Solo traveller Balram Menon shares the thrilling experience of dog sledding on a frozen lake in Mongolia - Gorkhi Terelji National Park, Mongolia 
With the huskies on Mongolia’s Terelji lake
A pack of Siberian Huskies stood waiting, tethered to the sled. After a brief instruction from the musher, Balram Menon was set to go on the experience of his lifetime. He climbed on to the sled, mumbled a few commands in Mongolian to the dogs and off they leapt down Terelji lake, which had frozen into a blinding expanse of white.
It was -20 degrees at the Gorkhi Terelji National Park, 140 kilometres from the world’s coldest capital, Ulaanbaatar. And the day had just begun. As he slid down the lake, pulled by the macho dogs, Menon was overwhelmed by the landscape. At some spots, through the translucent ice, he could catch a glimpse of the water beneath. “Though nomads live in the valley, it really is pure wilderness. And the silence is intensified by the cold... it was surreal.”
He speaks of a silence so perfect it seemed eternal and the bluest of skies he has ever seen (Mongolia has 260 days of blue skies a year, on an average).
The sled is a metal contraption, with handlebars, brakes and a steering. It has a snow-hook for anchoring in ice. “If you don’t anchor, the dogs will just keep pulling your sled along. They have a mind of their own,” says Menon, who fell off the sled a couple of times. “These dogs are trained to be friendly with humans, but they are ferocious and are known to attack animals. Anyway, a jeep escorts the sledders for their safety and I made friends with the dogs.”
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