Guides Do the Darndest Things

What is the psychological profile of a typical guide? Guides tend to be friendly, outgoing, interesting, and adventurous sorts.

After watching Chris' Greenland dog sledding slideshow, we sat back for pics from another guide's recent travels with the nomadic people of Mongolia. Our youngest guide, Christina, is a Luther College student who did an independent study in Mongolia.

Above is my favorite photo from her trip. She says the man is intensely proud of this horse. Possibly this is similar to the pride we have in the Wintergreen dogs? Though we have 80 dogs, and this fellow probably has only one horse.

Back to Ely: I'm guiding a dog sledding trip that starts today and ends Friday. The forecast for this week calls for HIGHS topping out at about 10 degrees BELOW zero. Maybe I'll fix my "Northwoods Stacker" for breakfast. I reserve it for days with highs that stay below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Seal Hunting by Dogsled in Greenland

One of our long-time Wintergreen dogsled guides, Chris Maher, decided to move to where they invented dog sledding: Arctic Greenland.

He moved to Greenland in Spring 2008 and purchased a dog team. Now he spends his fall like the native Inuit people he lives with. He drives his team of Inuit dogs hunting seals by dogsled. This picture shows him with his team and hunting success. He is shouldering a 30-06.

Now it is winter and there is 24/7 darkness at his new home in northeast Greenland. So, he decided to dash back to Ely, Minnesota, for about a month, and spend some time with friends at the Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge.

The guides got together tonight to see Chris' pictures, hear his stories from life in a foreign culture, pepper him with questions about Greenlandic dog sledding, and wish him our best as he returns to Greenland tomorrow.

Watch this blog for info on Chris' trek to the North Pole this spring.