Start your Arctic safari adventure as soon as you arrive at the airport, letting the huskies take you through the woods and along frozen trails to your destination. From your seat on the reindeer-clad sled, you watch the huskies push forward through the snow, into the seemingly endless wilderness and the clear, starlit evening. The muffled beat of paws on the snow, the steady, low whispers from the musher to the lead dog, and the panting of the dogs.
With less than 1000 residents, Jukkasjärvi has developed into an Arctic Circle center for dog sledding. Keeping dogs as training buddies for skiing or running, and of course, hunting is popular with the locals in the village. In fact – Jukkasjärvi is home to more four-legged friends than actual residents, and Jukkasjärvi boasts a number of husky kennels offering tours for tourists. As the end destination for the annual long-distance expedition races Fjällräven Polar and Tobacco Trail, and hometown of several world elite champion dog racers you may catch some real pros as they whiz past on the Torne river.
– The vast landscapes north of Jukkasjärvi, with their flat terrain between wooded areas and low mountains, are perfectly suited for dog sledding safaris, says Kenth Fjellborg, who has worked with huskies for over 20 years and runs Fjellborg Arctic Journeys in Jukkasjärvi.
Together with Lapland Wilderness Tours, Fjellborg is an exclusive provider of dog sled tours for ICEHOTEL. In Jukkasjärvi, nature is just around the corner from the kennels and the adventure starts soon as you are picked up by your dog sled safari guide.
"We want to give all of the participants an authentic dog sled experience, not just traveling a few hundred meters on a marked track.Our shortest tour which departs twice daily all winter is at least twelve kilometers long and takes approximately an hour and a half."
KENTH FJELLBORG
FJELLBORG ARCTIC JOURNEYS
Huskies love to run and they love cold. They can run distances of 50 kilometers in one day and prefer temperatures well below freezing. The leader dog in the team understands commands like “left”, “right” and “stop” and takes the lead from the musher.
Experiencing the bond between the team of relentlessly running, enduring huskies and the musher guide, and learning to interact with the husky dogs is only part of the experience. Traveling through the roadless country, on narrow woodland trails, and across frozen lakes with only the steady sound of paws on the snow and the creaking of the sled is exhilarating.
There are dog sledding tours for every taste and difficulty level, from short 90-minutes tours to extreme, multi-day expeditions. You can choose to come along as a passenger on the sled or try to drive a team of dogs with your own sled. In the summer and fall, you can experience the husky puppies and how the dogs are trained for the winter season with quad-bikes on a kennel visit.
"Most visitors are struck by the wide-open spaces and the compact silence. No cell phones ringing, no polite conversation if they don’t feel like it – instead, they can look around, reflect and pass time with their own thoughts."
Meditation in the wilderness, in other words.