Here you can update yourself on changes for Finnmarksløpet 2025.
As always, registration starts on September 15th. Links open precisely at 18:00. The most important change is already announced. It is that the race starts in week 11, not week 10 as we usually do. This is how the starts are.
Friday 14 March
12:00 – Start Finnmarksløpet 1200, NM in long-distance dog sledding open class 2025
Saturday 15 March
13:00 – Start of the Finnmarksløpet junior, NM long-distance junior 2025 13:15 – Start Finnmarksløpet 600, NM long distance 8-team 2025
Depot rules change
From 2025, the rules for rolling out depots will change for all classes. Within a short time, we will provide a detailed explanation and updated regulations.
Same old for the youngsters
Our junior class has existed since 2014. There will be no major changes for this class. The distance is 200 km. The maximum number of dogs is 6, and the age for those who can participate is from the year one turns 15 and a maximum up to and including the year one turns 18.
600 worked very well – some new deadlines from 2025
Overall, the feedback for the Finnmarksløpet 600 was very good for the 2024 edition. The mandatory rest time rules were changed and we got a new trail in the first part of the race. The route change came as a result of the Nordic Response exercise, but proved to work so well that Sport Committee decided to keep the same route for 2025.
Finnmarksløpet is, as many know, a professional dog race, and is entirely dependent on a great deal of effort from volunteer officials. The race is organized within certain time frames which have been stretched too much some years. Therefore, from 2025, a number of exact limits will be introduced for when participants can leave some of the checkpoints.
1,240 becomes 1,100
This year’s biggest changes come in our longest class, where the distance is reduced from 1240 km this year, to approx. 1,100 km in 2025.
We are preparing for challenges with the weather that we experienced this year to happen again, and of course want as many of our participants as possible to make it to the finish line for both the award ceremony and the banquet.
1,100 km is still the world’s second longest, and Europe’s longest sled dog race.
The starting stretch will be from Alta, via Joatka to the first checkpoint in Jergul.
After this, the race goes down to Tana much like before. The hotel at Tana bru is not in open, this presented us with major challenges in 2024. Now there is an alternative that we want to try. It is the campsite in Skiippagurra, a few km south of Tana bru.
It will be the same route as before to Neiden 1, from there the «short» leg towards Kirkenes, but now there will be a checkpoint at Sandnes. Sandnes is located approx. 10 km from the city center and is by the football field and the clubhouse of Sandnes IL.
The next stage will be almost as we have been mushing for many years, southwards up Pasvikdalen. We are not going all the way to Vaggatem and the checkpoint there. The stage goes all the way to Neiden 2. This will be the longest leg of the race at over 130 km.
Neiden 2 to Varangerbotn will follow the classic route, but it has not yet been decided whether the checkpoint will be in Varangerbotn or at Tana Camping in Skiippagurra.
From here, as before, all the way to Karasjok, but then a new change appears.
We will go up the river, past Jergul, Suossjavri, Nedre Mollisjok and then onto the well-known route at Øvre Mollisjok, checkpoint at Joatka and to the finish in Alta the usual route.
The rest time rules also change in this class. In the past, the last of the two mandatory rests has been 10 hours, which participants themselves could distribute between Levajok 2 and Karasjok. From 2025, the last mandatory rest will be only 5 hours in Karasjok.
The regulations will be updated within a short time. The same applies to trail descriptions and stage lengths.