TIM SOHN

After our fruitless attempts to swim with killer whales in Norway in mid November, we drove east into Sweden, crossing Lappland in the dark, in a snowstorm, and nearly crashing into a herd of reindeer, predictably some might say. (One of the reindeer took offense and charged the passenger side of our car. But what Skodas lack in comfort, they make up for in durability, and the car was fine.) Eventually, we arrived in the mining city of Kiruna, where we hooked up with competitive musher Mats Petterson the following day for an early-season dogsled tour. Click over to the photos page or check out the flickr set for visuals.