Siberian Husky teams in main LD races 2010
FEMUND 600 RESULTS
FEMUND 400 RESULTS
Femund 600 finishers:
16. Karsten Grönås
28. Nisse Uppström
31. Catherine Mathis
32. Henrik Stachnau (am)
Femund 400 finishers.
19. Trond Hansen
34. Nina Filander
41. Agneta Nilson Hörnlund
43. Marius Moholdt
46. Erik Martinez
49. Kristin Esseth(malamute)
51. Toril Hagen (malamute)
53. Håkan Nisula (samoyed)
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Yukon Quest - 6 February
finishers:
13. Mike Ellis
21. Pierre Antoine Heritier
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Iditarod - 6 March
42. Blake Freking
Hank de Bruin scratched
Karen Ramstead scratched
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Finnmarklöpet 13 March
27. Isabelle Travadon
Finnmarkslöpet 500
Mel Andrews scratched.
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Amundsen Race - 19 March
SH finishing order:
12. Karsten Grönås
16. Catherine Mathis
18. Don Duncan
20. Malin Sundin
22. Anders Hörnlund
23. Marius Moholdt
Kenneth Monsen SH/AH
Christer Afseer (AM)
other races:
La Grande Odyssée (stage)
Polar Distans (purebred)
Amundsen Rac - 27 March
finished:
14. Karsten Grönås -silverSC
26. Torbjörn Öhrström
33. Malin Sundin
abadoned:
Marc Olivier Ryter
Anders Hörnlund
Mikael Sandin
Iditarod - 7 March
1. Rob Loveman -withdrawn
2. Blake Matray- scratched
Finnmarklöpet1000
31. Jana Henychova
out of 37 teams starting and 31 finishing.
Finish Finnmarkslöpet 500
32. Fredrik Filander
36. Dariusz Morsztyn All sibe?
out of 47 teams starting and 41 finishing.
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28 July
Due to several last minute cancellations, we have 3 places left at our Norwegian/Swedish spoken seminar on Functional Anatomy for Siberian Husky on
31 July - 1 Aug. See program here. For entry, please send email to: seminar@vargevass.com.
Kennel Arktisk Storm has 5 female pups available, born July 9th out of Arktisk Storm Diva (Vindsnabbe/Isslottet background) by Sverre av Vargevass (Grubian av V x Libby av V). For more info visit the website www.arktisk-storm.com
22 July
In the weekend of 17/18 July, we organized the first of two seminars about Functional Anatomy of the Siberian Husky. An international group of breed enthusiasts from Sweden, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands was gathered at our kennel and spend the weekend listening, watching and exchanging information about the breed.
The first day, Karsten gave a speed-course on basic anatomy and how to recognize anatomical faults in the breed. On the second day, the participants were invited to judge 4 dogs from our kennel and give written critique on each dog. The weekend was concluded with a lecture on history of the breed in Scandinavia and 40+ years of kennel Vargevass.
We got a lot of positive feedback after the seminar and can only hope the Norwegian/ Swedish version on July 31 - Aug. 1 will be getting a likewise receipt.
We are extremely happy that the international group of 19 Siberian Husky friends got so well along and took the initiative to exchange email adresses in order to keep into contact. A very positive thing for the breed! :-)
This was the one and only seminar in English at our kennel.
Next week's Norwegian/Swedish seminar is the last one about Functional Anatomy.
In fall 2011, we plan to arrange a seminar about long distance training and racing with Siberian Huskies. If you are interested please send email to: seminar@vargevass.com
Some photos of last weekend by Pauline Amphlett.
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| The 'judges' at ringside -----------------------------------------------------photo by Michael Hess |
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27 June
The longest day of the year is behind us and we are heading towards winter again. Unbelievable how fast time goes by. We have had the dogs out training three times in the last two weeks, just to keep them going.
Our Finnish lappdog puppy Eyja has found new friends in the 6 weeks old puppies of Libby x Dante. Our other lappdog Mimmi is too old to play being 14 years of age and Eyja is too small yet to be left with the pack of adults, so Libby's small ones make good toys for her.
 The two seminars planned for the summer are also drawning near. Both are about Functional Anatomy. There are still some places available for the English spoken version on July 17-18th. This will be the one and only seminar in English.
More details are to be found here (pdf file) or feel free to send
email to  seminar@vargevass.com
3 June
Summer is here. Dogs are shedding, the grass is growing and there are lots of things to do around the house. The latest news; we have gotten a new Finnish Lappdog puppy.
We felt that matrone Mimmi should be allowed to retire from her security tasks at the age of 14. She is still going strong, but her joints are getting arthritic and her hearing is not the best anymore either. Last weekend, we fetched our new 'doorbell' who goes by the name of 'Eyja'. Called after the vulcano on Iceland as she was born on the day of its eruption. It proves to be an appropiate name as she is very explosive - with positive energy :-). Because we have been so happy with Mimmi in all those years, we considered ourselves lucky to be able to obtain a puppy from the same breeder in Norway again. It was very convenient to combine the fetching of Øyerfjellets N'Eyja with the Specialty of the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club. It has been 13 years ago Karsten entered dogs in the Norwegian Specialty, so it was about time.
The show of the NSHK saw an entry of 65 adults and 10 puppies and was judged by Mary Davidson of Ireland who has a kennel of working Siberians herself. We had entered 5 dogs; with 4 of them not being in the best showcondition so our expectations were low. Luckily the dog we had our highest hopes on was not shedding as bad as the others. Dante was entered in champion class as he is Swedish conformation and working champion since August last year. Now we wanted to give the Norwegian championship a try. There was only one other male in championclass, being SUCH S(polar)CH NUCH Koryak, a Swedish and Norwegian champion who was Karsten's choice for Best of Breed at the same Specialty of 2008. Koryak was not in the best showcondition which was to Dante's advantage. In the final for Best Male, Dante showed himself from his best side and won over 7 males who had received Excellent with CK (CK meaning: certificate quality) among them were our Flapper av V. who had won the Junior class and coatless Frekkis av V. who placed 2nd in Open Class and went on to become 3rd in Beste Male. By winning the CAC certficate Dante is now officially Norwegian conformation champion. Congratulations to his breeder Tom Arne Kristiansen.
In the Females class we had only entered Isa av V. in open class. She was very much out of coat, though some hair started to grow again. If she would have any chance to do well, it would be foremost because of her nice trot. Isa moved good after being warmed up and enjoyed all the attention as she was 'talking' while she trotted along in the ring.
Isa won her class and to our surprise she also became Best Female. There were some very nice females both in Open, Junior and Veteran class and many Excellents were given. In competition with Dante she had to take second place, with Dante becoming Best of Breed and Isa Best of Opposite. Putin av V. can be proud of his offspring with 3 wins this weekend as also the Best Male puppy (kennel Varnjarga) was sired by him.
At the show, we had good help from Trond & Kristin Lereng and Mari Christoffersson so Karsten was exempt from handling the dogs. Thanks guys! Karsten followed the show from ringside and felt the general quality of the dogs shown was higher than he had been used to earlier when judging self. There were many 1. prizes given, few 2nds and none 3rd prizes.
We had a great weekend with splendid summer weather, but not too warm for the dogs. Thanks to the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club for a cosy and social event. We hope to be back in 2012 when the club is celebrating its 40 years existence.
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Judge Mary Davidson with
Isa av Vargevass, Best of Opposite and SUCH S (Polar)CH Dante Best of Breed
photo by Rikke Bergendahl
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BOB Dante and BOS Isa at the show of NSHK.
On the right, Isa in full coat at earlier shows.
Both Dante and Isa are Femund600 and Amundsen Race 2010 finishers. |
What happened else in May?
Well, Libby got her puppies by SUCH (S(Polar)CH NUCH Dante on the 18th of May. There are 2 males and 2 females. We predicted only 4 puppies as she was not very big and 4 puppies she got! New photos in our album here
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Male 1 |
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Male 2 |
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Female 1 |
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Female 2 |
We also entered 2 more shows in May with Frekkis getting 1prize with CK and placing as Reserve Best Male at a SPHK show and only 1 week later getting a 2nd prize on a Swedish Kennel Club show with only 2 males entered. It proves once again that showing can be a lottery. At the same SPHK show, Nordvikens Glimmer placed 4th in Open Class Males with 1prize and CK and Isa placed 2nd in Working Class with CK.
Besides having participated in 3 shows ourselves this past month, Karsten also judged a show in Germany on May the 9th. Among 30 Siberians entered at the Europasieger, was a variation of show dogs and working dogs.
Karsten's Best of Breed was a nice female who was moderate all over. It turned out she had also been Best of Breed choice of judge Mary Davidson from Ireland, 2 years earlier.
Best male title went to the same dog who won Best Male at the Siberian Husky Specialty of the Netherlands for Karsten in September 2009.
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Europasieger 2010 Best of Breed |
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Best Male |
10 April
Now the racing season is over, it is time to enjoy spring: training the puppies/yearlings and taking the adults on short sledtrips for as long as it is possible. Got some more photos of our 2010 yearlings in the album here.
We are also preparing for the two seminars to be held this summer and the show season is starting soon. Hopefully there will be lots of working Siberians in the show ring this season. We owe it to the breed.
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19 - 21 March AMUNDSEN RACE 
1. leg Östersund - Ljungdalen
Amundsen Race was the last race of the season. Weather was very
shifting and gave an extra challenge. The start on Friday 19th of March was in rain/wet snow weather with much water on the ice of the great
lake of Östersund. A total of 36 teams were lined up for the masstart
with among them 6 Siberian teams, 1 SH/AH team and 1 AM team.
