The Husky Experience

MY STORY

How it really started

That first husky of mine, in 1995, was three and a half years old, with a character already formed and no intention of obeying a twenty-two-year-old kid. To work out how to handle him I had only two tools: books and the telephone. I'd call the breeders one after another, ask questions, hang up and try again. When something didn't work the way I wanted, there was no video to watch: there was only another attempt, to be made the next day. And my stubbornness…

“I worked myself to the bone to understand how to handle these dogs, because nobody knew them.”

About sleddog, that year, I'd understood very little. But by then I'd fallen in love with the breed and its attitude for pulling: and from there everything else was born.

THE MENTOR

In 1997, the turning point

I meet my mentor, Dodo Perri. Dodo was one of the pioneers of Italian sleddog. In 1988 he had opened one of the country’s first centres, in Courmayeur, at the foot of Mont Blanc. I started from scratch, and he taught me everything! His first lesson was about handling the huskies, about cleaning the kennel. The sled came much later. Dodo always used to say:

“Before you learn to drive a sled, learn to pick up the poop.”

And it's a rule I've never stopped following: the dogs come first, then everything else. From there began 10 years of paying my dues around other centres, doing the hard work no one sees: the boxes to clean at 6 in the morning, the dogs to get ready when it's minus 20 outside. Dodo sadly passed away in 2006. He wasn't only a mentor to me, but a very dear friend.

On 7 December 2007 I opened my own centre in Sestriere. And I brought with me Dodo’s most important lesson, the one that still guides everything today: «First the Dogs».

TODAY

A pack raised one dog at a time

Our pack numbers 30 Siberian Huskies, raised with patience, one dog at a time. Every year around 1,000 people live their first adventure as a musher here, among snowy trails at 2,035 metres of altitude, where the sun lights up the mountains from dawn to dusk.

30SIBERIAN HUSKIES

~1,000GUESTS A YEAR

2,035 mALTITUDE, IN SESTRIERE

1995ON THE SNOW EVER SINCE

Why am I telling you all this?

Because it's the reason why, when you get here, we teach you the commands and get you driving your own sled right away. Letting you drive your team is possible only because behind those 15 minutes of briefing there are over 30 years of experience and mistakes already made, and a pack raised with love and dedication, one dog at a time. And ahead of you, always, an instructor who opens the trail.

You just focus on driving.

We'll take care of the rest, since 1995.

PASSION AND RESPECT

Our dogs are real athletes!

They train all year round and eat according to a precise plan. Nothing is left to chance! A vet follows them twelve months a year. And even when they stop running they stay with us, in the family.

Alaska is fourteen and is enjoying her retirement. Kiruna is another retiree, grumpy and demanding. Jack is blind, and he ran on the sled like all the others, with great energy, as if his disability didn’t make him “different”.

Behind every Husky there’s a story, and not all of them begin well. Apache and Kiruna were rescued by the Siberian Husky Rescue; Wilson, instead, arrived after a seizure. But the day we saw him run in front of the sled we understood one thing: we weren’t teaching him anything, we were only giving back what he already had inside! He had discovered his “Desire to run”, that innate and irrepressible instinct of the Siberian Husky to run and pull, rooted in his genetics as a sled dog. And there we had yet another confirmation: more than working for us, our dogs run with us.

And when one of them doesn’t feel like it, he simply rests: we respect that too. Because before being a pack, a team, we are one single family.

Alaska

Jack

Kiruna

Apache

THE TEAM

Who you'll find here

We're few, but good, and we're here every day.

Giorgia Grangetto

BOOKINGS · WELCOME · BRIEFING — DOG TRAINER

She started out organising excursions at the Club Med in Pragelato, and she's been on the team since 2015. Giorgia is the person who brings order to the chaos, who explains to you how it works, who answers your messages and your questions, in English and French too, even when there are lots of them… Patience isn't always guaranteed, it depends on the day, but a prompt reply is!

She's usually the one who gives the briefing before the excursion. She takes care of the pack together with Luca, every day.

Melania Lantelme

VETERINARIAN

She’s the one who looks after the pack’s health. Graduated with top marks in Turin in 2015, her skills range from intensive care to managing thoracic and abdominal emergencies, from radiographic diagnostics to sedation and analgesia.

In 2021 she earned a second-level university master’s in Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care for small animals at the University of Sassari.

Luca Chiarelli

FOUNDER · GUIDE

Telecommunications engineer at the Politecnico di Torino. For several years at Hewlett-Packard looking after clients, while the dogs took up all the rest of my time.

I’ve been the founder of The Husky Experience since 2007, I guide the excursions in Italian and English, and I’ve personally looked after my Siberian Huskies since 1995.

Hi, I'm Luca, and it took me over 30 years to learn what you'll be taught in 15 minutes of briefing.