Team Snørokk at the Femund race 2011
After a week of lazy days after the race, “with ordinary work” it’s time to write down some thoughts about the 400 km trip from Røros and back.
The first thing I am thinking about is how different the race was now compared with my first race in 2007. I was a rookie then, quite nervous and not really knowing what this long distance racing was all about…I spent a few blowing hours in the wind-sack at “Kvernvikshøgda” and used over 40 hours on the trail. Hard times…Since then, Kari has run once, and I and the dogs have gathered more knowledge about the noble art of mushing..!
Ready, but not sure about the dogs yet….
Kjetil Haugersveen took this photo at the start
And also took a photo of Marcos in his Snørokk anorak:
And Irene in her woolbuff from Snørokk:
This year we started out with absolutely no expectations on how we as a team would perform, which led me to “just follow the team and see how it goes” and at least reach Drevsjø (135 km). I found this attitude relaxing and nice during the whole race. The focus was not at all on competing, but having a nice time together with the dogs. The main reason to this was that 14 days before the F400, we participated in the more local race “Hallingen 160 km”. There we did a really heavy run, coming in last, experiencing a lot of sugar snow, vomiting dogs, stiff dog in the sled and ravens circling above our heads (yes, we actually did: Am I going that slow? He he he…) So I didn’t know how the dogs would run in F400.
Out on the trail I saw that things were starting to work after a while. The dogs were happy and I was happy, focusing on running steady and not pushing them at all. Afraid of wrist injuries, I ran slowly downhill and in every bump in the trail, using the drag break. Except from some “sugarbumps” the trail was very nice, shifting and with quite a lot of km on unplowed roads. My respect to the trailbreakers!
On every checkpoint the dogs showed me how to relax. On Tufsingdalen I wondered if they were exhausted and on Drevsjø I started to get a bit worried. They slept like dead rocks. But when I woke them they looked fine and I think it was experience that made them do this. I also think that this is one of the breed’s characteristics compared to many other type of teams.
Luna and Yippi before they head out for the next leg.
Ulf ready to leave Drevsjø
Guro helping Ulf
Kim ready to leave Drevsjø
The leg to Søvollen was slow, travelling in daylight on loose trail the first kilometers. In the afternoon we reached the mountains, better trails and the wind picked up a bit. The dogs liked the temperature drop and didn’t really care about the wind. We passed some more inexperienced teams/dogs and drove in side- wind for one hour or so, together with the second place finisher in Nordic Breed, Kim Dulk, down to Søvollen (205 km).
Kim sent us these pictures from the leg to Søvollen:
Notice Ulf’s skipole!
After a 2:15 rest in the straw with the dogs, and “Old Yippi” out of the race because of a sore wrist, we headed towards Tolga with Akii and Mithril in lead. In 2007 this was one of the most demotivating runs I had (the trail was different). Now it was fun. Akii and Mithril took charge and the 90 km to Tolga via Tynset was a good run, on the last 30 km some of the dogs “took off” now and then, smelling something ahead.
In Tolga we ate a lot and slept for some hours before heading back to Røros.
Pictures taken by Ola Markali:
Checking compulsory list!
Bosse and Bronco are more than ready!
Mithril and Aki discussing tactics??
Ulf drinking to be ready for the last leg.
And finally they could go.
Mithril and Aki in lead,- photo by Bianca Hochstein
Fredrik F. took this picture,- we want to race next year with Kim and Ulf as handlers, or…?
I had no idea of how we were doing compared to other SH teams, but before I went out from the check point Kari told me that Cato Lunde (Winner of NB class) had left 20 minutes ahead of me, and that I had driven about 15 minutes faster than him to Tolga. In my mind I was still running the dogs in their own pace, not thinking about competition (not so competitive, hu!), but maybe expecting to see Cato towards the end of this last leg.
Ulf in the hills up from Tolga
Røros next!
After approximately 60 km I saw a SH team and a few minutes later I passed Cato going up the hills in Grådalen. We stopped for a little chat, wishing each other a nice trip to Røros, and then went on. Snørokks crux on the trail was coming up now. Both Kari and I have had “almost parking” on the last 20-30 km towards Røros in the two earlier races. It was this that I was saving the dogs for when I was not stressing out of Tolga. Now I experienced the thing I hoped for (and heard other mushers talk about): The dogs recognized the trail and picked up speed. (I actually think they recognized most of the trail). About 15 km before Røros, Bjørnar Andersen passed me and we were able to follow him all the way to the finish line, dogs speeding up uphill and going on full throttle all the way. A lot of energy left!
Passing the finish line was strange; you always expect it to be a huge relief, but having had a god last run made me feel more surprised, than relieved.
At the finishline,- I threw the camera to Guro,- who had never used it before!
Fredrik congratulating Ulf from the sideline
Lasse congratulating a very satisfied Arild at the finishline.
My handlers, wife Kari and her old friend Guro Lepperød did a wonderful job for me during the race. Food, sleeping facilities, clothing and even massage of sore feet were waiting for me at every checkpoint. Hard workers with minimum sleep!
At Fjellheimen after some sleep!
