Day 4 - Frozen Rivers and J saves the Day

Started the day at midnight hoping to see the Northern Lights. It was bitterly cold and forcing myself out of the sleeping bag and into the arctic chill was not easy. There were no Northern Lights but there was a definite faint glow in the sky. It was quickly back to bed to get into the cosy sleeping bag to warm up again.

After taking down camp and sorting the dogs we were on our way again for day 4. We would be starting up along the top of the mountains and heading down into the forests where we were told there would be some 'technical' sections.

The start of the descent was signified when when we hit particularly bad terrain just over the top of one of the mountains. The snow had been swept off the top of the mountain and we were sledding on dirt and rocks. This was not fun and very difficult to control the sled. Numerous people fell and lost control of their sleds. Jay saved the day by grabbing the dogs of a runaway sled despite the fact that it had crashed into her back! Jay was singled out for her bravery in the team meeting at the end of the day.

After this followed another treacherous section which involved sledding over a narrow ledge with an icy river to fall into if we got it wrong. Numerous people slipped off the ledge and were dragged along on their side narrowly avoiding the river. This included me and we got split from the rest of the group on different sides of the river after we had found an alternative crossing point. Tove one of the leaders thought that it was too treacherous and wanted to turn back so now we were three groups. One on each side of the river and one that was turning back. The groups each side of the river converged after another bridge and Tore the other guide went back to convince the remaining group to join us. Eventually we were all together again.

The second part of the day was less technical but very enjoyable. We made a swooping right turn downhill and suddenly we were travelling up a frozen river which was totally exhilarating and looked like we were gliding across glass. I was last in the line and hoping that the ice would hold as in some places it did not look very thick. This was especially so as the brakes on our sled basically are a spike going into the ground. Not exactly what you want on a frozen river.

The day was much longer today than we have previously experienced and arriving at camp this evening there were many tired and aching bodies. We spent over six hours covering around 45km on the sleds with another gruelling day ahead of us tomorrow.

As I write this we are camping on a frozen lake and have taken a picture of the view from our tent.

Love Chris and Jay x