With abundant snow glittering in the winter light, dog-sledging offers a unique way to sample the white landscape in virtual silence, apart from the excited howling of the Siberian huskies and Alaskan malamutes just before the journey begins.

"To get the dog sledging experience, people used to go to Canada or Alaska, but now they come to Sweden. For Europeans, it's nearer. And it's cheaper," says Bengt Olof Johansson, who trains tour guides in Kiruna, north of the Arctic circle.

From humble beginnings in 1987, dog-sledging in Sweden has grown exponentially. The two biggest companies in Kiruna have 300 dogs between them, and there are around 25 smaller companies strewn around the northern half of Sweden.

Follow the leader

On this cold morning in Soersjoen, a village in western Sweden close to the Norwegian border, it takes an hour to prepare the expedition. By the time the group of visitors has harnessed the dogs, they are feeling bitterly cold, but their excitement matches that of the 42 dogs divided between seven sledges, who are impatiently yelping to get going.

As the dogs' barks reach fever pitch, the sledges resist the tug of their combined strength only through a rope tied around a tree and secured with a wooden pin. Pull the pin, and the sled leaps into action like a sports car without a clutch — a moment of naked fear for the inexperienced tourist.

The brakes consist of a metal semi-circle bearing two steel shafts which drivers use their bodyweight to drive into the snow. But despite their best efforts, a clean stop is nigh impossible: The dogs will pay more heed to the lead sledge than the increasingly desperate efforts of hapless drivers.

But almost by miracle, even tight corners are negotiated with grace, mostly thanks to the well-trained dogs. As they settle down into a steady pace the whooshing sound of runners on snow, the heavy winter sky, the frozen lakes and snow-laden trees combine to create a feeling of frosty serenity.

The calm pace is interrupted only by thirsty huskies snapping at the snow, or performing the admirably deft task of defecating on the run, hardly missing a beat. At one point, the convoy is overtaken by a faster sled, provoking an angry howl of frustration from the dogs comparable to that of motorists on the Paris ringroad in Friday evening traffic.

Christer Afseer, who leads this trip, came here eight years ago from the south-western industrial city of Gothenburg, 500 kilometres away.

"If I wanted to do something different with my life I had to do it then," says the tall ex-fireman, who started off with 20 dogs and now has 80. He started making a profit four years ago, which is no small feat given that the dogs cost around 130 000 kronor (€14 000) in food, shelter and vet bills a year.

"Our typical customer is a wealthy German. Somebody who loves nature and can afford to spend up to 20 000 kronor (€2200) for a week for this trip, including equipment," Afseer said.

Most dog owners operating in the Swedish north are run by people who came from elsewhere. "People come here to do this because they have a dream they want to realise. Locals don't have this drive," says Afseer.

Tourism keeps sledding alive

This matches their clients: While Swedes will occasionally indulge in the dog-sledging pleasure, "this business is alive thanks to foreign visitors", says Isabelle Bouju, who works as an intermediary between tour operators in her native France and Swedish dog-sledging operators.

"The ease of access to wide open spaces in Sweden is a main attraction. We have untouched spaces in the Alps too, but they're hard to get to," she said.

The main magnet is the huskies themselves. "The relationship with the dogs is extraordinary. You have to look after them, you depend on them, you cannot do this without them," she said.

This a pleasure only available to those who take their time. Afseer loves taking motivated travellers into the mountains for five days, bringing all their food and sleeping in thermal sleeping bags under clear skies.

Afseer scoffs at companies who operate around Kiruna where they cater to planeloads of tourists, taking them by sledge directly from the airport to the world-famous ice hotel nearby.

"Japanese tourists fly in to stay at the ice hotel and then want one hour of dog-sledging, just to say they've done it. I don't work that way," he said.

For more info...

• Click here to find out more about dog-sledding in the Åre mountains, Lappland and around Kiruna.
• Find out more from the Sweden Tourist Board.
• Need to work out how much you'll have to spend when you get there? Click here for a handy currency converter.

AFP