The­se days, it is news in its­elf if some­thing actual­ly hap­pens! This was the case last weekend, when the local dog sledge race “Trap­pers Trail” took place. You can’t pos­si­bly ima­gi­ne a public event with bet­ter distance and ven­ti­la­ti­on than a dog sledge race!

“Trap­pers Trail” is an annu­al event orga­nis­ed by the Lon­gye­ar­by­en dog club (hun­de­klub­ben) – they are the ones with the ken­nel near the polar bear war­ning sign next to the lake in Advent­da­len. It is an event for local mem­bers of the club, more a social event than a com­pe­ti­ti­on. Well, it is also a com­pe­ti­ti­on, but it is more than just that.

Start of this year’s Trap­pers Trail: the tra­di­tio­nal dog sledge race
for the mem­bers of the Lon­gye­ar­by­en dog club.

The Trap­pers Trail race takes two days. The rou­te does requi­re a good level of trai­ning from all par­ti­ci­pan­ts, both on four and on two legs. It takes them from Lon­gye­ar­by­en via Advent­da­len, Toda­len, Bøda­len and Coles­da­len to Coles­buk­ta – about 40 km in total – whe­re the dog club has a club house. The par­ti­ci­pan­ts spend a night in tents and then return via Fard­a­len and the gla­cier Lon­gye­ar­breen. This second leg is about 30 km long – a bit shorter, but Fard­als­bak­ken, the ascent from Fard­a­len up to the pass over to Lon­gye­ar­breen, will push most teams into their reser­ves, befo­re the long des­cent down Lon­gye­ar­breen usual­ly pro­vi­des a rela­xed final run back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Coles­buk­ta is the desti­na­ti­on of the first day. Here, Lon­gye­ar­by­en dog club owns a hut and the par­ti­ci­pan­ts of the Trap­pers Trail race spend a night in tents befo­re they return on Sun­day
(archi­ve image).

The race is an annu­al high­light for the club mem­bers and local onloo­kers. The com­ple­te event hap­pens out­side and was thus pos­si­ble to hap­pen also under coro­na con­di­ti­ons.

Trap­pers Trail: Pho­to gal­lery

Max Schwei­ger was on loca­ti­on and pro­vi­ded pho­tos – tusen takk, Max!

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.