Tragic News
Over the last decade I’ve travelled over 11,000 miles
by dog team, mostly alone, all successful trips resulting. Something
was bound to go wrong one day, and it did on Sunday 5th March
2006, despite careful planning and listening to route suggestion
advice for this journey.
400 miles into the trip we were moving over Amundsen Gulf sea
ice when ice gave way. Everything was in the water: my
dogs, sled and me. A nightmare. My dogs tangled underwater.
Most like me were submerged under a pan of ice. I punched and
grappled to the sea surface as water saturated clothing weighing
me down like concrete.
We all kicked desperately to stay afloat. Ice and sea hit my
head and blurred vision. With colossal effort I freed Cream.
The cold was killing. Blitz was the first to drown, and floated.
Saxon looked at me for the last time with absolute fear in his
eyes. I knew my life might be over very quickly. Blood in my
hands was freezing. It turned to icy sludge and crunched like
grit in a bag.
Physical pain will pass, crushing mental stuff takes a little
longer. It took weeks before I could hold a conversation without
breaking down. To lose eleven loved ones, raised from puppies,
has taken me places deep inside my head I hope none of you ever
have to endure. Recovering from frostbite in all my fingers
has been slow. I’ve still months of physiotherapy ahead.
Thanks again to the UK’s Chelsea & Westminster
Burns Unit staff, family, friends and for the hundreds of emails
and letters of condolences from people all over the world. My
dogs touched the hearts of many, making friends everywhere we
went.
I miss my dogs terribly. They meant the world to me. I’ve
cried so hard my body ached. For now I’m taking the first
steps to what I once had, a greatly loved team of dogs. From
impossible circumstances Cream and I survived. Saxon and Tuki
were used as studs before heading out on their last journey
and the Thule X Twizzle (the Twizlets) litter is doing well.
Onward.
Gary.
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photographs copyright © Gary Rolfe