What to expect on a Tromsø husky sledding day, hour by hour

Before you leave town

Most of these tours meet at Tromsø Havn Prostneset bus terminal, Samuel Arnesens gate 5, on the ground floor in a roofed section opposite Clarion Hotel The Edge. Two products meet outside the main entrance of the Radisson Blu at Sjøgata 7 instead, fifteen minutes before departure. Other pickup points in use around town are Kaigata 6 beside Skarven and Pier 12 at Kystens Hus, Stortorget 1. Check which one is on your voucher, because they are a walk apart in the dark.

Some operators run the bus out of Tromsø two hours before the stated tour start time. If that applies to yours, the number on the booking is when the activity begins, not when you need to be standing at the terminal. Getting to town and around it is covered at getting to Tromsø.

The drive

Twenty-five minutes to a Kvaløya kennel, about fifty to Breivikeidet, eighty to ninety-five to Tamokdalen. In midwinter this happens in the dark or in blue twilight, because the sun does not rise here between 28 November and 14 January. Guides talk on the way out. Most people sleep on the way back.

The gear room

You are issued a thermal suit, winter boots and usually mittens and a hat, and you put them on over your own layers. This takes longer than you think with a full bus. Suits run from child sizes to XXXL at one kennel and boots to EU 45. Leave cotton in the hotel; the reasoning is at what to wear.

The briefing

Short, practical and worth listening to: how to stand, where the brake is, what to do if you come off, and the rule that you never let go of the sled. On self-drive products this is where they explain the swap — two people per sled, one driving, one in the basket, changing over at the midpoint.

The yard, which is the loud part

Nothing prepares first-timers for the noise. A yard of Alaskan huskies watching harnesses come out is deafening, and it stops the instant the teams start running. Teams are 5 to 7 dogs for a tourist run, set up as lead dogs at the front, swing dogs behind them, team dogs in the middle and wheel dogs closest to the sled. One kennel here keeps nearly 200 dogs and runs 8 to 12 teams at a time.

The run

Tourist teams run at roughly 10 km/h, and the figure quoted across Nordic operators is 10 to 15. It feels faster than that standing up with no windscreen. Nobody publishes a distance for these runs, and I would not trust one that did — operators sell time, and trail conditions change what a given time covers. You are on the runners 30 to 90 minutes depending on the product.

Food and the yard visit

The flagship ends with hot drinks and cake in a Sámi lávvu. The short self-drive ends with reindeer stew and hot drinks round an open fire in a gamme hut, vegetarian on request. The advanced tour gives you a husky yard visit for photographs and then stew and drinks in a lávvu beside a fire. Tamokdalen runs it differently again: the group splits in half, one half sledding while the other eats and learns about husky care, then they swap.

Getting back

Same bus, same road, less conversation. A four-hour product puts you back in town with the afternoon intact. The seven-hour and ten-hour ones do not, and planning anything else for that evening is optimistic. Timings are laid out at how long it takes.

Frequently asked questions