This is the leg!

FL-1000: Ralph Johannessen om etappen fra Neiden 2 til Varangerbotn

The eighth leg of FL-1000 is 82 km long and marks the start of the return to Alta. Ralph Johannessen, winner of FL-1000 in 2010, describes this as a nice leg, but demanding. This year his wife Inger-Marie Haaland is using their dogs in Finnmarksløpet, so Ralph has been benched and made a handler.

Out from Neiden you get on the river, and then the trail has a steady rise towards Gallok. Therefor it is important to be well rested before you set out from the check point. After a while the trail descends to Karlebotn, and it is important be alert. – The trail it often icy where it descend, so you have to watch out to avoid hazardous situations, he explains. Safely down in Karlebotn you get to see the check point in Varangerbotn far away; you still have an hour and a half to go before you get there though.

All the veterans know what awaits them when they cross the river in Varangerbotn. The entrance is lit up by touches, and the mushers are met by a sign that says: “Watch out for seals!” And in the ice breathing holes are drilled for the seals – the tourists believe. Ralph Johannessen has made this lap several times before and knows what he is talking about. He finds the trail to Varangerbotn a bit mystical. – But one should not tell everything, he says mysteriously.

- At check point Varangerbotn you shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours behind the first musher if you should have hope of winning. Now the strategy becomes evident. The best is to be first, Ralph admits, and things about the tradition of Ben serving Cognac to the first musher in to Varangerboth. When Johannessen came to Varangerboth in 2010 the temperature was about 30 below with frost mist. – Out of nowhere a scooter came. That was the Cognac being delivered, Ralph recalls. This is a tradition that gives the race character, in addition to give an incentive to be first on the trail.- Keep up the good work, Ben!

Ralph Johannessen.