Springtime means get outside and travel
The frozen sea ice became a well traveled dog sled highway after the sun started peeking over the horizon for a few hours each day as spring approached. The ice was approximately 40 inches (100 cm) thick and strong enough to hold even our largest trucks. It was the smoothest and fastest way for the Greenlanders to travel up and down the coast, and they took advantage of the daylight hours. Several of us hired Greenlanders to take us out on trips to explore and take photographs.
In Greenland the dogs do not run in a column - like in Alaska and Canada. Here they ran parallel on equal length seal skin lines. To keep the dogs from chewing them off, the dog's teeth were filed down.
These Husky dogs were strictly workers and not to be petted. They were not fed everyday. When they were fed, it was frozen meat chunks that they swallow whole. This made them feel full for a longer time as it thawed out in their stomach. One time I was going to lay down and take a picture of the dogs from a low angle. I was surprised that the Greenlander stood over me with his whip. He said the dogs might have attacked me because I looked like a seal.
As the dogs ran and pulled us along, they changed places periodically and the lines became tangled. Every hour or so we had to stop so the driver could untangle the lines. That gave us a chance to stop, get off the sled, and move around a little to warm up. The dogs took a welcome break, too.
On the trail if a storm would hit suddenly, the driver would turn the sled over and get under it. The dogs would curl up with their tail over their face and let the snow cover them for insulation from the strong sub zero winds.
The dog teams were 8 to 15 Huskies that could pull a sled with a load of 1500 pounds (675 kg). I watched them run for hours with incredible endurance. It seemed like they didn't mind or object to their job too much. It was interesting to see how efficient they were at scooping up snow in their mouth for water while they ran.
Dogs and sleds have been used for 4000 years in the Arctic by the Inuits, and still are used today for hunting out on the sea ice. The dogs are not raised as pets but there is a mutual respect between man and dog, for each must depend on the other for survival.
Click for more information on the Greenland Sleds.
My attempt at driving the dogs felt like trying to drive a car without
a steering wheel and with no breaks. I had no control at all. The dogs understood
only voice commands and the whip, neither of which I could use effectively.
These 14 Huskies were well matched, beautiful, and strong. They belonged
to our guide Itukusuk who was the son of a great hunter and guide to the
Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen. (More about them later.)
The sea ice
was not only a good highway for the dog sleds but also for motor vehicles-if
there were any place to drive to. Here I am on the ice road on North Star
bay, out about a mile from land. In the background are icebergs that never
made it to the open sea before the bay froze last fall. Of course the ice roads were
not usable during the summer!
Is this sign really necessary?
ICE ROAD TO DUNDAS OVER NORTH (STAR) BAY CLOSED IN SUMMER
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-- Smilla's Sense of Snow
-- The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America.
-- Greenland's Icy Fury.
-- Greenlanders, Whales, and Whaling:
-- Lonely Planet Iceland, Greenland & the Faroe Islands.
-- An African in Greenland.
-- Arctic Homeland: Kinship, Community and Development in Northwest Greenland.
-- Greenland (World Bibliographical Series)
-- Knud Rasmussen's Posthumous Notes on the Life and Doings of the East Greenlanders
-- North Pole Legacy: Black, White & Eskimo
-- Northwest Greenland: A History
-- The Arctic: Endangered People and Places.
-- Arctic Adventure: Inuit Life in the 1800s
-- Arctic Foxes
-- Ancient People of the Arctic.
-- Arctic Son.
-- Arctic Folktales.
-- Greenland & The Arctic.
-- Seven Seasons in Greenland.
-- Greenland Expedition:
-- Building the Greenland Kayak:
-- The First Crossing of Greenland.
-- Eskimo Poems from Canada and Greenland.
-- Greenland: Island at the Top of the World.
-- The battle for Greenland.
-- Arctic Clothing of North America - Alaska, Canada, Greenland.
-- Leaves from a Greenland diary.
-- Driving to Greenland.
-- The Greenland Seal Hunter.
-- The Greenland Ice Cap.
-- The Flora of Greenland.
-- The Arctic Promise:
-- Greenland and Iceland.
-- Greenland: Past and Present.
-- Greenland Ventures.
-- Arctic Homeland:
-- Greenland Saga:
-- New Greenland.
-- Greenland Lies North
-- The ice-capped island: Greenland
-- Coast Guard to Greenland.
-- Greenland's 25 years of indigenous self-rule.
-- FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS
-- The Greenland Mummies
-- Danish Greenland
-- Northwest Greenland: A History
-- Living With the Eskimos In Greenland
-- Those Greenland days
-- THE PEREGRINE FALCON IN GREENLAND
-- Greenland: a dream at the top of the world.
-- This is Greenland.
-- David Goes to Greenland
-- The Art of Greenland:
-- Hunting the Greenland Narwhal
-- Doctors Wife in Greenland.
-- Greenland in Story and Pictures.
-- THE LAST KINGS OF THULE, A year among the polar Eskimos of Greenland.
© 2007 Larry Rodrigues. All rights reserved.