A THRILL-SEEKING Ealing salesman woke up one morning to the excited barks of more than 40 Siberian Huskies – a sound so deafening he had to wear earmuffs.

Under the dark sky of the Arctic Circle, he harnessed five dogs to his sled, and they continued with their rowdy yapping.

Looking out across the glistening white surroundings, he took the snow anchor out and the dogs began to run.

And then there was silence.

Ealing Times:

“That was one of the best things about dog sledding in the Arctic Circle,” said Andrew Seddon.

“The transition from utter chaos and excitement, to complete calm.”

Andrew, a 29-year-old dog-walker living in Hanwell, sought adventure in the Arctic Circle after working for a few years in sales.

“Sales left me feeling depressed and unfulfilled,” he said.

He’d always loved dogs, but never been allowed to have one as a child.

He grew up watching Due South, a comedy series about a Canadian constable and his white wolfdog sidekick, and longed for the snow.

In 2011, he quit his job and wrote hundreds of letters to husky companies across Scandinavia, asking to volunteer.

Just as he was about to give up, one woman, Yana, responded.

She required help with her 43 Siberian Huskies near Korvala, Roveniemi – the home of Santa Claus in the Finnish Lapland.

Ealing Times:

Although this may seem like a real-life winter fairytale, it could be mucky work for Andrew and the three other volunteers, as they had to clean the dogs and exercise them every day, utilising only four daylight hours in the winter.

In the summer months, Yana taught the volunteers how to sled, and they would teach Erasmus students when they came to visit in the winter.

“We would sled across about 70 acres of land,” Andrew said.

“The scenery was just incredible – across the snow you’d see little cabins and glowing lights.”

Andrew continued to adventure around the Arctic Circle, moving elsewhere for two weeks – this time looking after 70 Alaskan Huskies.

“These dogs were much bigger and, like race horses, some of them were treated like royalty and were worth hundreds of thousands of pounds,” he said.

He would get up at 5am every morning to feed them, stirring a large vat full of cakes, sausages and other strange delicacies.

“Feeding time could take two and a half hours,” he said.

“They were chained up so they would get so excited and run around me, getting tangled at my feet.”

Ealing Times:

In search of a more peaceful experience, Andrew then moved to Norway to assist Katinka Mossin, a famed Greenpeace explorer and a trainer of Greenland Huskies.

“Greenland Huskies were my favourites – they were more gentle and what dogs really should be,” he said.

“They respond when they’re called and are really friendly.”

For a while Andrew worked alongside two other volunteers, but for a whole month it was just him, Katinka, and the dogs – who became like his family.

He said: “It could get a bit lonely, but I enjoyed the peacefulness in comparison to the stress of working in sales.”

But Andrew’s experience in the Arctic Circle wasn’t just one of peace and tranquility – he also experienced exhilaration and danger.

“Once, I went over a frozen lake and we just went skidding straight across,” he said.

“It was terrifying but amazing.”

He had also been dragged by the sleds on several occasions, and had times where the dogs ran off so fast that the sled sped out of his control.

“I had a party of four Alaskan Huskies on the sled, and I tied the knot and put the snow anchor in, but the knot wasn’t as tight as it should have been,” he recalled.

“So the rope was just running through my hands, burning it, and I was terrified because the sled could have crashed into the other sled and injured the passengers on board.

“Thankfully, my leader helped me get it back under control.”

Alongside playing with pups and sledding to his heart’s content, Andrew also got to volunteer at the famous Polardistans Race in Sweden – a professional sled racing competition – as a handler.

“I was responsible for putting the dogs on the sled, getting them ready and looking after them throughout the race,” he said.

“If a dog was injured, a helicopter would pick them up out of the race in a crate, and we had to be ready with a new dog to put in the helicopter, which they’d basically drop into the middle of the race.

“It was a pretty high-budget system.”

But more than a year later among the snow and ice, Andrew decided he needed to fulfil his true passion – acting.

He returned home and gained a place at drama school, settling down in Ealing.

In between auditions and acting jobs, he realised he could make a living – and continue his hobby – by walking and boarding people’s precious pooches.

And he’s fittingly called his business Hanwell Hounds.

“Dogs of any kind always bring such happiness, and I love being around them,” he said.

“But I do sometimes miss the cold.”