在極地的冰雪中，我找到了夢想中的工作

在極地的冰雪中，我找到了夢想中的工作

在我第一次來到北極旅行時，我與當地的導游Milos墜入愛河。幾年前，我辭掉了在英國的公關經理工作，搬到瑞典北部定居。在這里，我找到了一份最理想的工作——訓練哈士奇拉雪橇……

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

sled 雪撬，小雪撬[sled]

Arctic北極圈，北極地方['ɑ?kt?k]

blissful極快樂的，有福的['bl?sfl]

sauna桑拿浴，蒸汽浴['s??n?]

snowmobile雪地車['sno?mo?m?bi?l]

iridescent虹彩色的[??r?'desnt]

petrified使驚呆的['petr?fa?d]

Dream jobs … and how to get them: husky driving in the Arctic（583 words）

By Harriet Fitch Little

Gaynor Leeper, husky driver, northern Sweden

The first time I came to the Arctic it was like landing in Narnia. Kiruna is the northernmost airport in Sweden and the moment the plane doors opened this rush of -20C air came flooding in. I didn't know I was supposed to bring my winter coat on as hand luggage and I was freezing — a total rookie.

On that first trip I was taking a group of tourists to try sledding and Miloš, who is now my husband, was our local guide. I'd always been scared of dogs, I mean really scared, but he gave me some nice dogs to harness and I thought, “Right, show no fear.”

I totally fell in love with them. It was very soon after that I ended up going out for the whole winter, then Miloš and I decided to give our relationship a go.

I'd quit a successful job “going places” as a communications manager in London a few years previously to work in adventure tourism, and I think that was the biggest surprise for my family. When I decided to move to the Arctic to live with 40 dogs it was another leap, but because I'd done it before I felt I could worry about the problems later.

When I got here it was as if all the skills I'd spent my life gathering were absolutely useless. I had to learn how to build fires, chop wood, tie knots and fix the lines for the dogs. Now people look at me and say, “Wow, you're so easy in this environment.” I say, “You didn't see the journey.”

We built our own house recently. It's in the wilderness about 10km from Kiruna, and we've got all the modern facilities. Miloš finished our shower on Christmas Day and it was a blissful moment. Before that we'd been washing ourselves, and our clothes, in the sauna. There's very little in the way of socialising but we've got a small network of friends, mainly other dog mushers, who come over on a snowmobile. They'll have a sauna and a beer and go home in the morning.

The summer in Kiruna is really short, basically only the month of July. We let the dogs run loose and they get very lazy. In autumn we start training them pulling a quad bike, then we switch to the sleds. The dogs work with tourists from December to mid-April. It's a really long season but I like it.

The best days are when I'm out with the dogs and I get this sheer appreciation for the environment. In the depths of winter the sun doesn't rise above the horizon for a month but it means we get these incredible iridescent clouds — they're like rainbows. The moon is the size of a massive orange in the sky and when it comes up it looks like the sun rising. But the weather can be brutal and turn things very serious very quickly.

I've done some sled-dog racing for fun. My first race was 325km and I was lucky enough to win. I think I was on the sled 19 hours. I remember this one moment — it was 3am and I was going over a swamp. It was completely pitch black and I was alone with the dogs. I thought to myself, “Wow, if I were in London right now I would be petrified beyond belief, but here I am quite happy.” It just made sense.