John Edwards' Tundra Expedition Report 2017
Five Fabulous Finnish Days - a guest's first-person account of a 5-day wilderness husky safari and the dogs he came to love.
As a Signy Fid I sledged and camped on Coronation Island, but the 3-week man-hauling expedition 4 of us shared left me feeling I had missed the doggy experience Fids at Halley or Peninsula bases enjoyed.
Then in 2015 I watched 'The Dog Rescuers' on BBC1 and saw how a husky called 'Tala', who had roamed free in Sweden for weeks, was taken in by a husky farm in Finland. The love and care shone out of their website, and that clinched it: 5 days of dog sledging in Arctic Finland.
- 5-day wilderness husky safari, 197km across the Arctic
- Teams of 5 dogs per sledge, a snowmobile and pulk follow for safety and supplies
- Routes through the Tarvantovaara Wilderness Area near the Norwegian border
- Daily distances ranged from a 30km warm-up to a 52km, 9-hour day
- Detailed daily mileage spreadsheet used to select and rest the dogs
Arrival in Enontekio
So, 50 years after first going South with BAS, and 36 hours out of Birmingham, I stepped off the bus at Enontekio at 3.20pm on Saturday 25th Feb - 'remote but reachable' indeed. In the veterinary store, among 4 recuperating huskies, we had a hot drink and cake and were issued any arctic clothing we lacked, then helped feed and water the 170 dogs before salmon pasta in the cosy traditional Kota.
Learning the ropes
Sunday dawned sunny and crisp at around -30C. We learned to collect, harness and clip our dogs onto the traces. A detailed mileage spreadsheet, updated daily, shows which dogs need rest and which need more action. Day one was a 30km circuit to a cabin at the edge of the frozen lake south of Enontekio. Some sledges carried the crucial instruction 'Don't Let Go' on the handlebars, and I was, embarrassingly, the only one who failed to heed it.
Sledge Scouser and 'The Fids'
We set off at noon, around -13C, into the uninhabited far north. My sledge ran 4th in line under an unofficial BAS-style name, and 'Sledge Scouser' was pulled 197km across the Arctic whiteness by 'The Fids', 5 dogs I came to know and love: lead dogs Nomad and Buddah, swing dogs Samson and Shadow (2-year-old Eurohound brothers), and Aknil, a Nenet Laika in the wheel position, invaluable on the uphills.
Across the high tundra
We climbed seven hills onto the treeless tundra near the Norwegian border, passed reindeer herds tended by the Sami, and reached state-owned cabins by lake Syvajarvi in the Tarvantovaara Wilderness Area, around 40km from the nearest road.
The longest day, St David's Day, was a 52km, 9-hour run to the huts at Nakkala, opening with a dawn chorus of howling and an early team fight, and closing with guides Charlotte and Josh stapling Buddah's wounded ear.
The final day was a lovely 40km run south through birch into pine and across the frozen lake back to the farm.
Postscript: about Hetta Huskies
Hetta Huskies is run by Pasi Ikonen, a ski wilderness guide and ex-Commando Border Guard, and Anna McCormack from the UK, a BSES and Raleigh International leader. They met on the start line of the 827km Raid Gauloises 2000 in Tibet and married in 2003.
The couple moved to Hetta two years later and started the farm in 2008, the year Pasi also became one of the first Finns to reach the South Pole unsupported, arriving on Christmas Day.
- Green principles: the farm partners the 'Leave No Trace' Centre for Outdoor Ethics
- Certification-plus: the sleddog industry's highest grading, from the 'Mush with Pride' kennel inspectors
- Award-winning welfare: 'Gold' for Animal Welfare at the 2015 World Responsible Tourism Awards
- Rescue and retirement: the farm takes in local rescue dogs, never euthanises a healthy dog and lets guests walk the retired dogs
- Support: sponsorship and adoption programmes are always open, and any help towards the whole-life care of our dogs is deeply appreciated
Good to know
- Author
- John Edwards (former BAS 'Fid')
Ready when you are
Real wilderness, 200+ huskies, eighteen winters in.