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Dog sledding in Sweden is a unique experience, and one of our most popular winter activities. We’ve collected the answers to questions our clients commonly ask about our range of dog sledding holidays in Sweden. Whether you are an experienced musher or a novice yet to discover the thrills and adventure of dog sledding, we hope that you will find the information helpful to give you an idea of what to expect from your dog sledding holiday.

(Please note that this information below applies only to dog sledding holidays offered by Nature Travels)

How many dogs are there in a dogsled team?

Each participant will get their own sled with 4-5 Alaskan Huskies.

Do novice mushers get to actually control the sled dogs?

Yes, they do. Participants drive their own sled on all our dog sledding experiences. Full instruction is given from an experienced and knowledgeable local guide and help and advice is always on hand. Usually people become quite confident at handling the sled and the dogs within a day.

How fast does a dogsled go?

This depends on snow consistency, weather conditions, the weight carried and of course whether the sled is travelling up or downhill, but generally around 10-15km/hour.

What happens on a “typical” day on a hut-to-hut dog sledding tour?

Again, this depends on snow conditions, weather and type of terrain. On a normal dog sledding day you get up around 7.30, make a fire, heat water for the dogs, go out and feed the dogs and clear the dog toilet waste. Then you have breakfast, pack everything together, clean out the cabin, load the sleds and start the journey for the day. The time is then around 10.30. Then you drive for a couple of hours and stop and have some lunch outdoors on the way. It is a good idea good to bring sleeping/sitting mats to use to sit on in the snow. You reach the cabin around 15.00. You put the dogs on a long wire and dig a wall of snow for the dogs to protect them from the wind. After that you bring your packing into the cabin, make a fire, and melt snow for water for the dogs - you will need around 80 litres of water 2 times a day. In the evening you cook and prepare dinner together and discuss the day’s adventures.

What kind of distance would you expect to cover in a day of dog sledding?

Distance covered varies considerably depending on a number of factors. For example, on our Go Camping by Dogsled tour, you will be transporting tent equipment on top of the normal load, and so the sleds are heavier. Available daylight hours also vary of course depending on the time you wish to go (in Sweden, darkest in December getting gradually lighter until the end of the dog sledding season in late April).

Typical distance covered around 25-40km per day.

What is the accommodation like on a dog sledding tour?

For Dogsled Adventure in Jämtland and Discover Dog Sledding, accommodation during the tours is in mountain cabins and mountain lodges along the route - the same cabins that hikers use during the summer and the cross-country skiers use during the winter. The cabins have bunk beds with duvets and facilities for cooking. Some are fairly basic and you heat with wood and melt ice to get water (an important part of the wilderness experience), others are more modern and have facilities such as electricity, shower and sauna. Even though some are fairly simple, all Swedish mountain cabins are generally very comfortable and pleasant places to stay.

For our other dog sledding tours, other accommodation options are camping in traditional teepees with wood burners or tents (Go Camping by Dogsled) or staffed mountain stations with restaurant facilities and other amenities (Premium Dog Sledding Expedition).

Do I need to be particularly fit or strong to go dog sledding?

You should be in generally good health and enjoy the outdoors. Some strength is required, particularly when braking the sled when travelling downhill. This is important, as a poorly-controlled sled can overtake and injure the dogs. We have a minimum age of 13 on all our dogsled tours. A number of clients in their 50s and 60s have participated very successfully in the tours, and the most important thing is a willingness to get involved and work with the sled and dogs.

How many people will be in the group during my dog sledding tour?

For our scheduled tours, there will usually be between 3 and 8 participants (max. 6 for the camping tours). Groups of minimum 5 are able to book any of our dogsled experiences on custom dates by arrangement, and groups of much larger sizes can be accommodated.

What clothing will I need to go dog sledding?

On Nature Travels dog sledding experiences you have the option to hire warm overalls and boots for a small additional charge as optional extras.

