The World Famous  Siberian Husky Club of GB Aviemore Sled Dog Rally 2008

Every year, mushers from throughout the UK gather in the forests around Aviemore for the biggest event in the British husky calendar - always hoping for plenty of the white stuff to make it a real arctic experience.

Sled dog enthusiasts continue a racing tradition, which is now almost a century old. Around 200 teams of dogs from all over the country will be straining at the leash on January 19 and 20. With competitors ranging in age from just eight to 60, there's something for all the family to see at this great spectator event, which has grown from just a dozen teams in 1984, to more than 200 in recent year's race.

Organised by the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain the rally is run on tracks around Loch Morlich in the shadow of the Cairngorms. The event is the biggest gathering of its kind in the UK for dogs, which were first bred to pull sleds in Arctic conditions hundreds of years ago. The rally features teams of between two and eight dogs running at up to 20 miles an hour over a gruelling, four-mile track. Along with the Siberian huskies, rally dogs include Alaskan Malamutes, Samoyeds, Greenland Dogs and Canadian Eskimo Dogs. And, even if there's no snow at ground level for the event, the races will still go on with mushers using a three-wheeled rig that looks like a bike without a seat. Sled dogs come from as far as the Isle of Wight and Devon for one of the most challenging and prestigious of the British Siberian Husky Club's series of rallies.