An Odyssey in sledge

Until January 21, the Large Odyssey brings together crews of mushers with their dogs for a crossing of Savoy and Mont Blanch. The race of sledges gathers competitors out of the commune run for a spectacular race.

20 mushers (conducting of sledge) among the best of the world and 280 dogs, true marathons of snows, prepared for this fourth edition of the Large odyssey which remains faithful to its creed: to put forward the bond between the man and the animal, to promote a respectful sport of the environment, this while at the same time with the north pole the motoneiges replaced the sledges. This race of attachment on 1.000 kilometers in the Alps, with 25.000 meters of uneven, is the promise of a spectacle and a relation man-animal out of the commune run.

1.000 kilometers in the Alps

The race proceeds in 10 stages on several fields: from the 11 at January 14, the mushers cross in 4 stages the Field of the Doors of the Sun (High Savoy), will pass to Savoy by the Challenge Megève-Our Lady of Bellecombe (15 and January 16), then finish into High Maurienne Vanoise by a race long distance of 550 km in 4 stages. The opening ceremony to Avoriaz, on January 10 of 14:00 to 19:00, constitutes one strong moment with the arrival of the crews, veterinary controls, and grand opening with 19:00 in the center of the station, the departure of the race taking place the following day with 16:30, with the Falaise district.

Animations “far North”

More than fifty animations are programmed along the two weeks and of the 19 villages crossed by the Large Odyssey, with hot wines, exposures sets of themes, film projection… As for the polar Base of Valley Cenis Vanoise which accommodates the bivouacs of the mushers, it envisages in its animations the construction of igloos, initiation with the sledge, of the nights in tipis, the walks in racket… Last year, more than 3000 people visited it.

Symbiosis man-animal

During the race, each musher has a “pool” of 14 dogs, each one being located by an electronic chip injected under the skin and identifiable by one of the 7 veterinary surgeons present throughout the race. Each stage of the race must be realized with a maximum number of dogs at the beginning, and a minimum number on arrival (for example: 10 dogs maximum at the beginning, 7 minimum on arrival). It is with the musher to appreciate if it wishes to leave (dropper) the dogs tired with checks points envisaged for this purpose along the stages. If there is no check not, it must take them on its sledge but in no case to exhaust them.  The musher pilot only by the voice, it has neither whip, nor of reindeer. This complicity was built with the wire of several years of “work” together. What to confer a magic side on the adventure of the Large Odyssey.