• Winter boots- it is important that you have a pair of proper boots on, which means longer legs and warm padding. Soles on boots should not be too rigid, as this will make it slippery when standing on the sled runners.
• Jacket/trousers – it is important that your clothes are warm, preferably windproof - winter clothing, thick jacket and thermal trousers. It is good to have a hood on the jacket.
• Hat and gloves - bring a hat and it is good to have a hood on your jacket. Mittens are warmer than gloves where the fingers are separated. Also bring a pair of gloves with fingers, as these are useful for such activities as harnessing the dogs.
• Protection against wind - bring ski glasses and preferably a scarf to tie in front of your face.

For your clothing, we recommend you use the layer principle:
• Closest to your body an inner layer that transports humidity away from the body.
• Then a second layer that keeps in the warmth your body generates and absorbs the humidity from the inner layer.
• The outer layer should protect you from weather and wind and be wind- and waterproof.

Do not use cotton on the inner layers closest to your body, as cotton collects the humidity your body generates. The clothing gets heavy and chills you. Better materials to use are synthetics, wool etc.

Where is the best place to go dog sledding?

Sweden, of course! All our dog sledding experiences take place in the mountains of Jämtland in western Sweden, near the Norwegian border. Many of our tours run in Vålådalen Nature Reserve, an area of 1,175 square kilometres and one of the southernmost alpine landscapes in the country with several peaks reaching 1500 to 1600 metres above numerous traces of the Ice Age. Between the mountains are native forests with ancient pines, and the reserve is very rich flora and fauna, with arctic fox, gyrfalcon, golden eagle and snowy owl among the species of particular interest. This area also has a snowmobile restriction, ensuring there is nothing to disturb your enjoyment of the wilderness.

Access to the area from the UK is straightforward. You can choose to travel either via Trondheim in Norway or alternatively, many of our clients travel to Stockholm, enjoy a few days in the city and then take a night train up into the mountains.

What is the best time of year to go dog sledding in Sweden?

This depends very much on personal taste and what you are looking for from your dog sledding holiday. Accommodation in tents or teepees is only possible when the days become warmer, around April. Generally snow conditions in the Jämtland region are suitable from mid-December onwards. We offer no scheduled tours in January, as the weather tends to be at its most challenging during this time, though we are happy to arrange custom tours at this time of year.

If you have any other questions about dog sledding that you would like us to see answered here in our FAQs, please email your suggestions to admin@naturetravels.co.uk.

Happy mushing!!

Best regards

The Nature Travels Team

Read our “musher’s diary” from the February 2008 Dogsled Adventure in Jämtland here.

Browse our full range of dog sledding holidays in Sweden:

Dogsled Adventure in Jämtland
Lead your own dogsled team on a voyage of discovery into the white wilderness
Dates/Period: 15.12-21.12.07, 16.02–22.02.08, 15.03–21.03.08, 22.03–28.03.08, 29.03–04.04.08, 05.04–11.04.08
Groups of min.3 can book this experience on other dates by arrangement.
7 days from £878 per person.

Discover Dog Sledding
A weekend dog sledding experience in the heart of the Jämtland mountains
Dates/Period: Friday 22/02 - Monday 25/02/08, Friday 07/03 - Monday 11/03/08
Groups of min.3 can book this experience on other dates by arrangement.
4 days from £428 per person.

Go Camping by Dogsled
A unique camping experience in the deep snow of the Swedish mountains - in the company of your own dog team!
Dates/Period: 12.04-18.04.08
Groups of min.3 can book this experience on other dates by arrangement.
7 days from £840 per person.

Ice-fishing and Dog Sledding in Jämtland
Drive your own Alaskan Husky dogsled team and fish in the frozen lake waters of the Swedish mountains
Dates/Period: 26.04-02.05.08
Groups of min.3 can book this experience on other dates by arrangement.
7 days from £840/person

Premium Dog Sledding Expedition
Eat and sleep well on this premium dog sledding tour on both sides of the Swedish/Norwegian border
Dates/Period: 19.04- 25.04.08
Groups of min.3 can book this experience on other dates by arrangement.
7 days from £1145 per person.

