Autumn in the Arctic

Autumn in the Arctic

Autumn is the Arctic's training season - glorious ruska colours, no mosquitos, and intensive dog training on quads and sleighs.

Autumn is one of the best seasons in the Arctic and is, not surprisingly therefore, one of the most popular times for Finns from the south of Finland to visit the north. The 'ruska' period (two glorious weeks when the trees become every imaginable shade of red and gold) is particularly popular since at that stage (generally early September), there are no longer any mosquitos and hiking and biking conditions are perfect. Mornings are crisp and clear and days are generally sunny and long. International tourists have still to discover the wonders of this area at this time.

  • 'Ruska' colours peak generally in early September - reds and golds, no mosquitos
  • Crisp clear mornings and long sunny days
  • Our main dog and guide training season
  • Quad-bike training starts once temperatures consistently drop below 5C
  • Early runs of 2km with ~10-dog teams build up to 20km with ~16 dogs
  • One-week intensive sled-training course offered each October

The turn towards winter

Our 'Summer' Activities section describes some of these options, and our location section covers the range of autumn activities in Enontekio as a whole, with detailed guides to our wilderness areas, national park, wilderness huts and trails.

We treat the first flutters of snow as a warning that winter is around the corner - we generally have about two weeks before it comes in such volume that it is here to stay. This sparks a mad local panic to gather everything in from the yard and squeeze in the last hike or bike of the season. It may happen as early as mid October or as late as the first weeks of December. At that point we move into what we call early winter, though we only open the wilderness trails once there is a good cover of snow on the ground.

Our main training season

Autumn is our main training season for both the dogs and the guides - a great time to join us if you want to learn about the dogs in an intensive way, since we are out training them on quadbikes or sleighs from morning until night. Each year we offer a one-week intensive course for new mushers and anyone wanting a more in-depth, rounded perspective on working with sled dogs than a normal safari allows.

Autumn training seasons

We start the mushing season with pre-snow quad-bike training once the temperature has consistently dropped below 5C. Training safaris at this time are fascinating, as we see how much the dogs have retained from the previous season and introduce new pups into the mix.

We begin with just 2km rounds and small (eg 10-dog) teams to get the dogs used to being back in harness and behaving in the lines - especially important for the older dogs and the pups. Distances rise swiftly until we are soon doing up to 20km in one session with the quads and maybe 16 dogs per team.

As soon as the snow is deep enough to compact on the marshes and the river crossings are safe, we build a network of sleigh routes. This is one of the best times of year for the guides, out nearly all day every day on the sleighs, developing the pups and training the lead dogs to listen to turning commands.

Who autumn suits

This is our dog-focused time, so clients joining us in autumn should be relatively experienced with dogs and have a strong love of them - the October sled-training week in particular suits anyone keen to learn more about working with dogs, professionally or as a hobby.