A Year in the Life Of

In summer we log each dog's winter performance and build a one-on-one regime around its needs, from shyness to directional commands and line-out ability. It is also building season. Some years we finish projects one by one, others we sink foundations everywhere and complete the structures once the ground refreezes.

Conditioning training begins once temperatures drop below 5C, and at some point we swap quads for sleighs, since early-season speeds are hard to control on rough tracks. The priority is building proprioception to reduce limping injuries. Then the clients come. Some years we are busy by November, others quiet until mid December, all while training a partially new crew of winter guides.

December is our 'every safari under the sun, every day of the week' period, and for many the 8 or so days spent standing on a sleigh for up to 9 hours in temperatures down to -40C are the best of the year.

• Booking: drive-in tourists fill the yard, so please book ahead
• Hours: days run from about 6.30am to midnight
• Santa season: British clients come to see Santa in Lapland for a day
• Pace: we may run 6 different safaris in a day with 19 sleighs on the start line
• Standards: every routine task continues, from dog-kitchen cleans to thrice-weekly heat checks

Once the trails are opened, consolidated and marked, we offer longer tours. Daily safari numbers fall as short tours give way to longer ones with fewer clients, leaving time for dog-check write-ups and for the returning sun.

By February we are mid multi-day season, though shorter-haired, older or younger dogs still run the smaller tours. We run up to three 2-day tours per week, alternating nights between our farm kota and the Palojoki wilderness cabin, plus one 5-day or two 3-day safaris.

By the end of March the larger groups leave and short safaris dwindle to the longest tours and the occasional walk-in. Our last safari is normally in the first week of May, but we train hard until then, showing summer guides the ropes and ironing out season-learned bad habits, while planning the few short summer months ahead.