By the beginning of April, arctic spring was upon us, and we spend many days at the ice edge close to Kap Swainson, enjoying good hunting conditions and sunshine.

A beautiful morning at the ice edge

Ingkasi in his little boat

Ingkasi and Sejer

One of my favourite dogs – Pascal – enjoying a well deserved dinner of seal meat.

Back in Ittoqqortoormiit, the day of this years dog sled race has finally come.

Cutie (to the left – my youngest and cutest dog) and Kaju (to the right –  my oldest dog who`s still going strong) are ready to go.

Jennifer Elcomb, our neighbour, who together with Madsine Arqe accompanied me to the start line, took Kaju`s and Cutie`s picture above, and most of the images below. I am very thankful to Jennifer for capturing this fun experience on camera, and for letting me share some of her pictures with you!

The excitement rises as I prepare the dogs for departure

On our way to the start line

Ingkasi and his team are arriving as well

It`s challenging to keep the dogs under control while waiting for the race to begin

We are on our way towards Kap Tobin –  6 dog teams participated in the race

Close to Kap Tobin, there were 3 teams in front of me – Aqqalu, Nasor and Ingkasi.

On our way back towards Ittoqqortoormiit, Nasor and Aqqalu were disappearing out of our sight. We could not manage to keep up with their big and well-trained teams.

I managed to pass by Ingkasi at some point. He and his dogs had return from a 4-day trip that same day, just before the race started, and were therefore not as eager to run as they usually are.

Ingkasi (to the right) and me (to the left) and our dogs had a lot of fun competing out there.

Nasor, a young hunter, won the race. Aqqalu came in second.

I finished 3rd, and, for the first time in my life, was lifted up in the air sitting on my sled.

It was a very happy day, indeed :-).