Into the wild - Swedish Husky Sledding

Into the wilds! Stripped down our belongings further today as we had to share one hold-all between two from now on. 

Due to difficult snow conditions, we are not going to be able to do our planned journey as the river system we need to cross is not properly frozen. We can still get to the first cabin, so will spend two nights out there instead of one and a further camp. On this tour, we’ve got a skidoo as a safety back up, so loaded our bag onto this so we could have light sleds. 

Setting off into a full blizzard of windless heavy snowfall, was actually quite tranquil. Without a breeze, the snow was laden on the trees and all the branches around us were bowing under the weight. It was however bitterly cold and my beard, although good at keeping me warm, was also good at catching snowflakes, which soon turned to ice. We were all grateful to Marcos, our skidoo driver who had gone ahead of us and got the fire going in a teepee. As well and a huge pan of Swedish Meatball soup. 

After a warming feed, we set out on foot onto a frozen lake armed with a big drill. We did our best to catch a fish, but somewhat in surprisingly, came away empty-handed. At least we had some good dinner materials already packed on the Skidoo!

By the time we reached the cabin, it was pretty much dark. No one had stayed there in a while as inside, everything was as frozen as it was outside! The lads soon set to work chopping wood and got the fire going, but it took a while to thaw the place out. Everything was frozen - even the washing up liquid by the sink!

Feeding the dogs was our next priority, which was actually pretty quick and not too gruesome, as we had pre-prepared it before we left the husky lodge. 

Then, finally, before we could settle into the cabin, we had to walk down to the nearby river, where a hole had been made previously in the ice (using a chainsaw!). It had since re-frozen, but not as thickly, so we were able to hack through with an axe to the flowing water. We couldn’t make it big enough to dunk the water container, so had to hand fill it with a jug. Slow and cold work!

During the remainder of the evening, we took turns to check for the northern lights, but it remained cloudy and the snow continued to fall. Here's a few pics from the day, which probably explain things better!...