Coming in as no. 45 with our Siberians wasn’t that bad, 30 minutes ahead of the official NB winner!
Thanks to the hard workers:
Mithril, Akii, Rajah, Luna, Vytok, Yippi, Bosse and Bronco!
A short report from the handlers’ point of view:
We came up to Røros Wedensday night, and got the time to look at the Femund600 start on Thursday.
Marius at the start
Robert Sørlie
Arnt Ola Skjerve
Bjørnar Andersen
Sigrid Ekran
Nisse Uppstrøm
Trond leaving Røros
Out he goes!
Ketil Reitan
Inger-Marie Haaland
Ole Dag took this picture of me while I passed him, -we were both busy photographing! But I lacked the concentration and took very few pictures during the race. Also because the handler job is quite demanding and I didn’t have time.
We had a nice lunch with Stig, Tom Arne and Linda and of course the oligatory pizza at night with the other mushers at Fjellheimen from Drammen Trekkhundklubb. Guro came to Røros right before the start of the Femund 400, and we headed on to Tufsingdalen where we stood at the roadpassing togheter with Kjell, Camilla and Birgit. The weather was amazing with Aurora Borealis and bright stars.
Picture from Drevsjø
We got both the dogs and musher bedded down, and Ulf could report that the dogs seemed fine, but emphasized that he didn’t want to rush them, but let them go at their own speed after the vomitting disaster at Hallingen.
We went on to Drevsjø, where the community had made a really nice event out of the World Championship. Ulf had decided to take his 8 hour rest here, and we found a place for him to sleep, after we had stuffed him with food and drink. I slept in the car for a couple of hours and Guro went to the handler’s tent to sleep. We both agreed that the tent had a much nicer aroma than the place were the mushers slept,- it didn’t smell nice when we went to wake up Ulf,- I can assure you!!
I had passed the poster of the Drevsjø checkpoint many times before I noticed that it had a photo of me on it! A picture taken by Jan Jensen at Femundtunet in 2006.
I tried to tell one of the volunteers that it was a photo of me, but think he only thought I lacked some sleep….
Guro sat at the wheel most of the time to Søvollen since I started to be a bit too tired to drive. At Søvollen there is a looong way to drag the depotbag to the checkpoint, or at least we thought so, until we saw the others driving them up to the checkpoint and then go down and park the car……
We waited together with Fredrik and the rest, and Fredrik and I decided that the waiting made us uneasy, so we ant to drive next year….well, we might not have enough dogs for the Femund than, but time will show.
At this point we were all very tired, but the meaning was that Ulf should only have a 45min stop here. It turned out to be over 2 hours instead, but I didn’t allow Ulf to go into the cabin at Søvollen, in fear of him getting too comfy, so I brought out food for him. At this checkpoint Guro and I had got the hold of the routines and didn’t even forget the foodbowls for the dogs as I had done at Drevsjø 
. But a lot of others had problems bigger than that, as handlers oversleeping, handlers not making to the checkpoint in time etc.
It was a relief to leave Søvollen, since the speaker was a bit to talkative for my taste….
Well, we didn’t leave straight away after having seen Ulf and Kim go, since I couldn’t find the carkey! After about 30minutes of frantic searching, I found them in one of my pockets…hmrff…
At Tolga, we ate, waited, put out the depotbag, waited and ate some more. When Ulf arrived, we stuffed him with some more food and drink, and I gave his cramping legs some massage, before he went to sleep. Guro and me became very good at sleeping in the car. We are both so short that we could easily sleep in the seats.
When the sun rose and Ulf was getting ready, I went over to Cato to wish him luck. He was very nervous for the last leg, but also very determined.
Then we went back to Røros and Fjellheimen. We took a quick shower before we went down to Idrettsparken to await the mushers. I must admit I at this point was very nervous, and became extremely pleased when I saw Ulf and the team. The dogs looked surpringly fresh, wagging their tails when they crossed the finishline,- difficult to hold the tears back at such a moment!
The next day, Guro went home again and Ulf and me roamed around in Røros, taking a cup of coffee with Cato and his handler Astrid. Strategies and new breedingplans were discussed,- so nice to be able to both compete and also be able to work together! At night we were out eating with Kim and the rest of the Swedes.
Before the banquet, we made an appointment to get 4 of the dogs massaged, and they really loved it! We had two years earlier taken Vytok there, and they recognized him at once; our favourite customer they called him, since he loves the treatment! Nothing seriously wrong with any of them, thanks to Ulf’s careful driving.
Vytok nearly falling asleep….
Aki had a sore achilles, but liked the treatment too.
Bronco getting stretched
Rajah relaxed after a while….
and relaxed even a bit more in our bed during the night…sweet girl!
The banquet was nice like last time we were there, and of course we were seated with our friends from Drammen!
Lars seems to be curious of what he gets!
Ulf at the cermony
Looking back, we know ways to improve, and will see if I am at the startingline next year. It depends if we have enough dogs, since we are selling three dogs, and Yippi most likely want be able to do long distance next year. Our young ones will be 19months at the time Femund is due next year, but we are not sure if we will let them compete in longdistance at that age, but maybe just to let them have the experience.
See you at Grimsbu!
Kari
