This is the leg!

 

This year, the leg between Neiden 1 and Kirkenes against Neiden 2 goes in opposite direction compared with previous years. This is the first time the trail head this direction, Pasvik trail follows more or less the same trail. Tom Frode Johansen has raced this distance several times when he competed in Pasvik trail, and naturally the opposite direction in Finnmarksløpet. He gives us a retrospect.

Tom Frode Johansen, always happy, feel privileged when he is asked to describe this beautiful leg between Kirkenes and Neiden 2. –If you have raced fast, was it earlier tough hills towards Kirkenes when the leg was  heading the opposite direction, he recalls.

Johansen used to choose his compulsory rest in Neiden 1 and normaly he starts early in the morning.

-This distance has some of the most beautiful landscape on the whole tour in Finnmark, says the man from Bergen, currently living on Furuflaten in the northern part of Troms. –The best time in the world to drive dog sledge, is to drive early in the morning when the lights come back.

Safely out from Kirkenes, you approach a mountain plateau and you pass lakes. From here you force some brutal slopes before the musher and dogs approach safely the river that divides Norway and Russia.

From here you race through gentle wooded areas where the tail at times follows some forest roads. The pain tree wood protects against weather and wind, and you pass beautiful lakes and lonely cabins surrounded by softwood. Then you pass areas with marsh, lakes and then through sparse forest.- This is a place with a fantastic terrain for dog sledge racing, describes Johansen. –Later, after some hours in this terrain, you approach the Finnish border and follow the boundary between Norway and Finland. This is a hilly terrain, and after a while the trail turns against Neiden again, and the terrain turns slighter. You pass several lakes, and now you leave the pain tree forest and you enter the birch wood.

-This area often have trails with nice snow conditions. I look forward to this part of the race; you are outside with the dogs, and at the same time you race pretty fast because the dogs have rested after a long pause.