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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.