Clothing for dog sledding in Alaska

Hi all,

Going on Alaska cruise in mid July and have booked Glacier Dog Sledding (by helicopter). I found many posts on the forum regarding general clothing for Alaska cruises (bring lots of layers!) but nothing specific to dog sledding on glacier. Does the dog sledding operator provide specific clothing? Snow boots, thick coats, etc? It would be an awful lot of clothing to bring for the whole family for just for that one port adventure.

Thanks!

I brought an all weather jacket with hood, hat, gloves and scarf. They give you boots at the pier. Bring sunglasses too. Best excursion we ever had.

Thank you very much! It'll save us a lot of space not having to carry winter boots for everyone :) We can't wait!

Hi all,

 

Going on Alaska cruise in mid July and have booked Glacier Dog Sledding (by helicopter). I found many posts on the forum regarding general clothing for Alaska cruises (bring lots of layers!) but nothing specific to dog sledding on glacier. Does the dog sledding operator provide specific clothing? Snow boots, thick coats, etc? It would be an awful lot of clothing to bring for the whole family for just for that one port adventure.

 

Thanks!

Weather can run from overcast, misty/rainy in the 50's to bright sunshine and short sleeves. As the other poster mentioned they provide snow boots but that is it from clothing point of view. We did neglect our sunglasses and they had pairs to borrow, YMMV.

A once in a lifetime excursion, provided it isn't canceled

 



 



 



 

This is the most cancelled tour due to weather conditions. We knew that so we picked the 2:30PM tour and we were the only group that got to fly that day. Good luck and have fun.

We saved quite a bit of money booking this excursion directly with TEMSCO instead of with our cruise line. It was within walking distance of our ship, but we were on the Coral Princess in 2010. It is very expensive, but was the highlight of our cruise to Alaska.

The weather on top of the glacier is about 15 degrees cooler than the weather in Skagway, so please dress appropriately. There are lockers at the TEMSCO headquarters since you cannot bring any belongs up to the glacier except for a camera and your sunglasses. They also lend you really nice snow boots, which slip right over your shoes and provide excellent traction on the mountain.

Safety is the most important factor, and there is a chance that your excursion may be cancelled. To minimize this risk, I would recommend that you go glacier dogsledding in Skagway, since the weather tends to be a bit more stable than in Juneau. Also, please try to book an earlier flight since if your flight is cancelled, they may be able to squeeze you in later if the weather clears, but there are no guarantees.

The dogsled camp is extremely clean - TEMSCO is required to remove all garbage (including dog waste) from the glacier so it is pristine. The dogs seemed extremely happy on the glacier, and they loved playing with the tourists. Our dogsled team normally trains for the Iditarod, so the only time the dogs were unhappy was when we stopped to look at the view or take pictures since the dogs really wanted to run and beat all the other dogsled teams on the glacier. Our guide, Mallory Cudlitz, was amazing, and she clearly loves her dogs and took great pictures of us. It was a wonderful experience to drive a dogsled on top of a glacier, and to play with puppies at the end of the tour.

Once again, thanks all for your replies. Didn't realise how likely it is to have this tour cancelled :eek:

Fingers crossed... My girls would be so disappointed!

Not only is the possibility of it being cancelled high, there is also the rare chance you might get stranded on the glacier if unexpected weather suddenly moves in. Happened last summer with a Holland America excursion (they were just stuck one night) and it apparently happened another time for more than one night per an account by someone who worked one of the camps that aired a few weeks ago on This American Life.

Signed up our family...7 of us...two years ago for this...cancelled. Also had another excursion cancelled at another port because of weather. Saved a lot of money but the kids and I were disappointed.