The day is finally here to meet the other participants for the flight to Kiruna in Sweden. After touch down, you will transfer to a hotel in the centre of town, where you will be met by the challenge leader for a full briefing. Dinner will be taken at the hotel where you spend the night. (D)
Accommodation: Hotel
This morning we head off to the kennels, where you will be allotted a team of huskies and given a demonstration and safety briefing. After lunch it’s off into the wilderness! This initial stint of mushing enables the group to practice what you have been taught and to get comfortable with handling the sleds. At the end of the ride, you will head back to the kennels, where you will be shown how to care for the dogs. (B,L,D)
Accommodation: Sami tepee sleeping on reindeer skins
When it comes to breakfast, it’s animals first – so you'll prepare their food, before sorting out your own. The route is roughly 10km longer than yesterday and lunch will be taken along the way. You will arrive at the wilderness cabin by the edge of a frozen lake later in the day, and this will be your home for the next three nights. The facilities are basic, with no electricity, no running water and an outside toilet, where you will have to drill a hole in the frozen lake to collect water, and to chop wood for the fire. (B,L,D)
Accommodation: Wilderness cabin
After breakfast, mushing takes place on homemade trails untouched by anyone other than the native moose and reindeer. It’s really back to nature at lunch time, as you’ll have to make a fire with wood that is collected from the surrounding forest. Back at the wilderness cabin, an evening of activities await: chopping wood, fetching water, making the fire, heating water and preparing dinner, and washing up. (B,L,D)
Accommodation: Wilderness cabin
By now, you will know the ropes, preparing breakfast for the dogs, and then packing up for the day’s activity ahead. Today you will mush for around 40kms and weather permitting, have lunch on top of a hill overlooking Kiruna. Later it’s back to the wilderness cabin, to settle the dogs, yourselves and maybe even enjoy a sauna. There are no guarantees, and it’s totally subject to atmospheric conditions, but in the evening, you can take some reindeer skins down to the frozen lake and lay out under the stars, waiting for the incredible Northern Lights to make an appearance. (B,L,D)
Accommodation: Wilderness cabin
Rise and shine early to get organised (packing your things to leave the wilderness cabin) before heading off on your final day’s sledding. Each day of the challenge, the level of difficulty in the trails followed and the skills needed to manoeuvre your team, will increase. From here it’s a challenging ride back to the kennels with some tough ascents and descents. Upon arrival, it is down to you to unharness the dogs, feed and settle them, before bidding them a final farewell. After lunch, you visit the world-famous Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi and have a celebratory dinner back at your hotel for the night in Kiruna. (B,L,D)
Accommodation: Hotel
Be sure to exchange contact details with new-found friends and sledding partners over breakfast, before transferring to the airport for your flight home. (B)
BELIEVE >> ACHIEVE >> INSPIRE