Winter adventure: igloos and dog sleds

A few days with our son Luke and our goddaughter Paula in the fresh air, surrounded by the Swiss Alps, with some cute sled dogs and an abundance of good snow for building igloos – that’s the plan for the coming days. The weather forecast might have other ideas, but we’re still hoping for sunshine and, as we all know, hope springs eternal.

The gondola takes us from Stöckalp to Melchsee-Frutt on Wednesday evening. We’ve booked a room at the Frutt Family Lodge in this village. The lodge only opened in December 2015, so it’s still brand new. It’s a modern building, featuring lots of wooden elements that lend it a cosy and homely atmosphere. Once checked in, we feast on some culinary delights in the restaurant. It’s stormy outside with snow swirling around. But inside we’re nice and snug. Before we hit the hay, I check the weather forecast again. Things don’t look promising.

We enjoy a hearty breakfast the next morning. Then it’s time to pack up and venture out into the storm. About 30 centimetres of snow has fallen or at least blown in during the night. That’s impossible for little Luke to navigate, so we have to carry him through the snow. We head down towards Distelboden, where the sled dogs should be waiting for us. Paula is really looking forward to meeting the dogs, while Luke seems a bit more sceptical. Once we reach Distelboden, a team of dogs comes hurtling towards us with sled in tow. No way the dogs will stop, I think to myself, before they fly past us and disappear up the road. But less than 5 minutes later they come running back. They just had to make a turn further ahead.

But now it’s time to make sure we’re all snug and secure, as we pull our hats down low on our foreheads and climb aboard the sled. Luke’s not impressed by all the barking and soon starts crying – we haven’t even got going yet. The heavy snowfall continues, visibility is poor and we can barely see the dog in front. But the two sled dog guides – Markus and Barbara – have everything under control and they check every dog again. The sled is secured with snow wedges the whole time. And then we’re off! The snow wedges are released, a final howl and the huskies immediately set off, pulling with great strength. And then silence. We glide along in the snowy landscape, the wind and snow lashing us in the face. But this wonderful silence is unforgettable.

The guides manoeuvre the dogs by calling “Li” for left and “Re” for right, as we discover later over lunch. Zora and Wulfi are our two lead dogs. Markus and Barbara have almost 30 dogs in total. They know each of them inside out. And while they all look pretty much the same to me, with crystal-clear blue eyes and fuzzy white and brown coats, Markus and Barbara can recognise their dogs even at a distance and call each one by name. In the spring, winter and autumn months, they are stationed beside the Tannalp, and at the Gurnigel Pass near Thun in summer. These are recuperation months for the dogs, as there’s no training during this period.

Once we reach the Tannalp, we need to get Luke inside immediately to get warm. Paula really wants to stay outside with the dogs. She asks Markus what happens when a dog gets ill. He tells her that a doctor will arrive on the scene on his cross-country skis and examine the dog. And if it is ill, they bring it down to the valley. Dogs can also travel by gondola if necessary. Paula is excited. She’s even allowed to bring the dogs back to their kennels and feed them. Every dog has its own wooden kennel, which they are tied to. The dogs spend day and night outside, or in these kennels.

After this adventure, we recharge our batteries at the Berggasthaus Tannalp. Here we’ve booked a family room even though we’re determined to sleep in an igloo made by our very own hands. But there’s no harm in having a backup plan. Luke tries out this backup plan and goes for a quick nap with his dad Patrick. Paula and I stay in the restaurant, do some painting and wait for better weather. We have an igloo to build!

Family adventure – igloo building

Then the clouds break and the sunshine emerges, so we venture out again. Our Luke becomes quite the little architect, diligently sawing away at the igloo. Paula lends a helping hand in the pit area. Here we try to saw snow blocks of equal size. Patrick and I have to do the heavy lifting. Ruedi, from the Transa Marketing team, shows us the right way to build an igloo and it’s far from easy. We need to place the blocks at a particular angle and then pat them gently, so that they fit nicely with the other blocks.

It’s not long before the nice weather passes and it’s back to snow and wind again. We hurry into the igloo. It takes flexibility to manoeuvre into the siphon-like entrance –a bit like doing the cobra in yoga. Because cold air falls, the entrance is built as a kind of cold trench and the “warm” air stays in the igloo. By “warm” I mean around 0 degrees! It’s incredible how calm and peaceful it is inside. You don’t even notice the storm outside.

Luke and I try to get cosy in our sleeping bags while we study the architecture of the igloo. From this vantage point, you can see the even structure of our creation. There’s enough light through the cracks and yet the snow walls shield everything. Impressive. The widespread rumour that you can suffocate in an igloo is not true at all, Ruedi explains. The snow allows enough oxygen through. You only need to worry if the igloo has been standing for a few days and the snow has turned to ice.