The ruckus at the starting line neared pandemonium. More than a dozen dogs strained at their harnesses, yipping furiously. Almost as many handlers struggled to hold them in place. The musher walked down the line, snuggling each dog and whispering words of encouragement. The cacophony reached a crescendo as the musher stepped behind the sled, the dogs noisily showing their excitement.

Suddenly, the handlers stepped back and the musher issued his command. The dogs charged forward, all the energy manifested in the barking and bouncing now channeled into a mad sprint across the snow. The air filled with silence, except for the slide of runners across the frozen surface. A 20-mile dash through a white wilderness lay ahead, one leg of the North American Sled Dog Sprint Championship.

Above Alaska's Arctic Circle Algonquin Country Finland's Lapland Dogsledding Trips

That scene from Fairbanks, Alaska, paints the experience of a winter dogsledding getaway, a combination of animal bonding and serene solitude. The dogs are most likely friendly mixed-breed hounds, not ferocious mastiffs only slightly evolved from the wolves of the north. They will wriggle away as you struggle to hitch them into the harness, but they will howl with delight when you drop their evening mash into their dishes. They are hungry for affection, a scratch of their bellies or a lick of your face.

The dogs will pull you into an utterly silent world of unbroken snow. It may be the backcountry of Alaska's Brooks Range, the north woods of eastern Canada or the arctic tundra of Lapland. You may overnight in a homesteader's cabin, a heated yurt or a luxury lodge. During the day, racing along at more than five miles an hour through a pristine white world, the only sounds your gliding sled and the calls to your dogs, you will find glorious wilderness.

Read the Hot Pick - Animal Trekking

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