JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In Ilulissat, Greenland, you can hear the sled dogs before you see them.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOGS BARKING)
SUMMERS: The dogs began a chorus of yipping and howling as we trudge across a snow-covered expanse behind a tall apartment building. We are here to meet Stella Davidsen Olsen, a 26-year-old dog sled musher. She's been living here in this small town near the Arctic Circle for a little more than a year. Sled dogs, though, have been a part of her life since she was a young girl.
STELLA DAVIDSEN OLSEN: When we were 12, our father, he was like, if you don't want to take care of them, we have to put them down. So we were like, no, we want to take care of them.
SUMMERS: So Olsen and her twin sister began to care for the dogs themselves, hunting and fishing to feed them.
OLSEN: You cannot just have a dog and just not think of it. It's just a part of who you are, or the dog is a part of you.
SUMMERS: Olsen begins to prepare the dogs. She's got a handful of colorful harnesses in tow.
OLSEN: Have to count how many dogs I will use.
SUMMERS: How do you decide how many?
OLSEN: It's depending on the weather, how long we're going. And I know that in some areas, you can see we don't have snow...
SUMMERS: No.
OLSEN: ...So it's harder for the dogs to pull. But it's easier when we have snow.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
OLSEN: So at least 10 dogs or more, I need.
SUMMERS: Ten or more?
OLSEN: Yeah.
SUMMERS: OK. That's a lot of dogs.
Dog sledding is a proud tradition in Greenland. People have relied on them for transportation and hunting. Today, dog sled rides are also popular among tourists, but this part of the island's culture is also threatened. The number of sled dogs has decreased dramatically, according to Morten Meldgaard, a professor at the University of Greenland.
MORTEN MELDGAARD: One of the reasons is that simply the traditional fishing and hunting culture is changing, and people are using more and more snowmobiles instead of dog sleds, and they are using other means of transport and so on.
SUMMERS: Mushers like Stella Davidsen Olsen are also having to adapt to change caused by a warming climate.
MELDGAARD: This means that sea ice is not as common and as widespread as it was earlier on. And so, it's not - you know, the use of the sled dogs on the ice is limited. And so in that way, the sled dog population is declining because of this warming of the Arctic.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
SUMMERS: But out here, Olsen is ready to show us why dog sledding is so important to her. After counting the dogs...
OLSEN: (Inaudible).
SUMMERS: ...She lines them up. There are these long cables attached to their harnesses.
So we've just gotten seated on the sled. We're sitting kind of across it, so our legs are hanging off of one side. All right, the dogs are pulling. Here we go.
The dogs pull the sled and fan out in front of us. Olsen sits at the front of the sled.
OLSEN: (Speaking Greenlandic).
SUMMERS: Every so often, you can hear her urge them to go, go, keep going, in Greenlandic.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLED BANGING)
SUMMERS: All right, this is what she was talking about - how it's a little bit more challenging to pull when there's not as much snow.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLED BANGING)
OLSEN: Oh, man (laughter).
SUMMERS: We just went across a pretty big rock (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SLED BANGING)
SUMMERS: In front of us there's some snow, but there are big stretches of brown where there's no snow at all. Stella's gotten off the sled and is walking alongside the dogs.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOGS HOWLING)
SUMMERS: That's a big downhill.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLED BANGING)
SUMMERS: (Laughter) We just went over a couple of different - just some rolling hills that don't look very big, but they certainly feel very big.
We'd been warned by a local guide to dress in layers, that being pulled across the snow at such a quick clip might be cold, but Olsen said...
OLSEN: When I saw you, I was like, he didn't have to put so much clothes on you. But normally, when it's minus 15 or colder, we say that the tourists normally have to wear more clothes.
SUMMERS: Negative 15 degrees Celsius, which is about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. But it is nowhere near that cold now.
OLSEN: When we have more snow it's more cold and more easy, both for the dogs and for me to let them drive.
SUMMERS: Yeah. I feel like I could probably lose a layer or two, and it would be OK.
For me, the warmer weather means I'm a little overdressed. For the dogs, it means harder work. The sled is harder to pull when it can't glide across the snow and ice.
All right, we're going over - there's gravel and some - what looks like sort of dead grass and foliage.
OLSEN: But it's not cold, it's warm. And the dogs are working, so they're doing it pretty great, even though they are...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
OLSEN: ...In a hot environment right now.
SUMMERS: They're doing the best they can. They're working really hard. You can tell.
OLSEN: They're happy and the tails are up, so...
SUMMERS: Their tails are wagging?
OLSEN: Yeah.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
OLSEN: So they are not like, oh, why are we doing this? But they stop up every time we are on the ground because it's - what do you call it? - it's very hot.
SUMMERS: The dogs take rests, laying down in the snow. A sled loaded with people plus gear can get heavy, so getting off and running alongside the sled gives the dogs a little bit of a break.
Go?
OLSEN: Yeah.
SUMMERS: One, two, three.
I hop off and sprint alongside as best I can. This is producer Matt Ozug.
MATT OZUG, BYLINE: So how is it running alongside a dog sled?
SUMMERS: I - first of all, I didn't know that was a thing I'd be doing today. Secondly, it's really hard because you have to keep pace and know exactly when to jump on the sled, but also not run too far forward that you're interfering with the dogs.
OZUG: And you're in giant boots.
SUMMERS: And you're in giant boots and not running shoes. And there's ice and snow and rocks. (Laughter) And you're trying to talk on the radio while doing it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLED BANGING)
SUMMERS: All told, we've taken about a six-mile ride before we arrive back where we started and hop off the sled. Now that the dogs are done working, we get to pet them and thank them.
Hello. Hello. Oh, hi.
OLSEN: They're very lovely.
SUMMERS: Oh, you're so sweet.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WHINING)
SUMMERS: (Laughter) Oh. Hello. Hello. Oh, you're just the sweetest.
OLSEN: He like cuddles, and you can pet him as much as you want to.
SUMMERS: Olsen has devoted so much of her relatively young life to dog sledding. She tells me that mushing isn't the kind of thing you pick up from a book. You learn by doing. And the way that it makes her feel is hard to put into words.
OLSEN: You are living in the moment. You just have to be present all the time, and I don't have to think about what I have to do tomorrow or something, but I'm just here with the dogs and the nature. Of course, people always ask about how it used to be, but I can only tell it in my version because I live here and now.
SUMMERS: She hopes Greenland's sled dogs will always be here, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SUMMERS: Coming up - the kayak is a symbol of Greenland's national identity. People use them when hunting. We meet members of a local kayak club who are preserving that tradition, and I get a beginner's lesson from one of the group's leaders.
All right, we are off in the kayak. Pavia (ph) is helping me push off.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SLOSHING)
SUMMERS: All right, Pavia is hopping in the pool to help me out a little bit.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SLOSHING)
SUMMERS: Back - like this?
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SLOSHING)
SUMMERS: That story tomorrow on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
