Sliding through the snow, in a husky 5 drawn sleigh
Over fields we go Gliding all the way
The ground beyond is white; our hair and faces too ….
Oh what fun it was to ride in a five-dog open sleigh!

Yes, I can hear you say, that rhyming sounds familiar but I am singing the wrong words…. well for us, today they were definitely the right ones!
What else do you do when you are in temperatures between minus 15 and minus 20, snow everywhere, you are covered from head to foot to keep the warmth in, stay in your nice warm cabin and read a book? No, you go for a Husky Sleigh ride!  Of course, Why not!
‘Visit Inari’ company gave us the chance to have this adventure and we took it. And what an experience!

Nervously I faced the prospect of how many layers to wear on each body part – top bottom and feet – including how many layers of socks. Just thinking of the outside temperatures that we were going to be travelling and exposed to made me ponder this aspect quite seriously. Even though we were to be given a full thermal body suit, I knew from our previous day’s reindeer ride I had not been warm enough as my feet and hands were frozen on our return at the end of that journey ride (oh yes- didn’t I tell you we went on a reindeer drawn sleigh another great experience- more about that later ). So, I stressed myself before this trip, wondering if I was going to be warm enough for this much colder and much longer journey ahead.

Have you ever wondered why astronauts always have someone help them place their suit on, well now I know why – you cannot move! Today I felt like an astronaut attempting to get into my ‘thermal space suit’. Marc had to assist me as I could not even lift my boot clad foot up and into the one piece padded suit. Trying to adjust my own three layers underneath to make it comfortable (I could not breathe at one point – thinking a few hours of this, I will really come back skinny – it will have been squashed out of me), check all layers were in place and tucked in under the suit as Marc carefully assisted me. I am standing up, I look like Michelin woman, I walk like Michelin woman bowlegged like I have been miles on a horse…my feet stomping in the heavy boots complete with mittens and hood!

Here I am. Ready!
I am nervous.
Here we go.
Oh dear –  I wanted to pee.
Forget that one! Too many layers to take off.

Thirty minutes later we were greeted by howling dogs who so enjoyed a pat. Touching their fur with my bare hands was quite a mistake as the hair on these huskies is quite cold on the surface, it is full of ice. So cold, so surprising too. Mittens on and able to resume the stroking and the caressing of the dogs…me whispering loudly in their ears that you are taking me out today and please be nice to me….’stroke, stroke, caress, caress.’ I am not sure they were listening or not as the intense howling began as huskies were bought forward to be harnessed to the two sleighs. Apparently the 33 dogs on this farm love to work and they ALL want to pull the sleighs. When one starts to be harnessed they all get excited and howl. What a sound! What an experience to see and hear! The excitement in these dogs in wanting to go to work. We should really inject that enthusiasm into some humans!!!

We were so fortunate that we were the only ones in this trip – just us! That was exciting in itself.
Dogs harnessed, instructions given how to drive the sleigh with the dogs …. oh yes, we had to drive the sleigh.

What’s that?  Did I have a go??  No way! I had absolutely no intention of driving the sleigh as I could see myself on the back, driving and something would happen, or I would slip and take my hands off and the dogs would keep going without me…Plonk- into snow. End of ride…no Lyndell. I could just see it! Can’t you?
No, Marc did that! He listened to the instructions from our guide (who was French mind you with limited English – yes, you heard right) and he had to take in what to do. It was not a matter of just standing on the back and following the guide, you had to manoeuvre the thing too! Instructions included,”if you fall off, the dogs will go faster and you will be left behind. Survival unlikely.”

Me- well I was tucked up in the sleigh itself, complete with reindeer skin/fur covering (which didn’t do much I might add) and a tarp to cover me up then tied in. ME!

And away we went.

‘Dashing through the snow” …well, we did that! The dogs took off and it was such a strange different experience being on the sleigh wrapped up, no control of anything, trusting the dogs, trusting Marc that he knew what he was doing and extremely important, trusting the guide in front on his sleigh would not leave us behind! This was not just for a little ride, you are out in the elements for two and half hours!! Up the hills … poor dogs had to pull me up the hill…. down hills, between trees, around trees, on flat snow, with Marc driving them. Gliding, crunching, sliding over the snow as these beautiful huskies sped across the virgin snow!

At first Marc was going well until his hands on the sleigh began to burn and frostbite commenced to attack his fingers. It was amazing how quickly that happened. Change of gloves and we are back in business…. his fingers beginning to thaw with the warmth of his new mittens emanating through the cold. That was quite scary! A doctor who  cannot use his hands! Thankfully the burning sensation gradually subsided and all was normal again.

