Longtime we have been waiting for this moment... but now we are finally back on the sleds. the snow arrived, and although it could be 3 times more, we are happy that white winter has now finally started. Most happy about this are of course also our dogs, who had to wait now for pretty long as well to run again, and sadly lost some of their physical condition as well.
During coming week we will rotate all dogs through the teams, to get all of them running about the same amount of kilometers, so they get their top form back soonest possible. We will have 11 guests here and they will help us to get moving all dogs as much as needed. We guess that within 10 - 14 days we get them back to normal fitness level.
Yes, the last weeks were not easy, for all of us. But a few pictures from the last week shows, that we can have fun also with only a very little of snow. An up and down of temperatures, moving from -32 to -15 degrees, made hiking a physical challenge, riding was a nice alternative for outdoor-days, night-hikes with torches and even icehole-swimming at -32 degrees C were done by our guests. A big Thank You to all our understanding guests in the last weeks, who simply accept that we do not make the weather here by ourselves and who took happily part in all kind of alternative-programs we offered.
So we think that the coming week will be the first one with more or less "regular" programs scheduled. Bears Trail and Winter Week Plus are on the program. And who cares that the water pumps in our wilderness cabins are frozen... we will make the best out of it!
Last but not Least: the Team 15/16 is now finally together. After several short-term departures for different reasons, some new arrivals without success, now the crew for the rest of winter is here. Guides wil mostly be Alex, Konstantin, Frank, Dani and Simone. As Back-Up-, kennel- und inhouse-Crew we have Elisabeth, Martina, Monika and (until end of January as short-term-support) Nadja here. And from mid-February till end of March we get Kevin as routined allrounder here for additional support during the 2nd half of this winter.
See you soon at Eräkeskus!