Stange #1 - Hidden from the world

Let it snow, let it snow, we all know the song. It's a song you can sing daily for about 7 months in Stange, a small municipality in in Hedmark, Norway. During my gap year, February 2018, I was looking for some adventure, and after some facebook research I found someone with 40 huskies that could use some help during the training season. I booked the ticket and off I went. Now I wasn't talking about some centimetres of snow, try metres. Imagine so much snow that entire signages that should be 2 metres above hiking trails, are being covered. I am quite sure that very few people have heard about snowy Stange, it was the same for me too if I wouldn't have ended up there unexpectedly. My home for some unknown amount of weeks, was a very cosy wooden house, tucked away in the snowy middle of nowhere. Surrounded by some happy barkers, around 40 beautiful, wolf-alike dogs jumping up against the fence for some affection, although it was clear they received plenty of that, they all looked very healthy and happy. Besides the enthusiastic barks every now and then, it was incredibly quiet here. I loved it from the start. I lived in the warm wooden house with the owner, her 2 Lundehunde Kakan & Ranku, and a Frenchmen that came here to practise the sledding but had quite some experience already. Now I do have some experience, but that’s with the calmer, smaller Alaskan huskies, not the Greenland huskies. Those species are as close to wolves as it gets: they’re huge, with massive paws, and an immense amount of power hidden behind their cuddliness. But don’t worry, they’re really just big teddybears, not a single thing to be frightened of.

Although I did not come to Stange for sightseeing specifically, Stange does have some very attractive hotspots. There’s Mjosa, the biggest lake of Norway, which is quite the title for a massive country filled with lakes. There’s the typical stave church, also part of the oldest ones in Norway and a very pretty one, mysteriously spooky with its white painted wood and small tower, tucked away on a hill. Drive a little further, and you’ll enter Hamar, an actual big city which is famous for its Olympic iceskating in an impressive Viking ship alike building. And well, you will absolutely find stunning nature here as well. Mountains & hills, endless pineforests, very few signs of humans besides some wooden houses & a supermarket besides the only 1 gas station. This is a place where you can experience authentical Norway without all of the craziness that comes with touristic places. It is a quiet, peaceful surrounding that honestly I consider my dreamtown. As mentioned I didn’t go for sightseeing and there wasn’t really time to do it, but to the Norwaylovers amongst us, I’ll promise that like many other places Stange is worth a visit as well.

Back to the reason I came here: to gain some experience with sleddogs. Katinka, the woman I stayed at, did purposely chose not to organize the trips for tourists as she’d rather keep enjoying it herself instead of turning it into a business, which I really respect. The ability to earn money is tempting, but at the same time you can never give that up if you think you’ll stop enjoying your passion. And that’s what I did from the first day, enjoying. The days started around 9, with some proper breakfast in the kitchen while we discussed what would be done today. After this the day started with our poop-duty. Because, well, dogs poo, a lot. Thank god the snow does make it very easy to clean it up, as you just pick up the frozen, therefore not smelly faeces with a shuffle. This is a process that takes long anyway as every dog demands some attention. And when those big furry heads and their irresistible eyes approach you, you cannot say no. That should be illegal. Soon I started to pick my favourites, I always tend to turn to the older doggos that do not ask for too much attention. One of them was Toffel, a pretty white lady that was too old to run in front of the sled, but therefore deserved some extra hugs. Another one was Karu, his thick fur being pretty mix of orange, black and brown. But his eyes were the best part, as he seemed to look a little squint, which was freaking adorable. He did not carefully beg for attention, nope, he literally used all his weight to push you against the fence and then ‘patiently’ waits for your affection.

During these daily rounds that simply never got boring, maybe a bit cold as the temperatures dropped to -10 every now & then, we also fill the water. Which, this time of the year, means you have to smash the cups against the floor so the ice scatters, before you can refill it with drinkable water. After this Lundehund Ranku demands to play, he is obsessed with me throwing snowballs so he can catch them, to rip them apart as far as you can do that to a snowball. And anyone who can resist the eyes of a hopeful dog, well, explain to me please. After 2 weeks of desperately searching I was secretly a tiny bit sad that I still did not see a moose, this was on my bucketlist. I actually managed to nap while we passed one at the highway, they didn’t know that you could wake me up anytime anywhere to see wildlife. So as me and my French friend started driving around in the dark and chatted, we kept our eyes wide open. By the time we drove back and no longer expected anything, the miracle happened. We had to stop very unexpected on a slippery abandoned road. 2 majestic beauties appeared in front of us, 2 females. They’re comparable to horses, they really are bigger than anyone expects them to be. They looked at us over their massive muzzles with their human-alike eyes. Enchanted I kept staring, as they walked away majestically on their long legs, like they were the queens of the forest. Of course this was one of those moments were my phone underwent a mysterious disease and refused to open the camera, damn it. But this is pictured in my mind forever.

- It’s an amazing life