I Went Dogsledding in Tromso

14/3/19

It had been three solid days onboard in a row for Evy, so you can imagine my desperation to disembark for a solid adventure or two in Tromso, Norway. After a quick rehearsal and a hurried lunch, I descended the gangplank from Deck 6 into a gorgeous winter wonderland.

It was as if overnight we had arrived in Narnia!

Cara was docked right at the edge of town, a stone’s throw from shops and the Cathedral, all surrounded by icy mountains. I was speechless from the beauty, and blinded by the bright sun on the endless supply of snow.

I quickly walked to the tourist information center, grabbed a map, and then headed over to the Cathedral. All of the surrounding shops reminded me of those found in mini Christmas villages.

Soon, I was joined by some castmates, Kris, Agnes, and Sydney. Kris is a seasoned cruise performer and traveler, and led us along the port harbor to a huge bridge that connected the island of Tromso to the “mainland.” The trek across the bridge gave us lovely views of the harbor where our ship was docked, as well as the surrounding fjords. It is incredible to me that a decent part of Norway is made up of towns and cities throughout these fjords. I was singing Frozen in my head, I admit it!

Our first destination was the Arctic Church, built in the 1960s, which looked provocative and sophisticated from across the bridge. Up close, I was less impressed, but I could still appreciate the landmark for it’s architecture and location. It also had a free bathroom, so that was a plus.

George met up with us then, and we continued to trek up through a residential area to the bottom of a cable car lift that took us all up to the top of a mountain. It was 20 euros per person (Oh hello, Norwegian inflation rates!), and completely worth it.

Look at these views! Where else would I ever get these views?!

It took us about 45 minutes to head back to the ship, where we took a break and ate dinner (Norway is expensive and nobody wanted to eat reindeer.). Then, for the evening event: dogsledding!

Kris is an amazing human and had gotten off the ship early that morning to reserve us tickets. At 18:00, we piled into a bus and drove for exactly 35 minutes into the mountains. At one point, we were in a tunnel beneath a mountain, and in the mountain there was a roundabout. I was blown away! In Norway, you can change directions literally in a mountain.

We arrived and were immediately hustled into a large house. The entire bottom floor was dedicated to outfitting us for the sled experience. Each person was given an insulated suit, a pair of boots, a head lamp, and a pair of waterproof mittens. Then, we were encouraged to go outside and say hi to the dogs!

There were dogs everywhere! Cages of different sizes lined the area, while the main yard had pairs of dog houses neatly organized in rows. The dogs themselves were docile and social, if not a little indifferent that we were all freaking out and petting them. I noticed that not many of them looked like the typical Husky. Instead, they were smaller and less furry, with all kinds of head shapes and tail lengths. It also seemed that about half of the dogs were missing from their dog houses. Regardless, I hit it off with a few dogs named Delali, Mike, and Frost.

Soon, our guide came to explain to us the history of dogsledding. Apparently, sledding was the most effective way to cross snowy terrain for a long period of time, with an extreme popularization during the Gold Rush. Because of the mass migration to the West Coast and up to Alaska, people would gather all of the dogs that they could for sledding, even if they weren’t Huskies. From this, a crossbreed of husky-greyhound was created, a dog most comfortable at -10 degrees Celsius and with an active need to run. I personally couldn’t imagine being born with a need to run. However, this would explain why almost none of the dogs looked pure Malamute. Also, it was hard not to imagine our guide as the shopkeeper from Frozen, because his entire speech was said in the most wonderful Norwegian accent. “These are not the big, fu-rry, flu-ffy Hu-skies you were imagining, hm?”

Then, we moved onto sled instruction, one of the most magical moments of the evening.

As soon as our guide touched the sled, all of the dogs watching us jumped up and howled.

They howled for their lives with such excitement and anticipating energy that I really did start to believe that all they wanted to do was run. The howl was passed through the dog yard and down the hill toward the back of the property, where the howling suddenly increased. None of us had been down that way, and it was extremely dark, so what I imagined was an entire acre of land that we hadn’t seen yet full of more dogs chained to their doghouses.

The guide waited until the din had subsided, then he showed us how to use the brake, how to lean around curves, and how to not get the dogs tangled. Basically, just be a good driver, push when you are going uphill so that the dogs don’t hate you, and avoid getting tangled with other sleds. Piece of cake? He also mentioned that the females were in heat, so they had placed all of the females ahead of the males for some extra speed. What a strategy.

Them, we headed down to where the howls had been the loudest. Turns out that this is where the guides assemble the sleds and attach the dogs to the harnesses. As soon as they saw us, all of the dogs jumped us and began to bark, howl, yip, etc. George and I were partners, and he was absolutely driving first because I wasn’t about to, so I sat down on the sled and tried not to be scared! Our team of dogs were going crazy! They could not contain their excitement one bit. And we were suddenly off! Soon, the yapping subsided and it was just us, the dogs, the snow, and the moon.

It was peaceful, it was stressful, it was beautiful, it was hilarious, it was personal, and it was frustrating…. I don’t regret dropping money on this experience because when else am I coming to Norway to go dog sledding??

Every 10 minutes or so, our guide would stop the train of sleds and we would switch drivers. I didn’t enjoy driving as much because I happened to always be driving on the uphill stretches, so I had to push the sled with the dogs; it was tiring! I don’t know if our weight distribution was lighter than most people’s, but our team of dogs was literally the best. The guide even came and switched one of our dogs for his at one point, saying he needed more speed. After a while, I wasn’t helping the dogs at all because they didn’t want it. They just wanted to run, and you could see that they were getting frustrated every time we had to stop for sleds ahead of us.

The white dog to the left was part of the team behind us.

And you know what? After just an hour of sledding with these dogs, we knew their personalities! Our back two males were dependable, except the one on the right was pooping the entire time. The dog that was switched out by our guide was not a team player and seemed tired. Our front two never lost focus, and were the first to jump up after a break.

There were some funny moments too. For one, Sydney was driving and face planted off of her sled, so Kris was alone on his sled with no brake for a good 30 seconds, not realizing he was without a driver until he literally crashed alongside George and me. I was straddling two sleds until George leapt off and braked the runaway sled! Sydney was picked up by the next sledding team, uninjured and laughing.

George and I had good driving coordination going, but there were a few moguls and sharp turns that had us screaming with laughter. One particular turn we came at flying because our dogs did not care that I was on the brake with both feet. There was a very real tipping moment where I was yelling at George, “Lean! Lean!” What fun!

When the drive was over, we were led into a teepee structure with a roaring fire and served hot drinks and chocolate cake. The main trainer and owner of the establishment walked in with Mike (I knew Mike!), a grand-looking dog that seemed more Husky than the others. She explained that Mike was one of the leaders of the pack, and would break new snow for you or jump over a river while attached to a sled. He was beautiful! The trainer told us about what the dogs ate, how often they ran, the breeding process, and answered any questions that we had.

Then, we had more time with the dogs! I got to know Whiskey, Moon, and Tesla. After 20 minutes, it was time to go. We all changed out of our sledding gear and got back into the shuttle. What an unforgettable experience in Tromso. If you do find yourself in Norway, please do yourself a favor and go dogsledding! Absolutely no regrets!