Karsten started out well and ran in the front group for the 30 km. on the lake, before the trail hitted land.
From there the trail was climbing up to
the mountains. Plus degree temperatures and rain dominated this stretch. When the team came up in the mountains temps got lower and rain shifted towards light snow. The dogs picked up the speed and made the first 142 km. stretch to Ljungdalen in little over 10 hours, being 1 hour faster than last year and coming in at 12th place. In Ljungdalen teams had to take 3 hours mandatory rest.
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Rain weather at the start.
All photos by Kjell O. Brun. See the AR gallery here. |
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Handlers Stian and Knut were well prepared for the conditions; They are from Bergen, (Norway's wettest city :-) |
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Karsten met the local press. |
2. leg Ljungdalen - Tänndalen
Another mountainous leg of 69 km. When the team left Ljungdalen at 7 o'clock in the morning it didn't take long before the sun came out. Enjoyable weather for the musher after all the rain, but for the dogs very warm, especially with the extra weight as one of the dogs had to be taken in the basket for most of the run. Even though the trail was in better shape than last year, the team was only 5 minutes faster than last year on this stretch while most AH teams had a considerable better time than the previous year. Karsten and the dogs arrived at little over one o'clock in the afternoon after a run of 6 hours sharp. In Tänndalen was a 6-hours mandatory rest.
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| Coming into Tänndalen |
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Photos by Kjell O. Brun |
3. leg Tänndalen - Lövåsen (Grövelsjön)
At little over seven o'clock in the evening the team left for checkpoint Lövåsen, a stretch of 87 km. Karsten started out with 10 dogs. Soon it proved that the previous stretch had taken its toll on the dogs as they were taking long time to find the rythme and yet another dog had to ride in the sled. The leg of 87 km. took exactly half an hour more than in 2009. After a run of 7 hours and 16 min. the team reached Lövåsen. Here all teams had to take 4 hours rest.
Lövåsen is a ' wilderness' checkpoint without any facilities. There is no depot and no possibility to go inside. When Karsten took out his sleeping bag to take a brief nap, it turned out his sledbag wasn't waterproof anymore as his sleepingbag was soaking wet. After 2 hours of shivering and no sleep, he felt almost a relief to continue on the trail again.
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Coming into Tufsingdalen |
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Photos by Rune Moen |
4. + 5. leg: Lövåsen - Tufsingdalen - Röros
Karsten and 9 dogs started out at 6:21 hrs. Sunday morning for the final stretch of 122 km. to the finish. Although Tufsingdalen is reckoned as checkpoint, all teams drive right through. From here it is only 40 km. left to the finish in Röros. It is also a point mushers can drop dogs.
The trail was hard and the team used half an hour less than last year on this run, even though Karsten had yet another dog to carry in the sled. In Tufsingdalen two dogs were dropped and with only 7 left, the team left for Röros.
The final 40 km. was proofing. Yet another dog had to ride the sled after a deer jumped out in front of the team on an icy road. The dogs exploded in full gallop with no chance to brake on the ice. Isa pulled a muscle in her hindleg when slipping on the ice and needed a lift in the sled.
The team covered the final leg in 4h and 12 min. using 20 minutes more than in 2009.
Total time was 1 day 22 hours and 52 minutes, an improvement of 1 hour compared to last year and good for 12th place overall; 4th best Swedish team of 11 starting and best SH team out of 6.
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| Finish in Röros |
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Mission accomplished with a runtime of 34:20
giving 12th place of 36 starting and 23 finishing.
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Thanks to:
Noa, Peikon, Aslak, Dante, Spot, Tjalling, Isa, Frekkis, Janneke, Glimmer, Putin and Grubian.
Handlers Knut and Stian, who came all the way from Bergen to help and did a great job. Nicolette Bazuin for providing a place to stay in Tänndalen and overall support.
Gerda Weidemann and Kurt Rohloff for the gourmet dessert :-) |
| Handlers Stian and Knut with leader Noa. |
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Thanks to all who made Amundsen Race possible.
The team's run in AR 2010 here
The team's run in AR 2009 here
21 March
Congratulations to Blake Freking on finishing the Iditarod (42. of 71 starting teams and 55 finishing) and to Isabelle Travadon on finishing the Finnmarkslöpet 1000 (27. of 42 starting teams and 29 finishing)
14 March
Iditarod and Finnmarkslöpet are well underway. Iditarod started March 6th with - as of now - the Siberian Husky teams of Blake Freking (USA) and Hank de Bruin (Canada) left. Blake in 42th place and Hank de Bruin in red lantern position as nr. 59.
The Norwegian Finnmarkslöpet started March 13th. with the SH team of Isabelle Travadon (France) in the 1000 km. edition and the SH team of Mel Andrews (UK) in the 500 km. Follow their progress here. We wish them all a great journey.
12/13 March
Right after Dante came home from Polar Distans he had the honour to breed Libby, so we are now hoping for puppies by the middle of May.
11 March
We are back from Polar Distans.
Had a great time and a great run. Dogs were doing beautifully and it felt I was only standing on the runners to guide them in the right direction. My dreadful condition makes that I am not very much help in the uphills and the best I could do was to run next to the sled in some of the steepest hills, but pushing the sled was out of the question. (In Polar Distans all equipment and all food for dogs and driver needs to be carried in the sled which makes for a heavy sled.) The dogs came in great shape over the finish and seem to have been enjoying the run and so did I. Thanks to Noa and Glimmer, Janneke and Putin, Frekkis and Dante, Espen and Tjalling. Thanks to Karsten for training the dogs so well and for sacrifying as handler. :-)
There were 17 starting teams in the 160 km. class which made it the most popular class of the race. We had a total race time of 10 hours and 37 minutes, which gave us 1st. place. We stopped 30 min. in the only checkpoint of the race after 70 km. Most of the trail was in mountaineous area which gave beautiful views, but also winds and blown trails at times. Temperatures were perfect for a wimp like me, but could have been a bit lower for the dogs. Trails were super and marking was good. Polar Distans is truly a race to recommend for all purebred teams who like to go beyond the sprint trails. Congratulations to Fredrik Filander of Arktisk Storm with 2nd place. Thanks to Fam. Lykke for great hospitality and providing a place to stay. Thanks to all volunteers and organization of Polar Distans for a great event!
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| Photo by Pia Lykke |
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Photo by Annica Uppström |
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| Going out from the checkpoint, 70 km. in the race. |
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Photo by Annica Uppström |
7 March
Iditarod started today for real. Follow the progress of the Siberian Husky teams of Blake Freking (Manitou/Jedeye), Karen Ramstead (North Wapiti) and Hank de Bruin (Winterdance) via the Iditarod website: http://www.iditarod.com. We wish them good luck and a great journey.
We are off for a somewhat lesser journey, more or less a touring trip compared to Iditarod, but the same fun, with hopefully no sleepless nights as I hope to be in the finish before bed time. On Tuesday, eight of our dogs and I will be running the 160 km. Polar Distans. This race is solely for the 4 recognized sleddog breeds and this makes the race somewhat less 'big and professional', but the more so cosy and relaxed. As I am all about having fun, it is the perfect race for me. Website: http://www.polardistans.com.
Dogs on the team are among others those who were not with on Femund600 and/or who need some extra training before Amundsen Race, so mostly the young guys.
/Eveline
1 March
Training is back to normal after Femundlöpet. The dogs are in good shape and are getting ready for Amundsen Race which is starting on March 19th in Östersund.
We will be doing some minor races before as extra training for some dogs who were not with to Femund, a.o. the short Polar Distans of 160 km. on March 9th. Great to see an entrants field of 20 teams this year in the short version of Polar Distans! Cannot recall it has been so many earlier.
20-21 February 2010 SHAM draget
This cosy event is organized by the Swedish Siberian Husky Club and Swedish Alaskan Malamute Club, both clubs belong to of the Swedish Polar Dog club.
We entered 1 team in the 8-dog class 30 km. but as we were only 2 teams in the class, I changed to the 15-km sprint class. Our dogs had the 600 km. Femundlöpet barely two weeks behind and now they saw themselves suddenly running sprint.
On day 1, I bootied almost the entire team as some of the dogs still had some sore pads after the Femundrace. The dogs were galopping the entire stretch, but having booties on their feet, didn't do any good to the speed. When checking their feet after finish, it turned out most of the booties had teared and big ice-clumps had gotten in. Not only did the booties make the dogs slow down, but also my sled was working like a brake as I had the same p-tex as on Nordic Open and that was good for hard-tracks, but not any good for trails with much loose snow. As a result, we had the 4th time out of 5 teams.
The second day I ran most dogs without booties and got to loan a racing sled from Nina Filander which had a totally different glide. Thanks Fredrik and Nina! Now the dogs were able to get the speed up and without booties they were running full stride, we got the 2nd best time of 6 teams. Unfortunately, the gap of day 1 was too big to do anything with, but the time on day 2 showed it is possible to drive sprint even with long distance trained dogs. The dogs have not been running any sprint runs since September last year. Our shortest runs have been 35 km. when the training was decreased as uploading for the Femund race by the beginning of February.
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Day 1
Photo by Annica Uppström |
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Day 2
Photos by Annica Uppström |
All for now.
/Eveline
The Siberian Husky teams of Mike Ellis (USA) and Pierre Antoine Heriteir (Switzerland) finished the Yukon Quest in resp. 13 and 21. place. Congratulations!
Femundlöpet Journal 2010
- FEMUND 600 RESULTS
- Overview of Karsten's run and rest times here
Tuesday 9 Feb.
Catherine Mathis finished Femund 600 at 11.12 hrs. this morning. She had a tough final stretch, but she made it. Congratulations!
