate weather, but after a few hours snow and wind forced us to take another route than planned. But after all a long challenging and interesting day that was ended with good skiing the last 800 m.
Saturday we had the most fantastic skiing at Kjostind.

More from Finnmarksløpet

2007-04-05T23:23:00.000+02:00

Skare and Kaos are happy to reach the Finnish line in the lead after 2 days 19 hours and 18 min as NR 21. The race was a grate experience for me and I believe also for the dogs. The only drawback was that I wanted to continue...
The first two legs from Alta to Jotka and further to Skoganvarri is normally good trails, but this year a lot of the stretch was soft sugary snow and slow conditions. As the next leg to Levajok is normally softer and heavier I decided to change plans. Instead of resting 5 hours in Skoganvarri and 7 in Levajok I left Skoganvarri after 4 hours and made a 3 hour rest in the mountains. This way I had two 4 hour legs instead of one 9 hour leg. With my young dogs this was the only smart thing to do to save enough energy for the rest of the race. I knew this would be a good thing to do, but I did not dream about the difference it made to my team. I started out after my rest as NR 51 in the race and from here I passed 30 teams for the rest of the race and was not passed by anyone. For the continuing legs to Karasjok, Jergul and Alta I managed to keep the spirit and speed in the team. But the race is also many other important factors. Like meeting other mushers on trail and checkpoint, having a grate handler team (Thanks to Bård and Erik) and enjoying the nature around Finnmark. The most motivating an inspiring for me is the time with the dogs working together, learning to know them better, and building confidence. They all did very well.
Skare, steady as always, never being tired and just looking brefly over his shoulder when passing Mollisjok and the road at Stilla.
Kaos, always ready to go, getting a bit stiff, but recovering quickly. Elvira, which I though was my weakest dog, but kept on working like a hero and did two legs in lead. Momba and Elton, that got tired, but still did their best all the way. Allways pulling also in lead. Jota, the mad worker that allways goes like a machine except when he got sick at the second leg and neaded a ride for 20 minutes up the hills. Brutus that worked the whole way and never made any problems. And Sunda that had to leave the team in Levajok, but did a god job as long as she was there.
No it is time for new plans and ideas to grow for future callenges and teams...

Finnmarksløpet

2007-03-20T09:29:00.000+01:00

As you can imagine the race was a grate experience. The team, specially the youngsters, did a fantastic job and seven of the team finished. Sunda had to be left behind at Levajok due to a sore shoulder but she is back at work now. I will have a more detailed summary of the race when I have the photos and a bit more time. Now it is time for trips to the mountains, we leave for a Dividalen - Kiruna trip on Friday...

2007-03-05T12:32:00.000+01:00

Last polish is done, one more trip on Wednesday and then leaving for Alta and the race start on Saturday. Looking forward to get some new answers about the dogs. I have no big expectations with this very young team, but hope we will have a good experience together.
With 3500 km of training it is the best trained team I have started with in the race, so time will show if it makes a difference...
The final team is
Skare: 8 years, leader, two times Finnmarksløpet and one time Femundsløpet finisher.
Momba: 1 1/2 year, rookie, leader.
Kaos: 1 1/2 year, rookie, leader/team dog.
Elton: 1 1/2 year, rookie, leader/team dog.
Elvira: 1 1/2 year, rookie, leader/wheel dog.
Sunda: 2 years, rookie, point dog.
Jota: 5 years, has raced pasvik trail, point dog.
Brutus: 5 years, some distance experience but no finishes, wheel dog.

Strengthening up my team

2007-02-24T09:06:00.000+01:00

To make sure my team is strong enough I have got a new member in the dog community...

Moose on the farm

2007-02-20T03:22:00.000+01:00

The last days we have got a new animal on the farm. This moose has stayed around the house and dog yard for almost a week now. I went out with the dogs after it got dark this evening and 10 meter out of the dog yard my team turned 90 degree right of the trail. When I lifted my head I saw just into the eyes of the moose. Luckily he did not get angry, but just walked away slowly between me and the rest of the dogs in the yard.

New video

2007-02-20T02:38:00.000+01:00

I was looking after Tva this morning and managed to combine it with some more video experiments. The result can be found here... It is from my last trips with the dogs and from our moose.

