And the winner is.... the husky

13 is a lucky number for dogs if they are pulling a Mackey in their sled. First Rick, then Dick and now Lance have won the legendary Iditarod, the Alaskan marathon for huskies. The family winners all took bib number 13 and won the event on their sixth race. As far as dog races go (and this one is 1,770km) the Iditarod takes the dog biscuit, lasting anything from nine to fifteen days. This year's sled contest took Lance Mackey nine days, five hours and eight minutes. And not content with simply one win this year, he's also the first musher to win both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest in the same year.

I was once driven over thin ice by an Iditarod challenger, in a 4x4 without snow chains, and as we expertly slip-slid our way town-wards, he let me into a few secrets about a world I knew nothing of. He ran a husky farm inside the Arctic circle near Tromso, in northern Norway. Visitors seeking a glimpse of the elusive Northern Lights travelled out to pet the huskies, hear the puppies barking eerily at the moon, and view the mini wolf-like mothers and fathers tethered outside their doggie cabins in the snow. Huskies may occasionally still look vaguely malevolent - diluted versions of their wolverine cousins, but face to nose, they are invariably friendly and eager to please.
On the husky farm, after failing to sight any green or pink light through an inconvenient haze of low cloud, I instead went the most magical expedition of my life - a dog sled ride. After being satisfied with assurances the dogs lived for it, I looked for myself. I saw their desperation for the off, and heard their excited barks. They had to be held back from pelting forwards before the human cargo was loaded into the low sled, and the reindeer hides heaped on for warmth. I was then dragged gracefully round the cool bright white and otherwise silent landscape, by happy, panting, scampering dogs who, when stopping for a break, were petted and congratulated for enjoying themselves so well. The scenery was like escaping through the wardrobe to Narnia - was that the snow queen? Did I really just see a lone lamp post at the edge of the forest?