The Malamutes with Henrik Stachnau wrote history for the breed by being the first team to finish the Femund600 and might even be the first team in the world to have finished a race this long with Malamutes. He crossed the finishline at 14:18 hrs.
Håkan Nisula has been writing history for the Samoyed. He finished the F400! He came in at 14:34, thereby earning the Red Lantern of the race.
In the F400, two Alaskan Malamute teams made it to the finish. Toril Hagen from Norway (51) and Kristin Esseth (49 pl.) from Sweden. Well done!
Monday 8 Feb. 04:00 hrs. Femund600 - Mission accomplished!
After a great run of 95 km. in 8.10 hrs.of the final stretch, Karsten came into the finish in Röros at 04:01 hrs. this morning! Handler Trond reported all the dogs were looking great. Karsten had a very fast run into Röros (4th best time), the extra rest taken in the beginning of the race has been paying off in the final stretches. Karsten and the team came in as nr. 16, they were able to improve two places on the last leg. Now it is a well deserved sleep for dogs, musher and handlers!
In contrary to last year's Femundlöpet when Karsten had to scratch, this year's Femundlöpet has been free of cough on the dogs and no dogs had to be taken into the sled. When all goes right as so, one can even overcome the always loose trails and never ending uphills of Femundlöpet.
Monday 8 February 16:30 - Nisse Uppström (28 pl.) crossed the finish of Femund 600! Congratulations!
Catherine Mathis is on her way and Henrik Stachnau is resting in Tolga.
12:05 pm. Monday 8 Feb
It looks like the 3 remaining purebred teams will also overcome the last uphills of the final stretch. Nisse Uppström is expected in Röros in the afternoon and Catherine Mathis can leave Tolga any moment. Henrik Stachnau is on its way to Tolga and might be finishing the Femund600 for the first time. That would be the first time an Alaskan Malamute team has made it through the long version of Femundlöpet.
In the F600, a total of 16 teams have scratched so far.
In the F400 have the SH team of Erik Martinez (46 pl) and Kristin Esseth (49. pl) with her Malamutes come into Röros. The Malamute team of Toril Hagen is out on the final leg and the Samoyed team of Håkan Nisula is in Tolga, going for the red lantern in 53th place. Totally 24 teams have given up in the F400.
Femund400
Mission accomplished counts also for the SH teams in Röros of Nina Filander (34 pl), Agneta Nilsson Hörnlund (41) and Marius Moholdt (43). These 3 drivers are all running their first long-distance race. Trond Hansen accomplished his mission already earlier on the evening. Congratulations to all! The purebred teams of Erik Martinez, Kristin Esseth (am), Toril Hagen (am) and Håkan Nisula are still out there, so hang in.
Sigbjörn Mobekk, Jon Inge Horsandlien and Öystein Martinsen had to scratch. Next time better, it is all in the game.
19:50
The team left for the final stretch to Röros at 19:50 with all 9 remaining dogs and are now in 18. place. Handler Knut reported that all have been eating well, so that looks positive for the last tough 95 km. Peikon who has been going in lead from start and all the way to Tolga is now in point, to give him a break. The two females on the team, Noah and Isa are running lead. Peikon has been doing an incredible good job and so do his two sons Frekkis and Tjalling who are in their first season of long distance racing. It is funny that Frekkis is a ferocious eater, in contrary to his dad. Now we hope the team will arrive safe and sound to Röros, if all goes well we expect them between 4:30- 5:00 Monday morning.
The other teams in the F600 are also hanging in. Nisse Uppström came in to Tolga at 20:05 after a run of 10:57. Catherine Mathis left Grimsbu II after 5.45 hrs. break at 16:03. Henrik Stachnau is still in Grimsbu II.
In the Femund 400 the first SH team crossed the finishline at 19:53. Trond Hansen drove into a beautiful 19. place! He used 9.14 hrs. on the final stretch and had still 8 dogs in the team. Well done!
Femund400
Sunday 7 Feb. 14:22 Nina Filander left with 7 happy dogs from Tolga and is on her way to the finish in Röros, 95 km to go. Fredrik reported that Nina phoned him from the trail when she was on her way to Tolga to tell in very good humour she had passed Norway's TVpersonality Lars Monsen in a very steep uphill and ran away from him. Monsen is running the Femund600. Nina is currently in 39 place and the 2nd SH team.
11.50 Tolga, last checkpoint in the race
Yippee, Karsten and the dogs into Tolga at 11.50 after a great run of 9:21 hrs.
Many of the teams directly in front of him used between 10 - 11,5 hours on this 100 km. stretch so it seems the conditions were tough. The dogs have been eating well all the way so far, even Peikon, who seems to be thriving in lead. He is a dog who is very much liked by the entire pack, -like his father Mörkki was and his halfbrother Enok - and as such, he plays a very important role for the atmosphere in the team.
Now it is an 8 hours well deserved rest, before the team can head out to Röros at 19:50 hrs. for the final stretch of 95 km. to the finish.
Nisse left for Tolga at 9:07 after a rest of 6.05 and still has 10 dogs left.
Catherine Mathis came into Grimsbu II at 10:18 this morning after a run of 5.33.
Henrik Stachnau and his Malamute left at 06.11on their way to Grimsbu II. Unfortunately, Pascal Rebord had to scratch in Grimsbu I. He was running with 8 dogs for most of the race.
In the Femund400 is the team of Trond Hansen on the final leg of 95 km. to the finish in Röros. He left Tolga at 10.39 with all 8 dogs and is in a very nice 23. place.
Nina Filander can leave Tolga after the 8 hours mandatory rest at 14:22 hrs. She is currently in 39 place and has been running with 7 dogs since Tufsingdalen.
Agneta Nilsson Hornlund is allowed to leave Tolga at 15:19 in 42. place. She is running with 6 dogs since the 2nd checkpoint Drevsjö!
Marius Moholdt can leave Tolga at 17.00 and currently in 49. pl. followed by Öystein Martinsen, who can leave at 17:21.
Erik Martinez is on its way in to Tolga, as well as Kristin Esseth and her Malamutes.
The Malamute team of Toril Hagen and the SH team of Jon Inge Horsandlien are on their way to Tynset and currently in 62 and 63rd place, forming the backtroops, together with the Samoyed team of Swedish Håkan Nisula who is still in Sövollen and going for the red lantern in 64th place.
2:28 After a rest of 5:48 hours the team left for Tolga, a stretch of 100 km. Here, all teams will make a mandatory rest of 8 hours.
Karsten choose to rest a bit more in Grimsbu II than most frontrunning teams, mainly because he himself had not gotten any sleep so far. The dogs have been eating well and have so far not been suffering from diarrhea or the raging kennelcough. It is alpha and omega to have the dogs eating well, resting well and not be suffering from any contaminations. Overall, the team
has been resting more than most teams in front and they have 8,5 hours more than the prescribed rest, which is 20 hours (excl. the final 8 hour mandatory rest in Tolga). It's only for the better for both dogs and musher, so hopefully it will pay off. We hope that the 9 remaining dogs will be up to the tough 100 km. ahead. and Karsten will be able to keep awake and run in the uphills as well... Brrr... long distance mushing... He has an MP3 player on him so he has some musical company, but if he uses it is another thing!
Nisse Uppström arrived at Grimsbu II at 03.02 and used 6.06 hrs. on the 70 km. 'Folldal round'. He has 10 dogs left in the team, which is very good so long in the race.
I
managed to get an update with some pictures of most Femund 400 purebred drivers, further down the page.
Short report: Saturday 6 Feb. 23:00 hrs.
The team had a very good run into Grimbsu II and used quite some shorter time than the nearest competitors. See the checkpoint standings for Grimsbu II here. There are another tough 200 km. in front of them though. Karsten is still in good mood, but very tired as he was not able to sleep anything on any of the previous checkpoints, but his great handlers Knut Milde and Trond & Kristin Lereng take excellent care of him. Nathan is accompanying and resting in the cabin and appreciates the extra attention and care.
Pascal Rebord has come into Grimsbu I at 22:39 this evening with 8 dogs in the team and shortly after him Henrik Stachnau came in with his Malamutes. Henrik had to scratch two times earlier on his Femund600 efforts, but this year he came in before the closing time of the checkpoint. So it looks bright for his team. The two Malamute teams in the Femund 400 are coming along well, especiallly the team of Kristin Esseth of Sweden is doing nice and currently in 55 place.
Femund400
Nina Filander left Sövollen after 8 hours mandatory rest at 21:53. Fredrik reported that all dogs were eating and are in good mood as well as Nina. Nymånens Ixius and Nordvikens Glimmer are running in lead and doing a great job up front so far.
Trond Hansen left Sövollen at 19:00 after 8 hours rest, and Öystein Martinsen at 19:54 hrs. He took his 8 hours mandatory rest in the previous checkpoint.
20:40
In at Grimsbu II after a 70 km. run of 5.20 hours with 9 dogs in the team. More news later.
Nisse started out on the Follsdal round at 20:55 with 11 dogs in the team.
Catherine Mathis arrived at Grimsbu I at 19:51 after a good run of 5.44 hrs.
15:20
The team left Grimsbu at 15:20 and will be returning to this checkpoint after a loop of 70 km., the so called 'Folldals round'. Unfortunately, our soon 9 years old mainleader Nathan needed to be taken out of the team due to a sore wrist, which has been bothering him earlier. He is the oldest dog on the team and definitely a corner stone for the team. Noa has taken over Nathan's position in lead, together with her brother Peikon. Luckily Peikon has been eating so far, so good on the race. We hope he will keep it up that way as there are still 270 km.left of the race.
