FL-1000: Neiden1 is filling up

Haaland arrived swiftly at Neiden and left again, while others have struggled.

-It was a train there, you know, says Arne Karlstrøm, who was passed by Inger Marie Haaland (pictured) on the leg to Neiden 1. He is impressed by her speed, which he considered better than Robert Sørlie’s. Quite right, Haaland had the fastest run time on the stretch Tana – Neiden 1, including the freight train himself, who she beat by six minutes, and on the checkpoint she is immediately surrounded by cameras and microphones. – Don’t let the TV-people hold you up, handler Ralph Johannesen jokes from the sideline, as he watches his musher closely.

 

Good advice is coming in all along the other side of the blockades, as handlers give reminders of thermoses and equipment and make sure the mushers don’t fall apart over their tasks.  

To get a little forgetful is easy when you have hardly slept. One musher who could feel it now, was Kjell Brennodden, who admits to almost falling asleep at the sled seat at dawn. In to the checkpoint he has 13 dogs with him, all doing good.

Magne Storstein (pictured) had to drive with one dog in the sled large parts of the leg, and regrets not leaving it in Tana. It was of course added weight, but also extra hassle, when he took a wrong turn on the mountain. He had turned off his head light, and followed the sticks. When he turned his head light back on there were no dog tracks in front of him, a very unpleasant experience. –I panicked, says Storstein, who turned around after about fifteen minutes of being lost. The dog in the sled din not want to lie there when they were turning and Storstein believes that the wrong turn ruined a lot of the motivation for the dog team. He is nevertheless happy as always at the checkpoint, as he discusses run times with Nina Skramstad.