A Cold Winter's Night

My son, Kaleb, is crazy about dogs.  One of his “life long dreams” was to go on a dog sledding trip.  While we were living in Norway, we gave that experience to him as a Christmas gift.  The sledding itself was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, but the night before the trip, was one of the worst.

We drove all day to get to Beitostølen, a popular ski resort town, where the sled dogs live.  As part of the package, we had the option to sleep near the dogs in a tent.  Kaleb insisted.  

Our accommodations were primitive and genuine.  We had a Sami Lawo (pronounced Lah-vo) tent all to ourselves.  It’s just a large tee-pee, with a woodstove in the center that gives one the sense it might actually be warm inside, but nothing could be further from the truth. 

It hit 16 below zero that night.  Chunks of ice were hanging off the inside of our tent even with a blazing fire in the furnace.  Kory set his cell phone alarm to go off every 75 minutes so he was sure to keep the home fires burning all night, but it was all in vain.  No heat from that stove made it more than three inches away from it, so unless we were practically touching it, there was no warming effect.  I had a cup of water about five inches from it and it froze solid in less than an hour. 

We slept on cots inside Norwegian military issued mummy bags with two reindeer hides under us, one over us and our own wool blankets and sleeping bags on top of that.  We were in full wool long underwear plus clothes,  wool sweaters and hats… and we were still cold!  My face formed ice crystals in the night as I was breathing in and out.  It was as cold as I’ve ever experienced cold.  It was way more “authentic Norway” living than I ever wanted to experience, and never hope to again. 

About 2am, when we were all still wide awake because we were freezing, Kaleb started crying that he just wanted to go home.  Kory let him crawl into his mummy bag to get warm and he finally fell asleep.  I was lucky I slept even just a few hours because the only time I really felt warm was when I was blessed with a hot flash. 

I will always remind Kaleb of that night, should he ever question if there were sacrifices I’ve made for him. After that one, I am sure I’m the best Mama in the whole world.