After competing successfully for many years with our Siberian husky team in dryland mushing events and competitions in the UK, I decided that I wanted to try my hand and my team at a long-distance sled dog race. I had been following the Finnmarksløpet 500 and 1000 for several years now and decided that this was the race my team and I wanted to do.

So, after a brief time spent in France trying my team and myself out (more myself…) on snow and the cold conditions surrounding it, myself and Hayley made the brave decision that if this was going to become a reality and not just a dream we really needed to move to where the Finnmarksløpet took place, Alta Norway, deep inside the Arctic circle. So, in the September of 2016 we packed up the van with the dogs and filled the trailer with everything we needed and drove 3 days through Europe, up through Sweden and on into Norway.

With the help of friends, we managed to rent a small flat in Langfjordbotn that is a small village at the end of a fjord an hour’s drive west of the City of Alta. As well as securing accommodation for ourselves we also managed to get all 19 of our dogs kennelled across the road from the flat with another friend in their kennels. We had arrived!

We then spent the next 10 months finding employment, getting to know the locals, becoming part of Langfjordbotn’s very friendly community, finding more suitable accommodation where we could all be together (Hayley, myself and all 19 of our dogs) and of course training when and where we could; getting ready for the race in March 2018. In the August of 2017 we moved in to a lovely long term rented detached 3 bedroomed house along the Bognelvdalen road in Langfjordbotn. There was a large barn with the property as well as about 1 acre of land around it. We set about building new kennels and a large run for all our beloved Siberian huskies and once finished we all moved in late August 2017.

So that’s where we are today and how we have got here. Hayley and myself have become very much part of the community and have made a lot of new friends. We both have full time jobs and wonder why we didn’t do this years ago, we love Norway and its people; we love Langfjordbotn and the people of Bognelvdalen road.

My Siberian husky team and myself will be taking part in the 8-dog class FL500 that is a 500km race across the northern wilderness of the Arctic Circle in Norway in down to -40°C temperatures.

The start is from downtown Alta, and keeps going as a round trip in western Finnmark for 500km.

Hopefully all being well we will get back to the Start/Finish line in downtown Alta by Tuesday/Wednesday, if the weather conditions and tracks are fairly good that is.

As with any professional sport, sponsorship is one of the key components of success in sled dog racing. Your support helps us offset racing expenses: dog food, dog booties, dog blankets, harnesses, hand warmers, specialist clothing, batteries for headlamps, race entry fees, travel expenses, shipping gear to checkpoints and the list goes on.

We appreciate any and all levels of sponsorship; from £1 to £10,000. Please join the Team as a sponsor today and help us continue racing and chasing our Finnmarksløpet Dreams! Your support allows us to concentrate our time & energy on the dogs, training & kennel needs and in return we mention and advertise all our sponsors on our Facebook page, website and vehicle’s. We will also supply signed photos of the team and individual team members as well as an assortment of signed memorabilia from the race.

Many thanks,

Wayne Fisher and Team Wolftracker