This story actually has two beginnings. The first was in 2014, when the last evening at Willem’s parents‘ house was celebrated. Steffi and Willem’s families have come together to say goodbye before we set off the next morning on a journey that will change our lives. We traveled through northern Europe for over a year. Most of the time in Iceland and Norway, where we worked with Alaskan huskies for the first time. As a child at school I, Willem, was always told I was a dreamer. Someone who was thinking about adventures and what there was to experience in the world, while I could hardly go outside without medication due to severe asthma and allergies. My ideas, they said, were for others. I couldn’t do that.

In the icy cold of the Lower Arctic, where my hands freeze numb at -30 degrees Celsius while I harness the dogs, there is no such limit. There are only the dogs who rely on us to keep going. And this is where the love and great understanding for the four-legged top athletes and their world begins.