On the first day, the opening banquet allowed Henry Kam, head of the organisation and Thibaut Branquart, in charge of sports communication, to meet the LGO family. Many mushers who ran the 2010 LGO or previous editions were there. Among us, the LGO crew enjoyed his meal with Robert Sorlie. But many more were there in Alta: Jo Are Brennodden, Sigrid Ekran, Miquel-Angel Martinez, Ketil Reitan, Thomas Hoffmann, Elisabeth Edland, Per Olav Gausereide and Arnt Ola Skjerve.

Elisabet Edland and Per Olav Gausereide at the start in Alta

Chatting with Elisabeth Edland who raced the inaugural edition of LGO was a great opportunity to check how much the race has evolved. It has been something to be one of the mushers to mush on the trails in 2005. The staff learned a lot during that first edition. Elisabeth keeps a special and smiling souvenir of that crazy first edition but she had the report from this race by his companion Per Olav Gausereide. 7th and rookie of the year of the 2010 edition, Per Olav has told Elisabeth how much the race is now well organised and the trails well prepared. Per Olav plans already now to be back soon on LGO. And Elisabeth said that she could be back one day, especially now that their kennel is turning more to long-distance dogs. Dogs that are way easier to control than the crazy and powerful mid-distance dogs she was running in 2005. She was told by the Henry that she would be very welcome to be back.

Henry Kam watches Robert Sorlie as he leaves the restart area of the Finnmarkslopet 1000

Henry Kam was honoured to enjoy a ride inside Robert Sorlie from the ceremonial start to the start area on the frozen river. (Henry was especially touched when he saw that a snowmobile from the police was in front of him to protect him. And then he realised that the crown prince Haakon was travelling in Lars Monsen's basket in front of him.) This sleddog ride was a great opportunity for Henry to discover the Finnmarkslopet trail and to chat for a while about the race with the 1995, 1999 and 2001 Finnmarkslopet champion.

Once the restart ended, Henry and Thibaut drove during three days from one checkpoint to another through fjells - mountain plateaux , coastal roads, canyons and along frozen rivers. Which allowed them to discover a new kind of territory as demanding as the Alps but of another kind. If the Alps are all about steep uphills and altitude, here you get frozen temperatures and the wild desolate open spaces of the arctic. No mountain goats around here, but reinders and mooses.

Isabelle Travadon arrives in Levajok with thirteen dogs

By following the race, Henry and Thibaut got an inner sight of the race in the way its is organised but also in the way the mushers run it. If endurance and tiredness are two common factors to both races, the Finnmarkslopet requires to spend a lot of energy , not as intensely as on LGO but on longer runs, the diference comes more from the short rest mushers and dogs have to deal with. Along the trip, Henry and Thibaut talked a lot with the mushers, the handlers and the Finnmarkslopet staff.

Jo Are Brennodden and Thibaut  Branquart are chatting at the Levajok checkpoint (photo Henry Kam)

During a work meeting, Henry Kam and Thibaut Branquart joined Hans-Petter Dalby, Thibaut's counterpart. Hans-Petter was in Paris in june 2009 to represent Finnmarkslopet during the First International Sledog Race Organiser Symposium*, host by La Grande Odyssée savoie Mont Blanc. Also at the meeting were Per L. Aronsen, Henry's counterpart and Gro Anette Olaussen, Finnmarkslopet's executive manager. After a presentation of LGO, participants talked about various topics they could collaborate on. This meeting has been  very constructive and has opened new perspectives for the future. The two teams have agreed to meet again soon to go forward on some common projects.

Hans-Petter Dalby, Per L. Aronsen, Henry Kam and Gro Anette Olaussen

This trip to meet Finnmarkslopet has been extremely  rewarding. It has first allowed to maintain and to develop the relationships between the race and the mushers, by meeting members of the LGO familly but also possible future mushers of La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc. And second, it has strenghtened and developped the relationships between the two greatest sleddogs races in Europe.

"We've seen that the Finnmarkslopet is a great race with a very professionnal organisation. By being aside, those days have been really useful to stand back. We're back with a lot of new ideas and maybe new projects to build with this great and beautiful race." concluded Henry Kam.

* The second edition of the International Sleddog Race Organiser Symposium will be held in june in Paris.

Photos: Thibaut Branquart