Prologue

Last night we had the Prologue, basically a show for the spectators. It was supposed to be 9km but was shortened to 1km due to no snow! Even that trail was slush. But there was a beautiful mist coming from the Lac aux Dames and the crowd were plenty. There were cheers and fireworks and generally a good atmosphere. 

Knowing the stage would not be timed we decided to take out all the inexperienced dogs so they could get their first taste of the crowds and incredible noise at the start of every stage. If anything were to go wrong this would be a good time. Whereas you might think the dogs would be scared, it just seemed to get them more excited. Hannalore was going crazy jumping and screaming to go. I don't normally like them doing that but on this occasion it was great to see they were fired up. 

The weather here is abysmal. We had rain storms through the night although we are now increasing elevation driving to the start and it has been snowing up here (thankfully). Still, today's stage has been halved to 25km which isn't great for us. There are much faster teams here with houndy dogs and they will surely do well. But it's a long race and we know that we get stronger as time goes on. 

The stage starts at 16.00 and I hope to update you afterwards.