Dog sledding

Today we saw the sun! And of course I took a photo - it's just visible on the horizon behind the other dog team we met while out on the sea ice. During the last few days only the refracted image of the sun has been visible as a long firy rectangle on, or just above the horizon. It was especially exciting for Jenn and Natasha who haven't seen the sun since November.

Simon told me he'd been running a dog team for nearly 25 years, so he's got quite a bit of experience! Last year he and the dogs flew over to Iqaluit on Baffin Island in order to sled back to Igloolik - it took them three months. That was Will Steiger and Richard Branson's expedition to highlight climate change. This summer Simon is working with the Arctic Voice expedition. Coincidentally I met Stephen Doughty from that expedition at the Scottish Arcctic Club dinner last year. He'd spent the summer kayaking through part of the North West Passage which was phase one of the expedition. Phase two is dog sledding but I think Stephen is giving that phase a miss. I hope the people who are taking part invest in some very warm boots. Jenn's feet are just a little bit smaller than mine and my feet got very cold. Running along beside the kamotik exercised my lungs but sadly didn't seem to improve the circulation in my feet. To be honest, I was quite surprised by how easy it was to run and keep up with the dogs despite the -35C temperature and the number of thick insulating layers I was wearing. The komatiks (sledges) they use here are very simple. Just two runners with planks lashed across to form a platform a metre and a half to two metres long and about half a metre wide. Caribou skins are lashed on top of the planks to form a nice comfortable seeating area. Just enough room for four of us to sit close together, at first we were worried about our feet catching in the snow so tried to kneel or sit cross-legged. By the end we were all sitting sideways with legs stuck out and feet dangling off the kamotik which was much more comfortable. Simon essentially controls the dogs with his voice. He also had an incredibly long leather whip - it must have been at least 4 metres in length - which he waved over the heads of the dogs before we set off, it seemed to calm them down and signal that we were nearly ready to go. There is also a metal brake which is dug into the snow to anchor the komatik. I doubt it would be particularly effective if the dogs really decided to take off! The trickiest part of the whole proceedings was the setting off. Simon said "get on", we jumped on the kamotik and we were off! It was a proper scramble! The dogs set off very enthusiastically but their pace soon slowed down to a fairly gentle trot. The ride was very smooth, quite calm and relaxing. Especially nice to just hear the noise of the komatik runners and the dogs footsteps on the snow rather than the engine of the skidoo. No fumes either! Dog sledding felt like the perfect way to move through this beautiful Arctic landscape.