Taisto Thorneus

Taisto

Taisto Thorneus

Taisto Thorneus' former occupation was machine engineer & mechanic. He left that branch in 1983 to work full time with sleddogs. Since that time he runs the wilderness tourism business Lapland Wilderness Tours in Kiruna, Swedish Lapland. Taisto is married to Karina since 1974. They have one adult son.
The first sleddog race Taisto participated in was in December 1980. In 1981 his first longer race - the first edition of the Nordic Marathon - took place. In 1982 Taisto’s so far best result was 4th place in the limited class of Nordic Marathon. In 1983 he became second in Nordic Marathon open class.
The season 1983-84 was his best season so far - unbeaten in all sleddog races he participated in: Amongst them the first edition of Gausdal Marathon (250 km) in limited class and Nordic Marathon open class.
Already in 1985 operating the own tourism business started to affect his competition activities but he finished second in Finnmarkslopet and third in Nordic Marathon.
1986: 4th in Finmarkslopet – after what Taisto feels the biggest strategic mistake he has ever made (or could make again) in a race: In Mollisjokk, about 75 km from finish line in Alta, he had an over three hours advance, but also some tired sleddogs in the team. He decided neither to rest nor to leave the tired dogs at the checkpoint in order to break the all in time record… After short stop for feeding the dogs in good shape ate the food and got even more geared and eager to go, while the tired sleddogs did not eat. Starting from Mollisjokk the fresh dogs put up a real high speed, resulting in that the tired dogs could not keep up… Arriving to Jiesjarvi Taisto had two dogs travelling on the sled and one more dog getting to tired to keep up. He decided to make a real long stop to rest and recover the tired dogs.
After over 8 hours rest he had been passed by three sleddog-teams (Sven Engholm, Stein-Håvard Fjestad and Kent Hugosson). Two of the tired dogs had recovered enough to run in slow speed to the last checkpoint (Joatka) about 15 km away, while the 3rd still was riding on the sled. After taking it real slow to Joatka, Taisto dropped the three dogs at the checkpoint and took off with the ones in top shape. Unfortunately the distance to the finish line was too short to catch up any of the three musher’s ahead…
1988: Taisto took part in the first edition of the Alpirod. 12th overall
1992: He won the Vindelälvsdraget individual class – still unbeaten track record – also outrunning 6 relay teams on the 400 km distance.
1993: Taisto went to Alaska to compete in the Iditarod but caught salmonella 4 days before the race started and of course wasn’t able to participate in this sleddog race.
1994: He organized and coached the 77 year old Mushing legend Joe Redington. Joe raced with Taisto’s sleddogs in the Olympics' demonstration race in Lillehammer. He finished 3rd in the 300 km competition…
Taisto took part in the Finmarkslopet 1000 km and finished 7th.
1995-2004: The business took all his time so Taisto didn’t race at all; though he continued the breeding-program with Alaskan Huskies and searched for the “perfect team”…
2005-2008: There was still no time for Taisto for serious training, but he started in some races to see if he was on the right track… Now the realization of the new competitive sleddog racing kennel had reached a stage that he decided to pick up serious racing again. A less active part in running the tourism business is still enough work...

Still Taisto felt one part was missing for the launch of a real competitive sleddog kennel: Some proven and experienced dogs. That was solved by buying four experienced top quality Alaskan Huskies from Ken Anderson who finished second on Yukon Quest (beaten only by 15 minutes by Lance Mackey).
Bahdra, 5 years old male & Jango, 6 years old female, both run full Quest and Iditarod.
Jango finished Yukon Quest in lead, Ken and his team finished Iditarod as number 4.
Suraya 5 years old female, finished Iditarod in lead. And finally an now three years old big male, Jordan, who was dropped half way to Nome, because he was working too hard and was loosing weight, according to Ken Anderson.

2009 - forward: Now the new sleddog racing team is there – it is just to prepare it!

 

Looking back at season 08/09 and forward to 09/10


I am in the big picture satisfied with my results in the main events: I was 3rd in both - Finnmarkslöpet 500 and Arctic Barents Race. I won the Open Scandinavian Championship in limited class with my "chief handlier" Lubo on second position and our guest driver Dries as no. 3 in this race. All our three 6-dog teams where running faster than all open class teams (with up to 16 dogs in some of them...). Participants from 8 or 9 countries, but all the best Norwegians where missing... Some of the other races I participated in where more like test and preparation races: Bergebylöpet 4th place, Amundsen race 19th place and Pasvik Trail 17th place. Amundsen & Pasvik where parts of last yeas Arctic Barents Race, so I could not push too hard because the same dogs had to race in Russia directly afterthose races... But I'm still disappointed about the Amundsen Race's result: I left all dogs I could in the last checkpoint in Tufsingdalen. I thought - that since it were only 40 Km left to go - it would be OK with only 6 dogs. But these are really 40 tough kilometers... I lost lots of time and a few places in result list there, but I made another mistake in the beginning - the trail on Storsjön was much softer than I thought and I did not adjust my driving-style to these conditions but run the team too hard in the beginning. This cost me time on the rest of the race... Also the trail from Ljungdalen to Tänndalen was really much heavier than I assumed - lots of climbing and partly soft as well. I'll have to be back another time and do it the right way...
I learned that my team on harder trails and in fairly cold weather can compete with any other team, but they (as well as myself) were not ready to challenge the better teams in warmer temperatures and soft trails. So the focus for next season is to improve the capacity on softer trails ! Hopefully I learned enough last winter to correct our performance and to even improve the strongest of our skills.
The 2009/2010 seasons main goals are to win Finnmark 500, reach top 2 in Arctic Barents Race and to run an "OK" Femund 600 while we (dogs & I) are going to learn the trail for the 2011 world championship. What I mean with "OK" race ??? ...not to end up to far behind....

Oct. 2009, Taisto Thorneus

contact Taisto


mail to: taisto(at)teamlapland.com

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