Who are we?

Lapland Sleddog Adventures (LSA) is a Swedish company run by husband and wife couple Gaynor Leeper and Miloš Gonda. Our goal is to provide superior service in sleddog tourism, whether that’s satisfying the wishes of our guests or giving the best possible care to our dogs. We put our heart and soul into everything we do and every experience we provide so we know our guests will return home happy, whether you’ve been with us for a few hours or a week.

The same effort goes into our kennel environment and we have recently built a cosy Lodge for our guests, an on-site sauna, and large yards for our 40 Alaskan huskies. The Lodge is of wooden structure, sympathetically finished in a rustic cabin style, and has geothermal heating to keep our guests warm no matter how low the temperature outside along with ground source crystal-clear fresh water that can be drunk straight from the tap. Everything is built with the environment in mind and our kennel complex sits happily in a secluded forest approximately 15 minutes drive from Kiruna city centre. Here you’ll find all the comforts of home in a pristine wilderness location.

Lapland Sleddog Adventures

Arctic Lapland

We’re located approx. 200km within the Arctic Circle half way between Kiruna city and the small village of Kurravaara on a forest road that can be roughly translated as “wild road”. Kiruna is Sweden’s biggest town in the far north and is well connected to the rest of the world through regular scheduled flights via Stockholm. The climate is ‘sub arctic’ resulting in short, cool summers and long, cold winters, making it the perfect spot for adventurers who love colder climes.

This area of Sweden (as well as the far north of Norway, Finland and Russia) is also known as ‘Lapland’, home of the Sami. The heritage of these reindeer herders is an important part of the area’s history.

We sometimes see reindeer as we drive to the kennel from Kiruna or get a visit from a shy reindeer at the kennel, but you have to be very quiet as they are easily spooked!

 

Northern Lights

The famed Aurora Borealis occur when electrically charged particles from the sun hit the earth’s atmosphere and react with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. Each gas results in a different coloured light being omitted in wonderful displays of green, yellow, reds and pink in the night sky. They are best seen in the long dark nights of autumn and winter, in the months of October through to March, with Kiruna and nearby Abisko often being described as one of the top three places in the world to spot the Aurora. The Aurora can often be seen dancing in the skies above our Lodge.

Our Team

Milos Gonda

Milos Gonda

Owner of LSA and Guide

Milos is a born musher! He got his first dog when he was 15 and spent his early adulthood working with dogs in his home country of Slovakia. At the age of 26, he decided to leave Slovakia and its unpredictable winter conditions to work full-time with sled dogs in the north, first in the city of Tromso, Norway, and later in Kiruna. Milos has won many prestigious competitions, including the famous Finnmarkslopet 500 (Norway), La Grande Odyssee (French Alps) and Tobacco Trail (Sweden). Despite being quietly proud of these achievements Milos’ priority is to simply spend quality time on the trail with his well trained dogs.

Gaynor Leeper

Gaynor Leeper

Owner of LSA and Guide

Gaynor was born in the UK. After University she gained almost 20 years business experience in London before she gave up her city job to enter the world of adventure. She travelled the world guiding tours to the top of Kilimanjaro and Everest Basecamp, arranging North and South Pole expeditions and taking clients to destinations such as Guatemala, Alaska, Belize, Nepal, Tanzania, Iceland and Svalbard. In 2009 she was part of a small team who claimed a world record walking 500km along the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, unsupported. Through this work she found the sport of dog mushing and when she met Milos on a dog sled tour in 2011 they soon decided on setting up a life together with their own kennel of dogs.

Our Guides

Our Guides

Guides

We have two guides that work with us over the winter, taking our sledding tours and looking after guests and the dogs.