Femund400
Nina Filander and her 7-dog team arrived at the 3rd checkpoint in the race, Sövollen at 13:53 after a run of 6.48 hours. Nina had to leave one of her dogs in Tufsingdalen and hopefully no more have to be taken out now. The team will be taking one of their 2 mandatory rests of 8 hours here. Currently she is the 2nd best SH team in the race.
In the Femund600, the team of Nisse U. to arrived in Grimsbu at 14:55 after a run of 6:19. Pascal Rebord left Tynset with his 8-dogs at 8:55 while Catherine M. choose to rest some longer in Tynset and left at 14:06.
Photo by Helmut Dietz, musherzeitung
10:00
Karsten arrived at Grimsbu at 10.00 hrs after a run of 5.57 hrs. Karsten and Bernhard Schuchert have been running together, arriving at the same time.
04:02
Karsten and the dogs left for Grimsbu together with friend and neighbour Bernhard Schuchert and his team. We hope all will go well on this tough round. After they arrive in Grimsbu, they have to make a loop and come back to Grimsbu.
03.00
Nisse Uppström and his 11 dogs arrived at Tynset kl. 2:09 after a run of 5.43 hrs. Pascal Rebord left Sövollen with 8 dogs at 2:12 hrs, followed by Catherine Mathis with 10 dogs at 2:20 hours. Karsten and the team are still resting at Tynset.
In the F400, teams have come into Drevsjö now.
Friday 5 February - 23:08
The team came in at Tynset, 270 km. in the race and used 5:21 hours for the 60 km. run.
and is currently in 24. pl.
The team of Nisse Uppström is also on its way to Tynset, they left the previous checkpoint at 20:26 after a rest of 5.42. Catherine Mathis and Pascal Rebord are still resting in Sövollen, but expected to be leaving for Tynset soon.
17:47
After 5 hours rest in Sövollen, the team is now on its way to Tynset another tough 60 km. with again a lot of climbing and loose tracks. Karsten reported that they had a tough trip over the mountains coming to Sövollen, with winds and bad visibility. Once in the checkpoint, not all the dogs were eating well and that is of course a great concern. Youngest member Espen was taken out of the team. He does not have the same amount of training like the others. A shore shoulder in December made that he had to rest for some more days and that is hard in a month when the training is on its toughest. He is doing fine otherwise, but just very tired. So, Karsten left Sövollen with 10 dogs and is currently in 25th place.
Femund400 - Friday 5 February
In the meantime, the first teams of the F400 have reached Tufsingdalen and among them is Nina Filander, arriving at 18:16 as the first Siberian Husky team (time used 5.56), followed by Agneta Nilsson at 18:37. First stretch is 75 km. See the links on the left to come directly to the results.
The Mushers running Femund 400 with pb teams:
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| 97. Marius Moholdt |
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100. Nina Filander |
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102. Agneta Nilsson H. |
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| 146. Håkan Nisula (samoyed) |
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147. Erik Martinez |
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152. Toril Hagen (al. malamute |
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| 156 Trond Hansen |
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157 Sigbjörn Mobekk |
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168. Jon Inge Horsandlien |
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| 170 Öystein Martinsen |
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171. Kristin Esseth |
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Photos above are taken from Newspaper Arbeidets Rett and Femundlöpet picture gallery.
Unfortunately, no photos were taken of Kristin Esseth and Öystein Martinsen.
12:43
Karsten and team arrived in the 3rd checkpoint of the race, Sövollen after a run of 7 hours. The team is now 210 km. in the race and this is where the hardships start. Karsten's handler in Sövollen, Trond Lereng reported that the team came in in good drive. Hope to get more news later on.
05:40
The team left Drevsjo and are on their way to Sövollen. There are quite som uphills to climb and bad weather is raging. Frontrunner Sigrid Ekran used 6.20 hours on the 70 km. stretch to Sövollen. Karsten has 11 dogs in the team.
Nisse Uppström left at 06:08 still running wih 12 dogs.
Catherine Mathis left Drevsjö at 8:30 hrs.this morning with 10 dogs in the team. Pascal left at 8:57. He too is running with 10 dogs now.
00:48 hrs.
Karsten arrived Drevsjo, 2nd checkpoint and 140 km. in the race at 00:48 hrs. having used 4:49 hours, thereby currently in 23th place. The batteries on the GPS tracker died long ago and will need refreshment.
Karsten's handler Knut reported that Grubian was taken out in Tufsingsdalen as he was not always hanging in. Grubian had an issue with high liver values after Lillholmsjö and was a questionmark for some time, but his values had gone down just before Femundlöpet and as such we hoped he would be o.k. He is a great loss for the team and we have several more dogs who are not 100% so we can only keep our fingers crossed... This is what makes long distance racing such an incredible risk and effort.
Karsten was in good mood. He is dressed well against the cold with his great new SKOOKUM BRAND parka, kindly sponsored by his handler Knut Milde from Norway!
Thursday 4 Feb. 20:00 hrs.
Karsten and the team left Tufsingdalen.
17:00 hours.
Karsten arrived in Tufsingdalen little over 5 o'clock, the first checkpoint in the race. Here there will be a restart, from 19.00 hours and on. The team will be able to rest ca. 3 hours.
Femundlöpet 600
In this journal, we will be following the Siberian Husky teams in particular. Both Karsten and Nisse Uppström are equipped with a GPS tracker and you can follow their progress on http://www.amundsenrace.com. Amundsen Race website will also keep a blogg during Femundlöpet, focused on the mushers who represent Amundsen Sleddog Club. Besides, Karsten and Nisse, Catherine Mathis (France) and Pascal Rebord (Switzerland) are running Siberian Huskies and Henrik Stachnau (Germany) with Malamutes.
Tomorrow Femund 400 starts and 8 SH teams, 1 Samoyed team and 2 Alaskan Malamute teams will start. We will be having extra focus on the team of Nina Filander. With Nina's team is running our Glimmer and we hope he will do a great job on her team.
12:08 hrs. Dogs and Karsten are on their way to Tufsingdalen, first checkpoint in the race. Karsten has Bib nr. 8. The chosen members of the team are;
1. Nathan (soon 9 yrs) - our definitive mainleader, but not the youngest anymore. We hope his wrist won't play games on him. Finnmarkslöpet & multiple Femundlöpet finisher.
2. Grubian (7 yrs) - Quiet and easy. Great strength. Finnmark- ,2 x Femundlöpet finisher.
3. Peikon (5) - will be promoted to leaddog, so he can decide the speed. Bad appetite makes him a question mark, but his trot is flawless.
4. Noa (5) - female main leader. Happy and eager.
5. Isa (3)- female. Is having a ball this season, but has recently been in heat so hope she will not get an hormonal drawback.
6.
Dante (4½)- His 2nd long distance season. AR2009 finisher. Always there.
7. Spot (3)- His 2nd longdist. season. AR2009 finisher. Focused and serious
8. Raggen (3) - 2nd longdist. season. Still a bit of a baby. Is all about having fun.
9.
Frekkis (2½),
10. Tjalling (2½),
11. Aslak (2),
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Espen (2) : These guys are in their first race season and rookies on the team. As such they are all wildcards, but have been showing great potential. Everything can happen.
Sunday 17 January
Nordic Open Day 2 results here
Day 2 of Nordic Open started with a weather shift as it suddenly was at least 10 degrees warmer than Saturday. As we didn't take the race all that serious, I didn't bother to change the runner p-tex. The dogs were trying to get up the speed, but we didn't have the same glide as the day before and the trail was more powdery, which consequently had its effect on the dogs and my legs. Nina passed us on the first round, but after a while I repassed and thought to have gotten away, but she was suddenly there again and we drove together to the finish with Nina ahead. The lead from Saturday's run was good enough for the win, but overall our teams were only 3 minutes apart over 93 km.
Karsten decided not to start as Robert was showing a slight limp Sunday morning and with only few weeks to go to Femundlöpet, it was obvious not worth to take a chance. The idea of having to start with 4 dogs was not any appealing, the abstinens would have gotten too much. :-) A 6-dog team is small, but a 4-dog team is microscopical if one is used to run a 12 to 16 dog team. So instead, Karsten took the important role of handler on his hands.
Fredrik on the other hand was running his 5-dog team as he had to load a dog the day before and could now only start with five. He was assigned as test-driver for a heavy duty mid-distance sled and Fredrik was giving it a thorough examination. His 5 dogs were taking him on a grande tour and they had brief company of various other teams passing them along the way. The experimental run was also a good test for the dogs with our Raggen - who was on loan to Fredrik's team - being promoted to leaddog on both days. It is a good thing that by running multiple small teams one can run more leaders.
We had a very nice weekend on a well organized race and only few hours drive.
Saturday 16 January
Nordic Open day 1 - results here
Report from day 1: Eveline: Dogs galopped almost all the 46.5 km. and as my kicking technique is dreadful and my phsyical condition just horrible, I was not any help to the dogs. Not used to driving light sprint sleds, I managed to use the entire width of the trail when going through curves and in the last bend before the finishline I groomed the trail some extra... Poor dogs were looking back several times wondering what amateur was standing on the sled. There were some steep uphills and though I did several attempts to run, kick, jump and spark I had to give in about halfways up the hills, cursing my bad condition and promising better. The dogs were doing a great job all the way, thanks to Janneke and Glimmer in lead, Putin and Dante in point and Frekkis and Tjalling in wheel.
Karsten had a strong team with Isa and Noah in lead, Nathan, Robert and Spot, but with a weak link as Peikon has an appetite issue and eats poorly. As Peikon was not with on the training run of 180 km. in Lillholmsjö last weekend, we expected him to be in good shape to make it through 46 km., but unfortunately, Karsten had to take him into the sled after some kilometers. It was quite a challenge to get and keep him into the sled and quite much the extra weight too. But Karsten was not the only one being unfortunate, Fredrik Filander also had to load a dog in the sled which caused him some time loss and an extra heavy sled. Running inexperienced leaders and two small females, made it an challenging run.