If you find yourself in northern Sweden during the winter months, there is a very good chance you will step out on a cold, clear night and witness one of nature’s most spectacular and ethereal displays – the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights – a sight that many consider to be the most beautiful thing they have ever seen.

The term is a combination of Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, and Borealis, from the Greek word for North Wind. As the name suggests, the Aurora Borealis is only visible in the northern hemisphere – the southern hemisphere has its own version, the Aurora Australis.

What causes the Northern Lights?

It may look like magic, but there is some relatively simple science behind this unique phenomenon. Charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere called ions collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere. Energy from the collisions is emitted as light, which due to the dominance of atomic oxygen tends to be a greenish or dark-red colour. These colours persist for a relatively long period, while the blues and purples caused by molecular nitrogen vary much more quickly.

What does a display look like?

An instance of the aurora may look like a soft, diffuse glow in the nighttime sky or like multi-coloured “curtains” running east to west, each made up of parallel rays aligned with the lines of the Earth’s magnetic field. You may even see a kind of corona of diverging rays if a magnetic line runs directly overhead.

How often do the Northern Lights occur in Sweden?

Auroras occur more frequently near the poles, since the particles needed for the displays are attracted by the Earth’s magnetic field. Displays do in fact occur year-round, but it is in the deep darkness of the northern winter nights that they can be seen most easily and are at their most spectacular. Calm conditions are best, and the most intense part of a display will last between 10 and 30 minutes. In Sweden the most active auroras tend to occur before midnight, and during peak activity displays occur on average every other clear night, perhaps even more frequently.

What cultural significance does the Aurora Borealis have in Sweden?

The scientific explanation is of course not the only one, and certainly not the most colourful. Such an other-worldly display has clearly had a profound effect on the culture and folklore of Scandinavia. An old Swedish name for the lights, “sillblixt”, translates as “herring flash”, and it was thought that the display was created by the reflections of huge shoals of herring swimming in the oceans. The Finnish word, “revontulet”, means “fox fires”, and comes from the ancient belief that Lapland was home to fire foxes, whose fur emitted sparks and caused the aurora.

One tale from the Nordic region describes the aurora as light from the fires surrounding the Earth’s oceans reflected in the sky (when the Earth was believed flat and itself surrounded by water). Another says that the sun could throw its rays above the horizon even after sunset, while a third attributed the display to powerful light energy absorbed by glaciers.

The Sami people, the indigenous people of Lapland, believe that when “observed” by the lights, you should be quiet and respectful. In particular, to make jokes or sing about the lights is to invite disaster – the lights may descend from the sky and kill the mocker. Many elderly Sami still remember that, as children, misbehaving during the aurora was very serious indeed. The lights were thought to be inhabited by the spirits of those who had died an early or violent death. Other indigenous peoples of the north, such as the Inuit in Greenland, also believed that the lights were inhabited by the dead – but that the display was caused by the spirits playing football with the skull of a walrus across the nighttime sky.

Further down, in the southern parts of Sweden far from the wild plains of Lapland, the aurora still occurs, though less frequently and usually less intensely. Here the people believed that the lights were caused by the Sami people in the north searching in the mountains for their lost reindeer herds!

How can I see the Northern Lights in Sweden?

Whatever explanation you choose to believe, there is little doubt that for many the Northern Lights are near the top of their “things to see before you die” list, and Sweden is a magnificent area to experience this beautiful sight. Swedish Lapland is a wonderful place to observe the aurora, and though a display can never of course be guaranteed, chances are good during the winter months, particularly around March and April.

Photo: Nils Torbjorn Nutti

Our Reindeer Sled Safari takes you out into the Lapland mountain wilderness for 6 days in one of the best areas in Sweden to see the Northern Lights, while Experience Lapland gives you an opportunity to try dogsledding, reindeer sledding and snowshoeing in a 4-day multi-activity adventure.

