Jacques arrived in Fairbanks at 1am and I arrived at 6pm....

we are leaving tomorow early afternoon for Wyoming !!!

Jacques will do one training run here to selected the extra dogs we need for the race in Wyoming !!!

here's a picture of the dogs loaded on a cargo airplane palette in Frankfurt.

Sunday, January 22, 2006 11:31:13 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

HELLO!

the first part of the race in the "porte du SOLEIL" is over and after 3 very rough days for Magali we are finaly done with it....

Jacques got the first place for the first part of the race, Magali after 3 days of very dangerous trail got an accident in the stage in Chatel and I ended up to the ER in THONON since the rescuer got very worried about my neck pain after the accident. I fell on the side and hit the packed snow ready hard with my head and the violence of the shock make me let go the sled.... I got up and started to walk to try to get my dog team but the rescuer found me and stopped me for security reasons, they put me in specail shell to prevent any damage of my neck and spine.... they were all very nice and carrying....

I lost my team but all the dogs are ok, I have no broken bone dut serious pain in my back, arms and front of my chest.... I am not sure to be able to take the start tomorw we will see if I feel I can safely drive my dog team.

Jacques's team is well and ready to go !!!!

Saturday, January 14, 2006 5:57:47 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Hello
Tomorow we are leaving for Avoriaz we are training for the last time in La Pesse
here's some photos of our training runs in La Pesse

Jacques was double sledding with Memo our friend and I had the chance to double sled with Francois Mermet yesterday. The oter time my handler Sylvain trained with me....

I will do my est to out updates during the race....

Magali

Friday, January 06, 2006 4:23:35 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Yesterday we didn't train dogs

On January 5th we went to visit Memo Log house factory ! very impressive !!!
He build all the house inside... this wa a very interesting visit.

Here's a photos of us with the ANTIPODE sled compagny staff !! and our new sled "sluidjack" !!!

Thursday, January 05, 2006 4:30:55 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Here's some photos of training in La Pesse and other scenes

Thursday, January 05, 2006 4:27:06 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

We are in La Pesse a small village in the Jura Mountains and are staying with our Friends Muriel and Daniel and Leo Mellina.

Ken Anderson and his wife Gwen Holdman are with us ! the 9 of us total are invading the little village and we are showing making discover Ken the great Cheese of France !! the Wine testing is goind well too.....

Ken realize finally what real food is and really love the TARTTIFETTE !!!! he even eats it for breakfast !!!!

We are training the dogs on very nice trails every day.

Daniel made us the sled from ANTIPODE and Ken bought one and loves it now Gwen wants one now too

Our team !!

from left to right:

Aurelie, Jacques, Michael and Sylvain

Wednesday, January 04, 2006 12:35:16 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

   We arrived in Frankfurt  Dec 31st at 6 am.

Interesting landing due to freezing rain and snow on the airport ground.

the 56 dogs arrived in great shape after doing the vet examination and custom e drove to La Pesse France and arrived there at about 10pm.

My friend Pascale (in the middle) and my two handlers that stayed home to take care and train the dogs...

in the Luftzanza warehouse in Frankfurt !!

Saturday, December 31, 2005 12:29:54 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU, we had a great Diner and evening last night we went to our friends and Neighboor Pascale and Tony and we spend the evening together, they are "our family" here in Alaska.

Santa was nice and we had nice presents.

Here's a groups picture from left to right: Michael and Karine (our french Handlers), Tony, Duncan and Pascale, Jacques and Sylvain (our Quebec handler), then Will (Tony's handler), me and Keops and Sid (the Golden Retriever).

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU

Sunday, December 25, 2005 8:12:39 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

We went back to the BLM Park White Mountains...

We had a great time and the weather wasn't too cold, about 5 below in the morning.

The dogs did great, some yearlings got tired but this is good training to see the one that can go to France!

We took Memphis and Janet for the night in the Cabin... Janet really enjoy my North Face sleeping bag!!!

Our handler Micheal came with us he had mostly yearlings in his team

here's a photo when he arrives at the truck today

We may go there again before we leave but few inches of new snow would be nice....

Bye, Magali

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 8:49:38 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

We went yesterday and today to the White Moutains BLM park. We went to spend the night to the Cache Moutain Cabin, 40 miles from the Parking.

We had a great time ! the dogs did great !!

It got really warm and it snowed some in the evening

In the morning we had about 2 inch of fresh snow and temperature of about 35!!!

We plan on doing at least one more time the same trip !!!!!

We had 3 teams of 12 dogs and to go to the cabin 40 miles away it took us between 3h40 and 4h on the way out and Jacques on the way back was "flying" and did the 40 miles in warm temperatures in 3h27mn...

We are please with the dogs  the yearling did very well....

Friday, December 16, 2005 8:40:29 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

In 17 days the dogs will fly to Europe !

We will travel with Luftanza cargo and land in Germany trhen drive to the Jura Mountain to meet our friends Muriel and Daniel whom we will stay with until the start of the race.

Daniel is the one who build our racing sleds, his compagny name is Antipode (used to be Extrapole)

28 dogs will be going to France...

The link to follow the race is http://www.grandeodyssee.com

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 7:06:07 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Hello,

This is our new blog...

We plan on posting here log about our racing travel and also training.

we hope you will like this new feature on our site.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 9:28:51 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)