Grant Bradley goes on a late summer training ride with huskies high above the Arctic Circle.
With Mads and Borge in harness, Grant Bradley is in safe paws gliding through the pine forests above the Arctic Circle.
When I checked into the Engholm Husky Lodge in northern Norway late one night, I was told there would be the odd howl.
Next morning, when I stepped out of my cabin around 5am, I was greeted by a magnificent canine chorus. The cry of 47 working sled dogs, one retired dog and 12 puppies (who try but haven't got the full howl quite right just yet) is a sound I'll never forget.
The lodge is near Karasjok, high above the Arctic Circle in Finnmark where the Sami people roam with reindeer and the husky teams take sled tourists on day-long to week-long expeditions when the snow falls. In mid-winter there's just a couple of hours of dull daylight in the middle of the day at that latitude of 70 degrees north.
I was there in early autumn and it was a relatively mild 8-9C during the day.
At this time of year these incredibly lean Alaskan huskies - preferred over their Siberian cousins for their temperament and endurance - are building up their muscles and aerobic fitness for the coming tourist season.
These huskies have been bred and nurtured by one of dog sledding's most celebrated names, Sven Engholm, who's not only a top musher (sledder) but has created a unique place to stay in the forest.
I had the joy of going on a training ride with one of the teams of 15 dogs on the back of a quad bike. It was a white-knuckle ride along sometimes barely discernible trails in scrub, up hills, along a river bank and through the pine forest. The big quad bike provides some resistance on an 8.5km dash as dog team driver Marcel Stravinsky powers to a speed just below that of the dogs - around 16km/h.
Stravinsky is a Slovakian into his third season at the lodge and loves the dogs, giving each of the team a tender pat during the three water stops and at the end of the session.
Dog kennels at the Engholm Husky Lodge. Photo / Grant Bradley
He quietly but firmly issues commands to the lead dogs on our run, Mads and Borge, who follow them to the letter, picking the right trail - sometimes at the last second - as we careen through the forest. "Gee" for right and "haw" for left.
Somehow the dogs hear the commands above the sound of the quad 15m behind the leaders. How do they hear?
"Look at their ears pinned back," says Stravinsky, who's not only a master of the dogs but also the quad, which he easily throws around tight hairpin bends and down steep dips. It felt like 60km/h rather than 16km/h from where I was sitting.
He says it takes about two months to learn the names of all the dogs at Engholm but much longer to learn their personalities and how they work in a team. They are rotated constantly so the dogs learn to run with all their pack mates. They all get trialled to lead but Stravinsky has particular regard for today's combination.
A resting dog at the Engholm Husky Lodge. Photo / Grant Bradley
"Mads is very good at steering and taking commands, Borge keeps the tempo and is always in a good mood to run and speed up - these two together, wow, they are the best team."
The quad is providing controlled resistance, but if left in neutral the team could easily pull it and a rider along, he says. This effort requires fuel and like elite human athletes it's a challenge to get food into them, especially during the winter season when the dogs are eagerly ripping into their work or sleeping to recover. They eat about 1.5kg of meat and salmon a day.
These dogs are born to work and spring off the ground on all fours by half a metre in the excitement of a training run. The pups are even keener but don't run in harnesses, instead following another Engholm crew member who rides a mountain bike around a shorter route in the forest.
Sven Engholm was out moose hunting most of the time I was there but I did catch up briefly with the 11-time winner of Europe's longest sled dog race, the 1000km Finnmarkslopet.
He came to Norway from Sweden in 1980 and was able to turn his hobby into a career as a musher and now into a business hosting tourists.
Dogs ready for training at the Engholm Husky Lodge. Photo / Grant Bradley
Without any formal training he's also been able to create a lodge that uses natural materials for every purpose: reindeer antlers as coat hooks, moose antlers for door handles, eagle feathers for light shades, slabs of slate from the coast for bench tops, tree trunks for chairs and hollow branches to run lamps through.
With animal hides and furs all around it feels a bit like you've walked on to the set of The Vikings.
It's rustic but not daggy at all because behind the pine walls, inside the hollowed-out logs and beneath the slate floors is high-spec lighting, plumbing and underfloor heating.
He says good dogs have endurance, stamina, good feet and coats and, importantly, are social.
"We can deal with many dogs together. You need a leader on a sled but we don't want dominating dogs," he says.
Husky business
Engholm Husky Lodge accurately bills itself as a "different place" and is 6km out of Karasjok - the seat of the Sami Parliament - near the top of Norway, well above the Arctic Circle.
A cluster of log houses with turf-covered roofs range from the basic, with shared bathroom facilities, to two new luxury places with their own fire, underfloor heating and bathroom. Ideal for a romantic getaway, a family or a group of friends. Fishing, kayaking and tramping are on your doorstep.
The dining room at Engholm Husky Lodge. Photo / Grant Bradley
The lodge has a sauna and hot tub (although those weren't on offer when I was there in September, after the summer season and well before the winter sledding season).
The "Barta" is the dining room/bar where guests can gather around an open fire sitting on reindeer furs. A comprehensive breakfast was on offer when I was there (with local produce and jams) for about $25 but there wasn't sufficient demand to put on dinner. A pity, as Karasjok has limited dining options, although a good supermarket.
The price: Accommodation starts at about $180 a night. Sledding safaris start in mid-December and start at about $2000 for five nights. One for the bucket list.
CHECKLIST
Getting there: First get to Norway's capital, Oslo. Star Alliance partners Air New Zealand and Lufthansa got me there for about €1890 ($3200). Flights to Alta (a three- to four-hour drive from Karasjok) are reasonably priced on Norwegian Air (about $240 return) and car rental is comparable to New Zealand.