Photo: Peter Grant

Take a moment tonight to stand beneath the stars and imagine yourself wrapped in the enveloping darkness and silence of a winter night in northern Sweden. Picture the cold clear air pricking at your skin, the ground shining from horizon to horizon with reflected light from the snowfields, and all around you the sky filled with a swirling mass of spectral colour.

The skies are darkening, and winter is just around the corner…

Best regards
The Nature Travels Team

In the region of Jämtland, near the Swedish-Norwegian border, lies the nature reserve of Vålådalen, encompassing the ancient forests and wide valley of the Vålån River and the surrounding mountains. Since 1988, this 1200 km2 area has been protected as the Vålådalen Naturreservat.

With a height difference of between 500m and 1600m above sea level, a quarter of the reserve is comprised of forest, almost all of which is classified as “natural forest” or “virgin forest”. The geological and climatic variations within the reserve allow for a very wide range of flora and fauna, and the reserve is home to some of Sweden’s rarest and most spectacular animals, including the wolverine, the arctic fox and the gyrfalcon, as well as rare plant species such as orchids.

The arctic fox, Alopex lagopus, is Sweden’s most endangered mammal, and the subject of concerted conservation efforts in Sweden. The work, which includes radio tracking and supplementary feeding programmes, is now beginning to show real benefits, but the arctic fox population in Sweden remain very fragile. Arctic foxes are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in availability of food supply, and they will only breed in years with plentiful food. One of their main sources of food, the lemming, has a population cycle with periodic peaks and crashes, the reasons for which are still largely unknown. Also of major concern is the spread of the red fox into arctic fox territories, and conservation measures have also had to involve the culling of red fox populations in some areas to reduce competition.

In a good lemming year, females may give birth to 5-6 letters of 5-10 young each under the protection of the winter snows, which means that come spring the mountain heaths of Vålådalen will be alive with huge numbers of these beautiful animals. Lemmings provide an essential source of food for arctic foxes, as well as for birds of prey such as the long-tailed skua and rough-legged buzzard, and arctic fox females may give birth to up to 16 pups in a good year. Mortality rates can be high, though, and it may be a long time until the next lemming peak.

Food supply is only one challenge the local wildlife faces in the fight to survive in the Jämtland mountains. As with any mountain environment, the climate in Vålådalen can be unpredictable, with weather conditions changing often and suddenly – in Vålådalen, this is a result of the Atlantic climate zone and the continental climate zone meeting over the mountains.

Safety when you’re out in the mountains should always be a primary consideration, and this is ideal terrain for mountain skills training. Nature Travels offers two tours aimed at improving your survival/outdoor skills in a mountain environment. Mountain Magic for Beginners takes you on a camping expedition into the Jämtland mountains during the summer season, with expert instruction in navigation and mountain safety – as well as a great camping experience in wonderful surroundings, of course! The winter version of this tour, Beginner in the Snow, also gives you the opportunity to camp wild in the mountains – but this time in the depths of winter – teaching you essential skills to ensure that a winter expedition is both enjoyable and safe.

Photo: Annica & Torkel Ideström

Vålådalen in the summer is a beautiful area for a walking holiday in Sweden, and Nature Travels offers a hiking tour with a difference – in the company of your own husky sled dog! The dogs, who spend their winter providing the propulsion for our popular dogsledding holidays, also love to be out in the summertime, and our Hiking with Dog tour gives you the opportunity to explore the Jämtland mountains with your own pack dog to help with the load!

