Europe’s longest sled dog race conquers Finnmark
128 mushers with 1,262 dogs started out from Alta on Saturday in a competition that offers adventure, wilderness and nature like no other sports.
Finnmarksløpet has developed to become one of the largest and most famous sport arrangements in Norway’s northernmost county. The start on Saturday turned Alta centrum into a festival with official opening, music, speaker and thousands of audience greeting the mushers and their polar dogs good luck.
The two classes of the race, with 8 dogs and with 14 dogs, run different distances. The shortest, 520 kilometres, cross the western part of Finnmark.
The longest, 1,070 kilometres, goes all the way across the Finnmark plateau to the border of Russia where the mushers turn back in Kirkenes and end up in Alta again. This class is expected to last for a week; depending on weather and snow conditions.
There is also a third class, for juniors, which is 200 kilometres and lasted overnight and finished on Sunday.
The longest race has 12 checkpoints where the mushers and the dogs can choose to rest. Finnmarksløpet’s official webportal posts live video from several locations throughout the week.
You can also follow the different participants live via their GPS trackers.