Mushing Dividalen - 1 week
Travel trough Øvre Dividal and Rohkunborri national parks and their surrounding wilderness areas
At the heart of the arctic, this is one of the biggest and last wilderness area in Europe, which extends over the Swedish and Finnish borders. We follow the rhythm of nature, adjusting our schedule to the weather, daylight and snow conditions, packing the camp in the morning and traveling between 20 to 100 km a day by dogsled.
Group size : 4 to 5 participants
Departure point : Bardufoss (or Tromsø, then by bus)
Accommodation : mountain huts, cabins and tents
Landscapes : pine and birch forests, barren mountains, valleys, frozen lakes and rivers, high plateaus of the nordic calotte, mountain pastures and toundra
Your own dogteam
Each of us have his own team of 4 to 6 dogs, and a sled loaded with what's needed for traveling autonomous trough the mountains. We spend the nights in remote mountain huts, tents or in reindeer herder cabins, and hopefully get to enjoy the northern lights.
Vast frozen lakes
The landscapes are varied : big frozen lakes, birch covered valleys, mountain passes and vast open plateaus. This is the home of reindeer, fox, ptarmigan, hare, lynx, wolverine, lemming, moose and brown bear - but usually we only see their tracks. It feels more like traveling trough a snow-covered desert!
Sami reindeer herders
The area is experienced as a untouched and raw wilderness, but it has been the seasonal home of Sami reindeer herders trough centuries. We will meet reindeers on our trail, and partly follow the old migration routes used between seasonal grassing areas.
Remoteness and flexibility
The mountains remoteness and potentially challenging weather conditions demand a flexible tour schedule, and good physical shape of the participants. The tour will be adjusted to weather conditions at a daily basis!
Dogs & humans
On this tour the close cooperation between human and dog is particularly important! You will have your own dog team for which you are responsible during the tour. This includes learning to harness, feed and handle the dogs.
Program
D 1 : arrival at Bardufoss airport, pick-up and 30min. drive to our husky-farm. Welcoming diner, meeting with the dogs, night at our log-house.
D 2 : training day. After breakfast we meet and feed the dogs together, before going for a training run on the trails around the farm. In the afternoon we go trough the trip and the equipment, plan and prepare for an early start next day.
D 3 : after breakfast we load the dogs and equipment on the car, and drive 1 hour to the starting point for our trip into Dividalen. Here we pack all the food and equipment needed for spending the next days in the mountains. It's about 35km travel trough the mountains to the first cabin/camp where we spend the night.
D 4 - 7 : exploring the area by dogsled. Depending on weather and snow conditions we stay at cabins visit like Rostadalen, Vouma and Gaskas. Each day we travel between 25 km and 60 km ( 4 – 6 hours) trough these beautiful landscapes. We have lunch on the trail and spend nights in mountain huts or eventually in a tent camp. In the afternoon of day 7 we return to civilization on the husky farm for a warm shower and sauna, and a farewell dinner.
D 8 : return home after breakfast.
