Winter is Here!

Our frozen lake at sunrise!

After months of waiting for freezing temperatures, today the thermometer read -12°C. Over the next 4 days, we are expecting ~30cm of snow. This will be our first significant snowfall of the season, so it's very exciting! It means that we can stop training with the quad bikes (which I'm thankful for, because they don't have much grip on the frozen ground, and we can't use the handbrake when the temperature is below 0°C), and start using the snowmobiles instead.

The dogs are much happier in the cold weather, but their feet are not. We're currently in an awkward period; the ground is frozen solid, but we don't have snow. After noticing some dogs limping during a training run, we decided to bring back the booties! We now bootie the back feet (and all feet for some) of all the dogs before a run. The good thing is that now we can start increasing their mileage. We are currently still at 15km (if we train our 14 dog teams at the same time, twice a day, then we can train 56 dogs/day - we have 88 running dogs in the kennel). Our season technically starts in mid-December - that's when we start our half-day tours for guests, which are ~20-25km each, and the dogs can run that twice a day, with one rest day per week. So although we definitely still have a journey ahead of us with training, it's much nicer and easier when we can switch to sleds. The lake is fully frozen, and it held our weight today when we tentatively walked out, but the ice needs to be ~30cm thick for us to feel confident about taking tour groups out on the ice. If the temperature stays below freezing, it may just be a matter of days.

Training on the 7th of November. The first proper day of frost.

But the change in temperature comes with its own challenges. Our biggest struggle at the moment, is water. We use water to make the food for the dogs, to clean up after feeding, and as drinking water for the dogs. Most of the water pipes freeze in cold temperatures, so we have to boil a kettle inside and use the boiling water to defrost the taps. This can delay our feeding by 10 minutes, which sounds small but can be a major inconvenience if we're on a tight schedule with tours.

Our bodies also need time to adjust to the cold temperatures. Last week, it was +7°C, so it's been a big jump to -12°C now. We've had to dig up our merino wool thermals, change over to our winter boots, and eat more food to counteract the calories that your body spends as an effort to stay warm. But on the other hand, we now look forward to sauna's and polar plunges in the icy lake.

Every day, we see less and less daylight (daylight savings set us back a huge chunk of time in October), so now the sun rises at 8am, and sets at 2.20pm. We see some amazing sunrises and sunsets. Everyone is taking vitamin D supplements, and carrying head-torches for the second half of the work day.