Pirates of the north pole

So yesterday I started thinking about dog sledding.

All the pictures I've seen have a team of lets say 9 dogs pulling a sled with 1 or 2 people on it. So I've been thinking; what if you had100 dogs pulling a sled with more 20-30 people?

I understand that it would be less maneuverable, and more likely to bog down etc. But let's suppose there was an enormous frozen lake in the arctic. The wind keeps it swept clean, and it's flat so you can bring a big sled; and it takes several days to cross. At night the temperature is minus 30 and there's is no cover, so if you try crossing on a normal dog sled, you will freeze to death if you stop for the night. With a big sled however, you can have a covering over it like a giant mobile tent with room for all your dogs on the inside.

Suddenly trade routes between Russia and Canada are possible over the arctic, both legal and illegal. Where there is rich trading; we know that there will be pirates.

Small sleds zipping about, shooting arrows at each other like chariots; some dogs running loose, great big sleds with heavy artillery mounted on top, throw in a trained polar bear or two. Nothing could possibly go wrong?

Comments

[the other sans]

My guess as to one possible flaw? The thickness of the ice plus the weight of said sled+people+dogs+whatever cargo they bring.

Granted there are parts where the ice will be thicker but for how long? The temperature at the area would have to be consistently below freezing by quite a fair amount which would also translate to what you said: eventual hypothermia.

Theoretically it's possible but let's now also account for the dogs themselves. They would still need quite abit of individual insulation in order to survive and make the trek if not then the surrounding dogs wouldbpotentially collapse first leading to reduced speed and etc.

Those are what I can think off the top of my head at the moment.

[Beware The Carpenter]

Granted there are parts where the ice will be thicker but for how long? The temperature at the area would have to be consistently below freezing by quite a fair amount

North Pole seems to be pretty good at that.

let's now also account for the dogs themselves. They would still need quite abit of individual insulation

You mean like a thick fur coat?

[Beware The Carpenter]

3973412

I'll make a confession: I live in Australia, and so I'm rather familiar with Antartica; and had assumed that the artic was roughly the same. turns out they're quite different.

Weight distribution might well be an issue depending on how this turns out. Thanks for the input

[the other sans]

3978539

You mean like a thick fur coat?

Oh, I think I didn't specify clearly for this part. Yes, there are dogs who are bred for such cold weather but my question would be on how long they would be able to last for the journey and how long it's actually going to take. Stamina, food and water need to be taken into consideration if the journey is quite long.

Also, their entire body isn't completely covered in fur so they'll still lose body heat in the long run from their eyes, base of their paws and mouth. Consistently staying warm is going to be a challenge when facing a long endurance run through such cold weather.

Upkeep is another issue since well, we all need money to maintain things be it man or machine.

Sure, it's fun to brainstorm these kind of things now and again. And now I know where you live, (insert evil laugh here via Fluttershy) and now I shall (insert plot that is equal parts absurd and evil).

[Beware The Carpenter]

3978863

This might not be going over the north pole. The thought I'm working on is if there's a chain of volcano in one of the polar circles, thawing small patches of ground to make vegetation/ civilization possible, or maybe you just have big cave networks in the mountains where you can grow mushrooms. Volcano also tend to have rare minerals so I'm thinking a series of isolated mines/ towns, surrounded by a massive frozen lake and only accessible by dog sleds that need to be big so you can camp on the ice without freezing. (Building permanent shelters on the ice might be too heavy, or maybe being forced to use them would enable more government control/ taxation.)

Multiple tribes competing for control over the trade routs of bringing food/ workers to the mines and magical crystals back. Some of them pirate the others to eliminate competition but proving who was responsible for any one attack is almost impossible. Then Luna uncovers evidence of one tribe's piracy and threatens to reveal it to everyone unless a few of their best and brightest join her new school...

This short blog was helpful on dog sledding. How much they eat/ can pull etc. Just try upping the figures about 20-30X.

And now I know where you live, (insert evil laugh here via Fluttershy) and now I shall (insert plot that is equal parts absurd and evil).

[Beware The Carpenter]

3978863

I'm also wondering if dogs can run 6-8 hours per day, and pull 4X their own weight, if it wouldn't be better to have two teams, where one pulls while the other rests in the sled, and then you can travel 12-16 hours per day.