Day 2 - frozen bread and rescuing runaway dogs.

We made it through a very windy and cold first night. It is difficult to tell but our guides estimate that the temperature got down to minus 15. Talk about culture shock!
The sleeping bags held up and an improvised hot water bottle helped keep some very cold feet warm.
We got up at around seven to sunshine no wind and a view to die for. We were right near the top of the mountains and had awesome views of a number of different peaks.
After breakfast (sandwiches on frozen bread and coffee from the stove) it was time to feed the dogs and then chain them up to the sleds. This process takes a long time and it was around a couple of hours before we were ready to go. Just before this our guide, Mike, from Global Challenges fell down a snow hole that had opened up which was around 6 foot deep. Unfortunately Mike's knee was too badly injured to continue and he was taken down the mountain by skidoo whilst his kit and dogs were shared out.
After another couple of hours we were ready to go with one less guide. The weather was bright blue skies and sunshine and thin fleeces were the order of the day. After breaking the ridgeline of the mountains the views only got better and it was around 4 hours of sledding before we arrived at the next camp. We were much more competent today (no falls) with the going a lot quicker. We were now clued up enough to look after the other dogs and one of the highlights of the day was when me and Peter both had to rescue another set of dogs by diving after them when they raced past. All good fun!
Putting up camp in the sunshine was a lot easier (we almost made it look like we knew what we are doing) and dinner is now on the go (boil in the bag bbq chicken followed by a mars bar).
It looks like tonight will be another cold one due to the clear skies but now we know the sleeping bags work!!
Love C and J x