Vålådalen in winter is an excellent area to go doglsedding in Sweden. Nature Travels offers five dogsledding holidays in Sweden, all of which take place in or around the nature reserve. Our popular Dogsled Adventure in Jämtland is a week-long dogsledding tour into the beauty and silence of the winter mountains and is available from December onwards. As spring begins, the days lengthen and temperatures rise, it is also possible to spend your nights under canvas, and our Go Camping by Dogsled and Ice-fishing and Dogsledding experiences combine the excitement of a dogsledding adventure with the true wilderness feeling of spending your nights in a tent or teepee. For the winter season 2007/2008, we have also added a shorter 4-day dogsledding tour, Discover Dogsledding, as well as our Premium Dogsledding Expedition, which combines the challenges of a mountain dogsledding holiday with a few creature comforts along the way!

The Swedish mountains possess an expansive, ethereal beauty at any time of year – a place to rediscover your spirit and follow your dreams – and in Vålådalen Nature Reserve is an ideal place to explore the endless possibilities of the Swedish mountain world!

Best regards
The Nature Travels Team

On a dog sledding holiday in Sweden, teamwork is very much the name of the game – working together with your dogs to lead your dogsled across the frozen wilderness is a unique and magical experience. By the end of your dog sledding tour you will be closer to the dogs, closer to your fellow travellers and even, perhaps, have come to know yourself a little better.

On a Nature Travels dog sledding holiday, each participant is responsible for his or her own sled, with 4-6 sled dogs. A large part of the thrill and adventure of this experience comes from the challenge of working with and handling your dog sled team effectively – from your first tentative steps at the beginning of the dog sledding tour to the spine-tingling moment when you start to feel properly in control and your confidence soars! By the time your dog sledding holiday in Sweden draws to a close, your skills with the sled and your knowledge of the dogs should have improved immeasurably.

In the early stages of your dog sledding holiday, it is easy to concentrate too much on yourself as you try to put into practice what you have been taught about handling the sled, but as you relax and begin to feel at home on your sled and in command of yourself and your team, you will find yourself thinking more and more about the dogs and marvel at their intelligence, strength and stamina.

As in any team, each member of a dog sledding team has a designated role, and though dogs may be placed in different positions within the team at different times, many dogs will display a particular aptitude for a particular position.

Each dog in the team is named according to its position. Positions are taken relative to the sled. There are “wheelers”, “team dogs”, “swing dogs” and of course the “lead dogs” out in front.

It is the responsibility of the lead dogs to set the pace for the rest of the dog sledding team and to steer the sled. Nowadays, it is common for a dog sledding team to be fronted by a pair of lead dogs, though a single dog was frequently used in the past. In some situations a wrong turn may of course be disastrous, so the lead dogs must be particularly intelligent and good at keeping to the trail when conditions and visibility are poor. The lead dogs will respond to commands given by the musher – but these commands do not need to be shouted, a spoken word is somehow picked up through the noise and clamour of the pack and the dogs obey immediately.

Behind the lead dogs come the swing, or point, dogs. It is their job to “swing” the dog sledding team around the twists and turns of the trail and maintain a smooth flow. For larger teams, behind the swing dogs will come the team dogs, who lend strength and power to the dog sledding team.

Nearest the sled come the wheel dogs. A good wheel dog should be strong, steady and calm. They should not be made nervous by the motion and noise of the sled behind them.

And finally, of course, comes the only two-legged member of the team – you! Your responsibility will be to guide your dog sledding team surely and safely to your destination, to watch out for obstacles and potential hazards on the trail, to brake the sled effectively when travelling downhill so as not to overtake and possibly injure the dogs with the sled, and finally, when your day of dog sledding draws to a close, to make sure that your team-mates are fed and watered and settled for the night before retiring to your cabin to dream of your next day on the trail!

Best regards

The Nature Travels Team

Nature Travels offers a wide range of dog sledding holidays in Sweden. Tours are available from 4 to 7 days with a variety of accommodation during your experience from tents to mountain cabins to hostels and lodges. We offer many opportunities to go dogsledding in Sweden with tours available on fixed dates in winter 2007/2008 between December and April. Groups of minimum 3 can organise dog sledding tours tours on other dates by arrangement. For a full list of our dog sledding holidays in Sweden please see our website at www.naturetravels.co.uk.