Cold weather

2007-02-14T14:25:00.000+01:00

The sun is back in the valley and in a few days it will come trough our kitchen window, and as usual the cold weather comes with the sun. The plan of the day was to go for a long training with the dogs, but with -30 c I will wait until to morrow.
We had grate trips Saturday and Sunday. Half way up Iselvdalen we found a dead reindeer, recently killed by a wolverine. It was a lot of fresh tracks around it and a King eagle was sitting on it when we passed on the way back.

Monday me and Siv guided a caving/skiing trip for 50 soldiers to Fjellfrøs grotta. It is always fascinating to go from -15 c outside and in to the constant +4 c of the cave.

More Internet mushing

2007-02-07T17:20:00.000+01:00

More Internet mushing is coming up. Olav finished on a strong 21 place in Femundløpet, and kept me awake three nights to check race updates at the net. Yukon quest is starting this weekend with ten more days in front of my mac. Here is a link to YQ.

Internet mushing

2007-02-03T16:50:00.000+01:00

Wasting most of my time in front of the computer these last days. Femundsløpet is on and I am following Olav closely. At the moment he is at the checkpoint Søvollen after 187 km, and he is NR 11. According to my calculations he has the second fastest racing time so far, which means that he has rested his team well. It is going to be some exciting hours ...
Follow the race at
http://www.femundlopet.no
http://www.retten.no/femundlopet/
http://qaqeerlaaaq.com/

Training status

2007-02-01T20:17:00.000+01:00

Training the dogs video on this link..
The last long training started out more like swimming than sledding. With almost 1m fresh snow the first part was hard work, but Skare did his snow plow duty in lead. We spent 6 hours 40 km, not very fast, but good training. After 6 hour rest we went out again for 5 hours, then 6 more hours rest and at last a leg at 4 hours. All together we did 130 km, not very fare, but very good race preparations specially with the difficult conditions we had in the start. As you will see on the video the weather got better the second day. The dogs and the musher got necessary race and checkpoint practise like sleeping in the dog tent on the trail instead of home at the kennel. It was also good to see that there is some good new lead dogs coming up. Momba is taking more and more over as a responsible lead dog, it seams like he already has got the important skill of finding old disappeared trails and leading off trail. All together we now have 2800 km of training since we started this season in August.

Tommy and Ronny has come from Tromsø and stayed here for training the last two days, grate with visitors and good to keep the trail open...

To day is the start of Femundsløpet 600 km and to Morrow Femundsløpet 400 km starts. It is going to be a exciting weekend following the teams on Internet at www.femundlopet.no.

Specially I am very exited to see how Olav is doing representing the neighbourhood...

2007-01-29T13:00:00.000+01:00

The winter has arrived for real with heavy snowing in many days. Not the best speed training for the dogs, but good for the dogs to practice trail braking... We where in Tromsø this weekend for a small race, but due to heavy snow fall the race ended up more like a social event than a serious competition. Anyway the dogs where performing well and we ended up at first place in the open class. Rapport from the race will be at the site of Tromsø Sled dog club web site http://www.ken-g.nu/tthk/ To night and the coming 24 hours the plan is to to a long training run with the dogs preparing them for the challenges they will meet at the race. I will do a 6 hours on and 6 hours off training run for about 30 hours with resting on the trail. Depending on snow conditions and speed I hope to cower about 180 km. Coming back with rapport...

2007-01-17T19:09:00.000+01:00

New year and a new life situation. 3 January Tuva arrived as a new member in our small family... We are looking forward to a lot of exciting adventures together in the future. As a real norwegian she was delivered with skies.
This has made the training a bit more home based the last two weeks, but Aslak (brother and second part of the Undervegs racing team) has helped out with the training. He raced the five young dogs and Brutus in Kiruna last weekend and they did a good job. His blog from training and adventures is at http://askeladdturer.blogspot.com/

2006-12-19T10:54:00.000+01:00

Last training trip to Dertahytta in Indre Toms. We have transported firewood to the cabin for Troms Turlag, the local mountaineering club. God training and good conditions. The training is still going good for me and my fourlegged companions... At the moment my racing team for finnmarksløpet is: The old leader, Skare, youngsters Elton, Kaos, Elvira, Sunda og Momba. In addition I have the hardworking, hard headed fighter Jota and the casterated Brutus (former Brutal)

Ut på nye eventyr

2006-12-11T18:05:00.001+01:00

Tester dette, for meg, nye mediet for å nå litt ut i verden...