never bite
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come on come on we've been here for
about 18 years working with sled dogs
and this has been our back door for all
that time for everybody
sled dog life for us it was afraid it
was good friendly
the dogs are exactly what it's all been
about there being a lot of special dogs
for Allen and Fiona's Stewart running
sled dogs in the wildness of the Kangol
mountains is a passion a calling this
arctic sport isn't just about racing
it's a way of life you can see over the
years and sled dogs have been a massive
part of our life and this here is an
Argentine place called ushuaia and
patagonia
happy me amis but hard work a lot of
hard work
Alan has raced all over the world taking
his dogs to the frozen extremes they've
been my income plus also they're all
been very very much my best mates
this is Harley I'm him and his twin
brother I'm one of my best wheel dogs I
have a black team a red team and our
blue team and the Black team of the best
of the best and these guys have never
left a black team they're serious
serious five years ago it was possible
to take his dogs all the way over the
Cairngorms
in this place and at this altitude and
at this time of year normally you should
see deep snow and deep snow which has
been on this ground for months it's not
happening and according to some
meteorological forecasts they're saying
that in as soon as 10 years time you
could see a whole winter pass with no
snow anywhere on the kangin Plateau
well if this was a normal winter say
five years ago you would not get on the
car park they would not have enough car
parking spaces for the numbers of people
who came skiing so he you know you can
imagine you can see all the gaps there
today and there's a little hungry meter
ski slope that's created by artificial
snow so the world has changed you know
we would have been coming up here you
would have been coming through drifts
that went over the road above the height
of your car what are you seeing that's
changing in terms of the pattern of
species well on lower ground I mean
because it was a new reserve when I came
in 1976 we spent 10 years monitoring
birds in different types of pine would
come up onto here and when we're getting
into the really specialist birds we've
got Tom Ian all around it here and what
color are they at this time of year the
white they changed color too much the
snow cover that we will get on the
mountain so a white ptarmigan in order
to remain an alive ptarmigan has to be
pushed right back up the top of the
mountain right I'm just trying to find
that I think he's Scandinavia where this
has been going on as well they're
actually finding that timing are moving
up and I think there's some indication
that wanted to know not changing all the
white feathers because they're realizing
to survive not be predated they're gonna
have to start to live in this mixed
habit ah
it may look wintry and feel crisp enough
but what we're witnessing here is a
disaster 70% of people have no idea of a
climate change we all walk around in the
winter as if it's summer of the past 20
years Allen has taken clients on
training runs but now his business is
suffering it's the thawing that gets me
here the way I can change crazy weather
up and down up and down and the ground
never gets a chance to dry all week very
winter ish here but the truth is the
grain was so soft at the beginning
everything you can't run dogs through
this at all it's just it's it's melting
so fast now in the last couple of hours
it's seriously and it's just going to go
into the ground and make it liquid again
but that's never had a chance to freeze
or it's just that's what 80 80 percent
and the trails are like this
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allons Huskies work best in very cold
temperatures but now it's simply getting
to vacuum when we started our season was
about seven months a year now it's three
it's the way that it's killed us it's
definitely the way there there won't be
anybody there would not be a commercial
side to the sled dog scene now we just
draw the line under that foot but we
knew we were going to do this about five
six years ago because we saw the climate
changing for our training program that
was absolutely the push the climate
change a definite back No and we knew
through meats of Maine and even Canada
and I'll ask my son racing at the
highest level he make a living as a dog
racing in Canada in Alaska he was
starting to see and question really in
Canada yeah yeah and you're questioning
in the can go Allan organized an event
with his close friends including the
arctic explorer Borg Outland to say
farewell to the kangin's
sled dog Santa
I've been up in the artist since early
90s and there's a huge huge difference
when it comes to the sea I spot the
thickness and also the kind of the
coverage it's been reduced by 30 to 40
percent since 1990 and I see it because
the ice is a lot thinner so what I ski
on now is much more fragile than
compared to what I skied in yeah in the
early days when I did my trips to the
North Pole in the UK the days of running
sled dogs are sliding into history 18
years 19 Christmases here there's been
quite a special real life for dogs
there's a lot of sad times coming I
can't do anymore but it's it's been a
lot of good times
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