Nina had a good race all through and it will be exciting to see how tomorrow run will end for us. Everything can happen..at least we have the boys on good distance behind us...after all: Ladies first! :-)
It seems that Karsten and Fredrik get the 'abstinens' class (withdrawal) extra rubbed in as they have to start with an even more shrinken team of 5 dogs. We hope that both musher and dogs survive!
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| Glimmer, Janneke, Dante, Putin, Frekkis and Tjalling with Eveline as driver |
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Smile to the camera. |
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| Karsten with Noah, Isa, Robert, Nathan, Spotted and Peikon sailing through the corner. |
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Leaders Isa and Noah put up the speed. Boys are following. Isa has been in heat... |
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| Thanks to photographer Annica Uppström |
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14 January - Training race and Karsten running childrens class at Nordic Open
The weekend of 9/10 January our local sleddogclub organized a cosy, inofficial sort of long distance race of 180 km. as a final test before the Femundlöpet race. It was very useful and even though very inofficial, it was very well organized! Our thanks to the initiative-takers of this cosy training event. The majority of Swedish longdistance mushers were entered with 9 starting teams. The Siberians were well represented with the teams of Karsten, Nisse Uppström and Nina Filander. Being it a trainingsweekend it was a good opportunity to test our inexperienced leader Isa who happened to be in standing heat. It gave some challenging passings..
Although I didn't get to take photos of Karsten's team, I got some photos of Nisse's and Nina's team. Photos can be seen at the websites of kennel Arktisk Storm and Nordviken.
The coming weekend we will be
attending another fun race as the New Nordic Open will be held. The Middle Distance class here was looking to be utmost marginal because one day before entry deadline, only the team of Nina Filander was entered. So, we jokingly decided to give Nina some competition by signing up two teams and Fredrik joining in too. So, now we have an official class at the race :-)). Karsten is not sure as to what he has given himself in to. It is almost 30 years ago that he ran such a small team. He might be at risk for withdrawal symptoms ('abstinens'), wondering where the rest of the team went....
Results will follow. Startlist here
2010: 10 years of long distance racing.
One month left to Femundlöpet and that is a heck of a short time! For each year that goes, one does some reflection and this year, it is 10 years ago that Karsten entered his first Femundlöpet which was the start of his long distance racing career. We came to think of it and it is funny to realize that all the present Scandinavian longdistance mushers have yet to reach the age at which Karsten made his debut in long distance racing, that being the ripe age of 61 years. Admittedly, Kjell Brennodden of Norway is coming close, being 60 this year and running the 1000 km. Finnmarkslöpet.
Nevertheless, Karsten seems to be hanging on to the record of being the most senior musher to have finished the long Finnmarkslöpet (at age 67) for a while. :-)
Doing these kind of reflections can be tricky. It is said that 'wisdom comes with the years'. So one starts to philosophy what silly madness long distance racing actually is considering all the time, money and resources that goes into standing on a sled day in day out, night and day, freezing or sweating, in endless uphills or steep downhills, in stiff cold temperatures that makes the musher freeze or warm and humid conditions that makes the dogs feel bad, with dogs so fresh and wild that one loses the sled or dogs so sick that one ends up loading that same sled with dogs. With long distance racing it is all in the game.
Still, the reward of overcoming all these agonies and challenges, to be one with our canine friends, and to keep a legacy alive is what makes it all the effort and resources worth. The only question we ask ourselves, is: for how much longer do we think it is still worth it?
Finally got some new pictures of our puppies, or actually youngsters as they should be called now. This week they are 8 months old and they are still rather small in height, but what they lack in height they compensate in width... They are still so puppyish and round that it is difficult to judge their actual built. Not so easy to keep them to a normal weight, when they are running loose around the yard eating all the frozen food-spillings of the adults. Their immaturity made us decide to wait for another month before putting them into harness. I am sure that underneath all that extra fat and coat are four handsome athletes. Our pupppy photo-albums of 2009 are also updated. Thanks to all the owners who sent us photos of their grown-up pups of last summer. Albums are to be found here
P.S. Talking about the cold. Here are some tips with funny pics on how to dress for minus 40.... Photo was taken at Levajok in Finnmarkslöpet.
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| Flapper. At least his ears became smaller with so much extra body. |
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Molly, still very 'mollish' at 8 months. Suits her name, 52 cm. |
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| Bo has especially gotten the meaning of having an extra reserve for the winter. His extra weight makes his head look small on him. |
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Kviten. The most athletic one of the four. He looks like a nice looking female :-) |
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30 December
Best wishes for 2010!
Christmas has brought us more snow so we are able to train with sled from home now. It was about time! It has been cold for the last few days so only Karsten is brave enough to go out training, but luckily he is not alone. Hopefully temperatures will become a bit more mercyful for those of us who freeze easily.. Fortunately there are some out there who don't seem to mind the cold spell. Our puppies are among those. They have huge coats, are fat like christmas-pigs and are running and playing around the yard all day long.
More news in the new year.
14 December - Winter on hold and Femund's starting order
Winter is not very cooperative this year. The snow here is still nothing to shout of so training is still being done by ATV, though we truck the dogs every now and then to a place nearby where we are able to drive with sleds and get up to the mountains. Not an ideal situation, but we are glad that we can get some training in by sled at least.
The dogs seem to be in great shape though we have seen the mainstring reduced to 18 dogs because of injuries on two of them. Both of them were definite candidates for the race team. They will have the entire season to recover as they are now so far behind in training that they cannot make it back to the mainstring this season. Still, we are in the luxurious situation to have 18 dogs left in race-training and it will not be easy to make the final cut to 12. The poor snow conditions make it impossible to train all of them in one team with sled, so we are running two teams together. It's good training for the dogs as we can try out more dogs in lead and do some passing underway. Besides it is good training for an impatient musher like me, who feels that any training longer than 3 hours is getting boring and cold.
I found out that an mp3 player is a MUST HAVE on trips like these and I am convinced this wonderful little device has been developped with long distance dog mushers in mind. It's a great help to avoid the braincells from drying out on long training runs. Besides lots of nice music tunes, we also got ourselves some digital books to listen to. One gets educated by standing on the sled, isn't that awesome? Now we can have intellectual conversation with our non-dog-interested families and discuss the latest books instead of being looked upon as a couple of unlettered literature barbarians.
Still, the only literature which has been on our minds for the last days was the startlist of Femundlöpet. Last week saw the draw of Femundlöpet. For Karsten it turned out a very good one too. He got startnumber 8 and he has never had such a good number! With an entry of 60 teams in the draw it was not unlikely to end somewhere way down the list.
Karsten will be going out as first of the purebred teams, followed by Catherine Mathis from France with nr. 18, Eric Greger of Norway with nr. 29, Pascal Rebord from Switzerland with nr. 47, the Malamute team of German Hendrik Stachnau with nr. 51 and finally the team of Nisse Uppström, Sweden as nr. 59. There were 60 teams in the first draw, but 71 teams are signed up for Femund 600. A new record.
The Femund 400 sees an amazing number of 18 purebred teams entered. Thirteen of them were with in the first draw of 84 teams. The list on the left here has the start numbers of the purebred teams. For more details have a look at Femundlöpet's website.
We are very much looking forward to the Femund race, not only do the dogs look good, but Karsten will also have a great handler team at his side. Knut Milde and Trond & Kristin Lereng of Norway offered their help this season and we are very grateful that they will assist our team during the race.
One thing is sure, Karsten will not be freezing on the sled as he will be dressed with a brand new anorak of the Canadian SKOOKUMBrand, kindly sponsored by Knut Milde.
Knut
is sales representative of SkookumBrand anoraks for Skandinavia.
Apart from lots of training and race-planning, we have our 4 new recruits waiting to be harness broken.
Our puppies from May are still enjoying their puppyhood in all freedom. We feel they are still very immature and rather small so we give them some more time and will wait until they are 8 months old. They all have very nice temperaments, are always happy, outgoing and very responsive. Especially the female Molly seems to be an aspiring leader and we hope she will be the new successor of her dad Nathan.
All for now.
Have a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2010!
/Eveline
p.s: It is snowing!
As of 20 November:
Norwegian/Swedish seminar 31 July /1 Aug. FULL BOOKED
A waitinglist will be established for inquiries after November 20th.
English seminar 17/18 July, only 4 places still available.
For more information, price and entry, please send email to webmaster@vargevass.com
10 November
We are happy to herewith announce next year's seminar program. Due to great interest, we decided to have a seminar with similar topics as last summer, which includes: 'Functional Anatomy of the Siberian Husky', 'Variation in Types and the breed standard' 'Be the Judge' and 'History of the breed in Scandinavia' incl. a short overview of 40+ years Vargevass.
The dates for 2010 are:
17/18 July English version, See program here (pdf file)
31 July/1 Aug. Norwegian/Swedish version. See program here
This seminar is for all who are interested in the Siberian Husky breed, be it novice or experienced, musher or show fan.
26 October
The Siberian Husky Club of America has an interesting 'study in proportion' on its website.To read it, click here or go to www.shca.org and follow the link 'measurement program' under educational programs.