Now, driving the sleigh is not just standing on the back and being dragged along for the ride. We had 5 huskies pulling us, each capable of pulling its own weight – about 25kg – each. A bit flattering that the guides thought that the two of us, plus all our warm clothes and the sleigh only added up to 125kg. However, the guides had 8 dogs on their sleigh and this meant that they kept getting much further out in front and on several occasions, were totally out of sight with us just following their tracks trusting that we were ‘okay’. Any uphill required Marc to assist by using one leg like being on a scooter, or, if the hill was steeper, jumping off and running along behind pushing the sleigh from behind (and there were some steep hills). Of course, the latter manoeuvre means that he must jump back on before the sleigh gets too much speed up on the downside of the hill. Failing to make the jump means falling off the back of the sleigh, the dogs freed of the extra weight taking off with the tied in Lyndell and no one in control, and Marc up to hips in deep soft powdery snow unable to catch up. Oh, So glad I am not driving!

Also, the dogs run along the track set by the lead sleigh. Minor corners are just by leaning the sleigh into the corner and pivoting the sleigh on the inside runner. On tight corners, the sleigh behaves like any other child’s toy pulled along by a string, it wants to bounce off the furniture as it gets pulled around the corner. With a dog sled, this means that cornering between trees can be hair-raising needing to ‘catch-up’ to the dogs before they turn around the tree so that when they jerk the front of the sleigh into the corner, you are already lined up with the direction you now want to go. I really do not know how those tourists who could not do what Marc was doing, would cope. I knew before we even started that there was no way I could do that. So, I didn’t even try. He did a great job. I could clearly hear him grunting and puffing behind me.

And far too regularly, the lead dog would look back at Marc with a look from those ice blue eyes that said,”What are you doing back there?”, when what Marc was doing was obviously, at least to the dog if not to Marc, ‘not right’.

However, despite the “what could go wrong”, it truly was a magnificent experience. Basically, all went well with only two near tips. Once when the dogs in a U-turn manoeuvre decided to do ‘their own thing’, instead of following the human guide in the snow (hip deep mind you) to perform the U turn, the dog leader instead decided to fold back exactly where she had come from, causing the sleigh to pivot 180 degrees on the spot. When 13 dogs have the same mind, there is nothing you can do and Marc had no time to react. He sunk thigh deep in soft snow, and could only use his thigh as a pivot point for the runners and watch the sleigh start to topple towards him.

Now that was frightening. I could feel the sleigh tip sideways and over….and picturing images of it capsizing on top of me, tied in with nowhere to go did not excite me. Just a tad scared! Luckily one of the guides was close enough to jump on the opposite runner, stop the topple mid-air and assist with completing the U-turn. She was then left with the task of untangling the mess the dogs had made with the traces. The other time, there was a corner with soft snow on the downside so the sled wanted to roll over in the corner but Marc could pull it around the corner and keep the sled, and its important cargo upright.

Now. It appears that I have been sitting in the sleigh “watching the scenery go by, filing my nails, watching the sun reach its zenith, all of one hands breadth above the horizon ,  admiring the view, taking photos…” …..but I did not do that. I was too busy trying to stop my teeth from chattering, my toes from freezing and the rest of my knees and upper body not to go stiff by sitting in one position. I  must admit, by the end of 2 ¼ hours, I was very cold from having been sitting inactive too long in temperatures now down to -20deg C.  Its one thing being physically active and maneuvering the sleigh in the beautiful snowscape, but its another to be completely still, scrunching your toes and fingers to keep the frostbite out as your extremities are freezing, my hair  now frosted with ice and my bladder saying, “Need to pee”. I really felt that despite the thermal suit and my own layers of clothing, the coldness of minus twenty degree temperatures had won! I had had enough.

The dog’s camp was in sight – relief in sight. After the owner sharing a joke with me about my hair turning white (which had now layered into many many many ice crystals,)  we made our way to his  house to use the toilet. You can imagine the relief of the 40 degree shift from -20 to +20deg C . the bladder began to relax, the body began to thaw with the heat from the room.

Through coffee and a chat with our lovely French hosts, we discovered that even the professionals suffer frostbite. Our guide and the owner both had frost bitten fingers and toes from the previous week temperatures of minus 45 degrees. No digits lost but definitely skin and the green colouring of frost bite. We were also informed that Australian tourists make the best drivers of husky sleighs and Chinese the worst! That’s a high compliment!

And on that note, the exquisite scenery, the white silence of just the sleigh on the snow , the majestic indescribable exhilaration of the day, the unqualified thrill of the husky sleigh, even at absolutely freezing temperatures, we decided that today was the highlight of our trip to Inari. Instead of later going on the planned evening reindeer ride, we chose instead to thaw completely with a private sauna, a hot shower, indulge in hot chocolate, and spend a relaxing afternoon penning our thoughts here.

Would I do it again? Even though it was in freezing conditions.
Unquestionably, Yes.
“Oh what fun it is to ride in a five dog open sleigh”
Oh YES!