Yesterday evening, under the ski slopes of Deštné v Orlických horách, the extreme dog-sleigh race took off for its first 31 kilometer section. The race is 300 km long and takes place in five heats. Over one hundred Musher’s, from ten European countries, and over 700 dogs will compete in the 24th annual race, director of the race Pavel Kučera told CTK news. The conditions are less than ideal as there is not enough snow, but there have been worse. Monday’s snowfall helped the situation in higher altitudes, in lower altitudes it will require some extra effort.
There are fifteen teams making the five heat 300km race, the rest of the teams are aiming to complete the 200km, four heat, race. The 200km race begins this morning at Jedlova.
The race is mainly contained to the backbone of the Orlické Mountains, with a condition that at least one night must be spent out in the snow. One of the expected leaders of the race should be Roman Habásko, who is one of the leading Czech racers. The race is considered one of the most challenging in Europe and the longest of its kind in the Czech Republic.