23 October
Everything is going its usual way with training well underway, only the other day Karsten had a little excitement when half of the 20-dog team suddenly took off. Young Aslak had been chewing the (fairly new) gangline, made of steel wire. With his Superman-like attitude, he probably wanted to show he should be the new leader. Karsten was less impressed as he saw his team cut in half and had to chase the frontrunners. Aslak and Espen were suddenly running in lead of the 10 remaining dogs and admittedly did a great job even though they had never been in lead before. They nicely followed the rest of the team and managed to keep up with them even though Karsten had to put in the throttle a little extra. They passed the main road running side by side with the loose team and all made it back to the yard in one piece. Hopefully that was all the adventure for this season. Usually the training trips are quite uneventful here, apart from the incidental moose attack once every 40 years or so (3 years ago), or a good tangle in the electric fence of the local sheep farmer that closed the road (last year).
The incident with the loose team gave an extra adrenaline rush as Noal was in lead of the loose team and she is in full bloom heat. Luckily the dogs kept on running and headed home before any of the males got a chance. Noal seems to make it a tradition to have her heat in the mids of the training season. She is such an important member of the team so we decided she will not be bred this season either. Now we can only hope she will have another heat in spring time...
16 October
A latest update on the entries in Femundlöpet 400: by October 16th are 14 Siberian Husky teams signed up. A new record. It would be great to get a similar delegation at the start of Amundsen Race which is about the same distance, but can be run with 12 dogs.
Yesterday, the official website of the IFSS World Championships in Norway 2011 was launched. Exciting to see so much professionalism put into the website, though it would be nice if the nordic sleddog breeds also would get some attention. After all, the IFSS has a special committee and separate rating for purebred nordic sleddogs. See the WC 2011 website here.
03 October
Now training has started for full, it is time to look ahead to next racing season. Like last year, we keep record of the Siberian Husky entries in the major long distance races. Being it a year of credit crisis, one would think that our sport would suffer a major drawback in entries, but such is not the case. Fantastic to see that Finnmarkslöpet already draw a record entry at the beginning of September! An amazing entry of 64 teams in the 1000 km., with so far the team of Isabelle Travadon as the only Siberian Husky team signed up. Czech musher Jana Henychova who finished last year with a purebred team is this year running an all Alaskan Husky team.
Luckily, more Siberian Husky teams are entered in all the other major races, including the 'shorter' version of the Finnmarkslöpet.
For the Femund 600 are so far 4 Siberian Husky teams signed up. It's worth to mention, that these are of 3 nationalities. If Karsten would have started for his homecountry Norway, it would even have been a more international field.
The Femund 400 sees an entry of 14 Siberian teams (!) and even 1 Samoyed team so far. Again, various nationalities are represented here as well. Of particular interest is that a team from Great Britain will make the leap to the Scandinavian racing circuit. An extra challenge for them to get the necessary kilometres on snow!
The Yukon Quest has a record Siberian Husky entry this year, with 2 teams entered! They are the team of Quest veteran Mike Ellis and of rookie Pierre Antoine Heritier from Switzerland, a veteran of Femundlöpet and Finnmarkslöpet. He runs with a team of dogs primarily from Polar Speed lines. Visit his website at teamheritier.com to read all about this great undertaking. We wish him luck!
Karen Ramstead of North Wapiti kennels is back to the Iditarod as well as Blake Freking of ManitouCrossing/Jedeye Siberians who will be running an all-Siberian Husky team. Newcomer to the Iditarod is Hank de Bruin from Ontario with his Winterdance Siberian Huskies.
Amundsen Race is the last race of the 2010 season. This season the start is one week earlier than previous years (March 19) hopefully securing the traditional mass start on the ice of Östersund lake. Entries have opened 1. of October and so far are 6 Siberian Husky teams signed up!
New on this year's race is Fredrik Filander, who has liberated himself from the burden of being Karsten's handler ;-).
Catherine Mathis from France who couldn't make it to last year's race due to a dislocated shoulder, hopes to be in top shape for this season's running.
Malin Sundin from Sweden who has been entered for both Amundsen Race runnings earlier, is also back on the track.
Anders Hörnlund from the south of Sweden will give the race a go too. Newcomer and rookie pur sang is Wilbert Golverdingen, who will be running his first long distance season. So far, the majority of the teams entered for Amundsen Race are purebred teams :-)!
Amundsen Race is introducing an extra race class called Amundsen DUO. Two teams form a duo and each musher/dogteam drives one heat of 200 km. This race class is especially suited for teams who cannot get as much training done, necessary for the long race or for teams of the other 3 polar breed dogs.
Read all about it at www.amundsenrace.com
12 - 13 September
Karsten judged the specialty show of the Siberian Husky Club of Sweden over 2 days.
A total of 199 dogs were entered, which meant that Karsten could not judge all classes.
An overview of the results are to be found on the club's website here.
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| Judge and ring crew were thanked by the Swedish Siberian Husky Club. Karsten felt very fortunate to work with such skilled ring stewards. |
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Karsten and Ali Koops of Forstal kennel in conversation after the show of the Siberian Husky Club of the Netherlands. photo: A. Jansen |
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6 September
We made a short visit to the Netherlands where Karsten judged the Specialty show of the Dutch Siberian Husky Club together with Ali Koops of the English Forstal kennel. Karsten judged males and Ali females. Entry was 92 dogs. An overview of the results are to be found on the club's website here.
All parties celebrate this year 40 years involvement in the breed: the Dutch Siberian Husky Club, the Forstal kennel and Vargevass kennel!
25 August
It has been already two months since a last update. Not so much news happened other than that we had a cosy seminar the weekend of August 8 - 9 with Siberian Husky enthusiasts from Norway, Sweden and Denmark in honour of the kennel's foundation dog 'Peik', who was born 40 years ago.
The weekend was filled with information about the breed. History, Functional Anatomy and Variation in Types were among the topics. The weathergods were also on our side, as it was sunny and warm both days. Several of our guests were brave enough to take a refreshing morning-swim in the lake in front of our house before 'classes' started on Sunday.
After all the positive feedback we received, it encourages us to keep a similar event next summer. If you like to know more about next year's program send an email to: webmaster@vargevass.com.
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| Introduction. We were 26 all together. |
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Karsten introduces speaker Christen Rose Anderssen who talked about history of the breed. |
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| The campfire on Saturday evening |
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Karsten had gotten a new shirt for the occasion, specially brought with from Canada. |
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| The nice weather made it possible to socialize outside between the lectures. |
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At the end of the day, the participants were invited to informally judge few dogs. It gave a challenge to the judges, but not in the last to dogs and handler. |
| Photos by Sigmund Alhaug |
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Photo by Frode Bakke |
Our puppies are growing like anything. We kept 4 of them all together and they are soon 4 months old. Time flies. Here are some photos of last week.
The weekend of August 1, Karsten graciously showed Dante at the local show of the Swedish Kennel Club. Norwegian judge Marianne Holmli drew an entry of 32 Siberian Huskies, which I am sure was one of the biggest entries ever at a National Swedish Kennel Club show. The majority of these dogs being dogs who are worked in harness, which was really nice for a Kennel Club show. Hope this will see following!
I was already glad that Karsten was willing to show Dante, so asking him to bath and groom him would have been too much to ask for. Dante was awarded Best of Breed and received his final CAC certificate to become Swedish Show Champion. Since he also has (more than) 3 prizes of merits in sleddogcompetition, he is now also officially Swedish Working Champion. Congratulations to his breeder Tom Arne Kristiansen of Norway.
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S(Polar)CH. SUCH Dante |
Photo Hélène Moubis |
26 June
Summer has finally come to Scandinavia. After a long period of rain and wind, the sun has come out now. Wow, how we have been waiting for it!
Most puppies of Ulva x Barney and Certina x Glimmer have left for their new homes now. Only two are left and waiting to be picked up next week. We are very fortunate with so many enthousiastic, serious and dedicated new owners for them and we can only hope all puppies will turn into the great athletes of tomorrow. They sure look like they have the built for it, as we feel that these two litters look really good.
Isa x Nathan pups are today 7 weeks old and are exploring their world for full. They have met their big nephew Flapper (Barney x Ulva) who is to stay at the kennel. He definitely thinks he is superior and bossies them around wherever he can. Soon they won't put up with it anymore, so he better watch it..
Otherwise, the season is floating along just fine and dogs and people enjoy summer. We had a nice visit from JP Norris and Kari Skogen of the Anadyr kennel in Alaska (http://www.anadyr.com) and other Siberian Husky friends from Sweden, Germany and Switzerland ( http://www.olenjok-husky.ch).
30 May
The Norwegian Siberian Husky Specialty show was held with 62 adults entered and 12 puppies under Swedish judge Erna Britt Nordin.
Congratulations to kennel Vikerkollen, winning BOS with their young female Vikerkollen MoS Safran by NCH. Moritz av Vargevass x Snilla av Vargevass and to kennel Carillo winning BIS puppy with their male Carillo Speedy Blue by Dante x Alaskan's Chanel of Anadyr. Chanel is former resident of our kennel and now leading the Carillo team. Dante is one of our mainstring members and finished Amundsen Race 2009 earning a silver medal on the Swedish Championship Longdistance in competition with mixbreds and a bronze medal on the 8-dog class Sprint Championships of WSA in 2008.
Norwegian Siberian Husky Club Specialty Show:
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Vikerkollen MoS Saffran, BOS
NUCH Moritz av Vargevass x Snilla av Vargevass |
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Carillo Speedy Blue, BIS puppy
Dante x Alaskan's Chanel of Anadyr |
30 April
This year, on April 14th, it has been 40 years ago that the kennel's foundation male 'Peik' was born. He belonged to the second litter born at Vargevass. The first litter came only two days earlier. Both litters were sired by a half Seppala, half Anadyr male called Alaskan's Tannik of Anadyr. Dam to Peik was Laika, a full sister of Karsten's first Siberian Husky 'Rusky' though from a later litter. These females were very much old Seppala-line.
