I am just an outsider!

This is what veteran and three time winner of Finnmarksløpet Harald Tunheim from Alta says. He started out as a leader from the checkpoint in Skoganvarre and has a long night ahead of him to the next checkpoint in Levajok.

-My dogs are in relatively good shape, but some of them tire a little with their joints, tells us Tunheim, who believes that the sof snow might be the cause of the problem this early in the race. -Anyways, the trail condtions are good says a hopeful Tunheim.

It has now been seven years since Harald participated for the last time in Finnmarksløpet. Since then the trail has been changed and now he is going with a completely new and young team without any long distance experience. Most of his dogs are 2-3 years old. Harald on the other hand is not an inexperienced Rookie. In the period between 1989 -98 he won Finnmarksløpet three times and participated in Iditarod twice! He still refers to himself as an outsider in this years race and he is insecure whether he still has it in him.

The lead dog Freyr with its iceblue eyes and its honourable manner leads the team of Tunheim.Freyr is just like the other dogs in Tunheims team extremely friendly and used to humans. This is likely to be due to the fact that they are normally surrounded by a group of of dog-interested students from Øytun folkehøgskolen, where Tunheim works as a teacher. Tunheim also points to another dog in his team. A small and happy Alaskan Husky. -This one is supposed to cheer up the rest of the team when it gets tough, says Harald and gets a quick response in form of a waving tail.