Peik was sold as a puppy, but returned to Karsten only few months later because he was a handful to his owner. He turned into a reliable sleddog and outstanding leaddog who joined Karsten on his trips to the mountains, at his work in the field and later on at races. Being the grand-sire of Kermit av Vargevass, the sire of Nuch. Minsten, Nuch. Ylva, Samba and Fox av V, his influence in the line is unquestionable. Not only did Peik sire many litters at Vargevass, he was also used by numerous other kennels in Norway and Sweden. Peik died age 14.
We will be celebrating Peik's 40th anniversary with a seminar by Karsten and Christen Rose Anderssen in the weekend of August 8-9. Location: the 'Vargevass residence' in Raftälven, Sweden.
The Siberian Husky history in Scandinavia will be a central part of the program, presented by Christen Rose Anderssen. Christen has been the first breed counselor of the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club in 1972 and has for many years been breeding dogs under the name of Finnemarka kennel.
Karsten will be going in on 'anatomy, type and the breed standard' in which the participants will get the opportunity to be the conformation judge.
30 April
We have puppies
30 April - Ulva av Vargevass whelped 7 puppies (5 males, 2 females)
27 April - Certina av Vargevass whelped 7 puppies (5 males, 2 females)
See the puppy page.
25 April
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SUCH. Gunnhild av Vargevass
Swedish Show Champion
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At the SPHK Södra show in Väggeryd, Gunnhild av Vargevass won BEST OF BREED out of 89 Siberian Huskies and is now Swedish Show Champion!
Many congratulations to Gunnhilds owner Ylwa Malmberg!!
In Sweden we are so fortunate that a Siberian Husky only can become Swedish Show Champion if it has proven itself on the trail. A regulation to protect the breed according to its standard which describes the breed as a functional working dog!
Gunnhild is running on the team of Ylwa which won a silver medal in the purebred 6-dog sprint class at the Scandinavian Championships in Finland this year.
Gunnhild has had a rocket career to her show championship. She won her first show certificate at the SPHK NN show in Hammerdal in August last year by becoming Best of Breed under Norwegian judge Marianne Holmli (79 Sibes). Less then two months later she received her second certificate under Swedish judge Boo Lundström (44 Sibes) and now in April she won her final certificate and second Best of Breed title under judge Robert Sellevik from Norway.
Read the story of Amundsen Race under Race
26 March
After long debate, we decided to give Amundsen Race a go. We saw last year's first running of the race from the sideline and next year Karsten will be occupied at the Scandinvian judges seminar for Polar Dog Breeds as main judge. So, this year seems to be a rare chance. Thanks to the help of Fredrik and Nina Filander we were able to get a team to the start. Two of Fredrik's Finnmarkslöpet team members Goofy and Hulk Haakon av V. are on loan to the team and together with Nathan, Barney, Peikon, Noa, Dante, Glimmer, Spotted, Raggen, Putin and Grubian we hope this will be a solid group.
Two important females are not with on the team because they are bred and we don't want to put them at risk. The same goes for the dogs who were not o.k. during Femundlöpet as their liver values were high. We hope the remaining dogs have recovered in the meantime, but a lot can happen before and in the race.
Fredrik Filander will be handling for the team once again, Thank You Fredrik!
Progress of the six Siberian Husky teams can be followed on the website of Amundsen Race under the link Siberian Husky or amundsenrace.com/svensk/husky.htm though this will only be done if we have time left..
We were sorry to hear Catherine Mathis from France couldn't make it to Amundsen Race as she suffered a broken shoulder while training for the race. We wish her a full and speedy recovery and hope to see her back next year.
18 March
Lance Mackay won the Iditarod this year again. Unfortunately both Siberian Husky teams entered, didn't make it to the finish. The next race and conclusion of the season is Amundsen Race, starting on Friday 27 March, in which 7 Siberian Husky teams are entered.
16 March
Congratulations to Jana Henychova on finishing the 1000 km. Finnmarkslöpet as 4th purebred Siberian Husky team in the history of the race. The team made it Monday morning at 04.10 hours to the finish after 8 days, 16 hours and 6 minutes on the trail. See the Finnmarkslöpet website for a report: www.finnmarkslopet.no
14 March
Finnmarkslöpet has been historical this year as it is the first time a Rookie won the race, it is the first time a woman won and the 1000 km. trail was covered in record time.
Not only the leader of the pack is a woman, but also the back of the pack is and she is running it in a record time of being the longest time out on the trail. Czechian Jana Henychova is running for the Red Lantern with her team of 9 Siberians and will probably make it to the finish somewhere on Sunday. It looks like she will become the 4th purebred Siberian Husky team in history to finish the 1000 km. Finnmarkslöpet race! Also Jana is running the 1000 km. race for the first time.
In the Iditarod, the SH team of Rob Loveman is withdrawn from the race, we don't know the reason. Have a look a the website of Rob Loveman's Silly Lake Siberians here.
Blake Matray is still in the race and changing Red Lantern postion with few other teams.
10 March
Iditarod is on for full now as well. Follow the SH teams of Blake Matray and Rob Loveman via the Iditarod site here.
Finnmarkslöpet 500 is over for this year. The Siberian Husky team of Fredrik Filander finished in 32. place. Congratulations Fredrik and the dogs!
In 36th place finished the team of Dariusz Morsztyn of Poland who had 5 Siberian Huskies on the team, 2 half Siberians/half Malamutes and 1 Alaskan Husky.
7 March
Finnmarkslöpet is on! We wish all the team happy trails and a great journey, in particular the SH teams of Jana Henychova in the 1000 km. (nr. 59) and Fredrik Filander in the 500 km. (nr. 33).
On their travel to the north, Fredrik and Nina had an issue with the car just 20 km. before Alta as the clutch pedal broke off! Luckily, it was possible to drive the car in second gear all the way to Alta Camping, where they were staying before the start of the race. The car got fixed on Friday and hopefully it will behave nice for the rest of the race! Awful to have car-problems any time, but even more so during the race for the handler.
There will be more
reports about the race and Fredrik's progress in the Journal of the Arktisk Storm website from now on. Have a look at www.arktisk-storm.com. I will update the site when I get reports from Nina.
Results 500 km.
Results 1000 km.
1 March
The dogs are still taking it easy after Femundlöpet. We took bloodsamples of the 3 dogs who had to be taken into the sled during the race. It turned out that all three of them had abnormal high liver values. The entire mainstring is now on a diet of only kibble and rice as we suspect that too fat meat feeding over a long period of time has partly caused the skyhigh liver values. Our yearlings, who have been on a different diet, have normal values. It remains to be seen if there will be any more races this season.
In the meantime, the major long distance races in Norway and Alaska are about to start. March 7th is the start of both the Iditarod in Alaska and the Finnmarkslöpet in Norway. Unfortunately, the Jedeye team had to pull out of the Iditarod because of health reasons of the dogs. Hopefully and to be expected, they will be entering in next year's race with fully recovered dogs. Still, there is an interesting delegation of two Siberian Husky teams to cheer on. Mushers are the rookies Rob Loveman from Montana and Blake Matray from Alaska. It will be interesting to follow these relative unknown teams.
In the Finnmarkslöpet 1000 km. only 1 Siberian Husky team is starting. Unfortunately, Isabelle Travadon of France had to withdrawn from the race as she sustained a major knee injury after a fall on La Grande Odyssée earlier this year. Luckily, also Isabelle has plans for a comeback next year.
The Siberian Husky team of Jana Henychova is ready for their long journey from Alta to Kirkenes and back. Jana has been training her team in Finnmarken for the past two months and we had a visit from them in January on their travel from Czech Republic to the north. We wish them a wonderful and unforgettable race. Finnmarkslöpet is an experience in itself. Jana's team is so far the 4th Siberian Husky team ever, starting on the 1000 km. race. Bernhard Schuchert, Karsten and Pierre Antoine Heritier have been starting and finishing the race earlier with an all Siberian Husky team. Jana is the first woman to enter with an all Siberian team and the first Czech as well, I assume.
In the Finnmarkslöpet 500, our extraordinary handler Fredrik Filander of kennel Arktisk Storm will be doing his best to keep the Siberian Husky flag high with his team. His partner Nina has been winning all the middle distance races she was entered in this season. The dogs have to adapt now of going from middle distance tempo into long distance which makes that Fredrik will be taking more rest than is competitive. His main goal is to finish the race, regardless ranking. One of the best dogs on his team has to stay home due to abnormal high liver values as well.
It is not sure if the team Dariusz Morsztyn will be made up of only Siberians.
We wish all the teams a great journey and we wil be having some updates on the Arktisk Storm team throughout the race. See the Finnmarkslöpet website for more info.
4 February
Read about the Siberian Husky teams in the Femundlöpet race in our Femund 2009 journal.
12 January
This weekend we attended the first race of the season. The local division of the Swedish Polar Dog Club held its club championships in sprint and middle distance at the trails of Lillholmsjö Camping. With Lillholmsjö only being a 27 km. drive for us, it is a luxury to have a race so close to home and it was one of the reasons we decided to enter. Usually we have to drive several hundred kilometres to a race.
Totally were more than 100 teams entered both mixed breds and purebreds and the nationalities of Sweden, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and even Russia were represented
The main team of the kennel was entered for the middle distance unlimited class over
2 x 46 km. The team had been on two tough trainingtrips of 100 km. on both Monday and Tuesday before the race, a more relaxt trip of 45 km. on Thursday and got a rest on Friday as 'load-up' for the race. It is Femundlöpet the team is meant to peak on. Karsten started with 14 dogs on day 1. They had a good run considering the warm temperatures and they finished in 2 hours 13 minutes and 48 sec. Day 2 was even warmer with temperatures above zero and it took the team 2 hours and 19 minutes. The dogs did a great job considering the warm temperatures and a trail which they know inside and out and which they had to go around in 2 laps.
The final results were as following:
1. Karsten ----------------- 2:13:48 - 2:18:59 - Total 4:32:47
2. Torbjörn Ohrström -- 2:18:47 - 2:23:10 - Total 4:41:57
3. Manfred Witschel --- 2:21:19 - 2:29:25 - Total 4:50:44
4. Richard Ryderstedt- 2:38:14 - 2:31:46 - Total 5:10:00
The limited class (6 dogs) middle distance ran the same mileage as the unlimited class. We congratulate Nina Filander of kennel Arktisk Storm on her nice result. Her team, - consisting of Nymånens Ixius and Mercurius (by Ewok), Sverre and Hulk Håkon av Vargevass, former kennel member Goofy and Arkisk Storm Viggo - won its class and their time was faster than some of the unlimited teams: 2:20:50 - 2:27:51 Total: 4:48:11
Nina's 14 year old daughter Tanya competed with among others Rolex and Swatch av Vargevass in the 4 dog class for Juniors over 10 km. She won her class out of 4 and would have placed as nr. 5 out of 20 if she would have been competing in senior class. Total time: 44:40
In the sprint class we also entered a 6 dog team as a training for the yearlings. Pikku Mörkki, Tjalling, Frekkis and Certina ran their first race led by Libby and Myggen. The youngsters were impressed by all the hectic going on at the race, but tackled it well.
On the first day, I bootied 5 out of 6 dogs as most of them had gotten sour feet with splits over the last month which had difficulties to heal. The run was worth for improvement with several shit stops and consequently over-tramp.
After the first day, I decided to take out Frekkis of the team who seemed to have a pain in his pastern. With a time of totally 1:09:57 we ended in 10. place of 14 over 13,5 km. It was great learning for the youngsters and for myself being my second sprint race.
Many thanks to all the volunteers and the Swedish Polar Dog Club, division Nedre Norra for a great event and to Nils Erik and Elsa of Lillholmsjö Gästis.
For full results, see SPHK Nedre Norra's website here.
/Eveline
13 September 2008 - SWEDISH SIBERIAN HUSKY CLUB'S NATIONAL SPECIALTY
The Specialty Show of the Swedish Siberian Husky Club saw an entry of 168 dogs.
Main judge Sonny Ström judged the working class males and females as well as the open class males and females. Judge Per Erik Wallin judged puppies, juniors, young dogs, veterans and champions. The dogs we had entered were: Dante, Robert and Isa.
Isa was shown in Working Class females and got 1. prize with CK and was placed 2nd. in her class out of 16 females. She went on to place 3. in Best Female Competition out of 86 bitches.
Dante was shown in Working Class males and got 1. prize with CK and placed 3rd. in his class out of 24 males. In only 3 weeks time from the last show he had totally blown his coat.
Robert was shown in Open Class and got 1. prize with CK and won his class out of 24 males. He became later on Best Male out of 84 males and made it to BEST OF BREED. He was a lot more relaxed now compared to his previous show entrance where he got disturbed of the loud speakers. We hope Robert will start to like shows more as he has a lot of talent.
We are very happy with the wonderful results of our dogs as the competition was fierce with many lovely dogs from Sweden, Norway and Finland.
We are also happy that NUCH Moritz av Vargevass placed 2. in Veteran Class Males, Leo av Vargevass placed 2. in Open Class Males and Gunnhild av Vargevass placed 3. in Working Class Females. Our congratulations to Fam. Alhaug of kennel Vikerkollen, owners of Moritz, Annica and Nisse Uppström of Nordviken kennel, owners of Leo and to Ylwa Malmberg of kennel Snowstreams, owner of Gunnhild.
In the breed group, kennel Snowstreams of Ylwa Malmberg won with a beautiful homogeneous group of dogs of 2 combinations (dam and her 3 show champions offspring). Congratulations!
Our kennel was represented by Robert, Isa, Gunnhild and Leo who are of 4 different litters. Of 15 breed group entries, our group was among the 4 which got 1. prize and HP (honorary prize).
Our congratulations to Best of Opposite Sex winner Snöheimens Tanja, who turned out to have a fair part of Vargevass heritage in her (Lobo av Vargevass among others as her grand-father. Lobo is in his turn the great grandfather of Robert).
Many thanks to the Swedish Sberian Husky Club for a great weekend.
See more on our Show page.
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BOB/BIS and BOS with
judge Sonny Ström |
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6 July 2008- WORLD DOG SHOW
We went to the World Dog Show on Sunday and had a good time in the old town of Stockholm afterwards. The outcome of the show was as to be feared; A really extreme show dog winning the best of breed title. Such a shame for our working breed! Dante was the ONLY entry in his class, being Working Class Males and got a 2nd prize. He was also the only male from working lines.
There were 37 Males entered, but not all showed up. Totally were 102 Siberian Huskies entered, divided over 2 judges. In the female class were 62 entries, of which only 3 were from working lines. It was a true pity not more working dogs were shown as to educate the judges and the general public.
/Eveline
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Dante got a 2nd prize, among others for his head!! Photo: Pauline Amphlett |
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Our Femund Team 2010 sponsored by:
tel. 0047-91829232
Show and working champion ' Dante'
 Isa
 Isa
FEMUNDLÖPET 2010
8. stretch Tolga - Röros 95 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Sigrid Ekran (35) |
16:45 |
7.32 |
3. Robert Sorli (24) |
19:03 |
8.45 |
19. Karsten (8) |
04:01 |
8.10 |
28. Nisse (59) |
16:30 (+) |
11.31 |
31. Catherine (18) |
11:12 (+) |
21:54 |
7. stretch Grimsbu II- Tolga 100 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Sigrid Ekran (35) |
01:13 |
7.44 |
3. Robert Sorli (24) |
02:17 |
8.38 |
19. Karsten (8) |
11:49 |
9:21 |
30. Nisse (59) |
20:05 |
10:57 |
33. Catherine (18) |
03:08 (+) |
11:05 |
6. stretch Grimsbu - Grimsbu 70 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Robert Sorli (24) |
13:57 |
5.16 |
24. Karsten (8) |
20:39 |
5:20 |
44. Nisse (59) |
03:02 |
6.06 |
45. Catherine (18) |
10:18 |
5.33 |
45. Pascal (47) |
Scratch |
Scratch |
5. stretch Tynset - Grimsbu 75 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Robert Sorli (24) |
03:22 |
5.44 |
24. Karsten (8) |
10:00 |
5.57 |
44. Nisse (59) |
14:55 |
6.19 |
45. Catherine (18) |
19:51 |
5:44 |
45. Pascal (47) |
22:39 |
5:52 |
4. stretch Sövollen - Tynset 60 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Robert Sorli (24) |
15:45 |
5.04 |
24. Karsten (8) |
23:08 |
5.21 |
44. Nisse (59) |
02:09 |
5.43 |
45. Catherine (18) |
07:52 |
5.32 |
45. Pascal (47) |
08:44 |
6.31 |
3. stretch Drevsjö - Sövollen 70 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Sigrid Ekran(35) |
09:04 |
6.20 |
6. Robert Sorli (24) |
10:28 |
6.11 |
23. Karsten (8) |
12:43 |
7.03 |
44. Nisse (59) |
14:44 |
8.35 |
45. Catherine (18) |
16:35 |
8.04 |
45. Pascal (47) |
17:38 |
8.41 |
2. stretch Tufsingdalen - Drevsjö 65 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Robert Sorli (24) |
23:22 |
3.58 |
23. Karsten (8) |
00:48 |
4.49 |
45. Catherine (18) |
02:57 |
5.40 |
45. Pascal (47) |
03:10 |
5.52 |
44. Nisse (59) |
02:10 |
5.32 |
1. stretch Röros - Tufsingdalen 75 km.
Position (BIB nr) |
time in |
time used |
1. Robert Sorli (24) |
16:43 |
4.19 |
30. Karsten (8) |
17:07 |
4.59 |
45. Catherine (18) |
18:01 |
5.43 |
45. Pascal (47) |
18:30 |
5.43 |
44. Nisse (59) |
18:31 |
5.32 |
Four on a row:
Raggen, Enok, Grubian & Nathan
Frekkis, suits his name
Tjalling having fun with his stick
The team at the race in Lillholmsjö
Mid distance race Lillholmsjö
2 x 46 km. 1. place.
Training trip at Lillholmsjö,
photo by Claes Arvidsson
Swedish Specialty winner Robert in lead together with main leader Nathan. On the right in point, Swedish Specialty winner of 2005: Sujoz av Vargevass
Nordviken's Glimmer (by Sujoz)
Noal and Grubian in lead.
Main leader Nathan av Vargevass
Brothers Pikkumörkki, Frekkis & Tjalling
Gunnhild av V. owned by Ylwa Malmberg
Siberian Husky Specialty, 13 Sept. 2008
 Robert, Best Male, BOB/BIS
Dante, 3. in Working Class Males
Isa, 2. in Working Class, 3rd. Best Female
Gunnhild, 3. in Working Class Females
Leo, 2. in Open Class Males
SPHK NEDRE NORRA, 17 August 2008
Isa, 1. prize CK 3rd. Best Female
Dante, 1. Working Class Male CK
Best Male, BOS with CAC
Mörkki in happier times, nov. 2007
Dante at the SPHK NN show, BOS
BOB left and Dante BOS right
Photos by Jachym Lukes
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