You may recall that mushers spend a lot of time thinking about snaps. https://twitter.com/blairbraverman/status/944001239557304320

Well. There's a crisis on the horizon.

For the past year, there's been an intense shortage of Swedish Snaps. It's a specific size and type of snap that mushers use for necklines.

Mushers have called meetings to address the problem. There have been MANY Facebook threads. Outrage and chaos throughout the dogsledding world.

People have gotten together to discuss alternative snaps. But only Swedish Snaps will do. Seriously, they make a big difference--they don't freeze shut and dogs can't get hurt by stepping on them.

So--and this is a rumor from the snaps rumor mill--somebody called the company.

The company directed him to a guy.

Turns out there's an old guy in Sweden who makes all the snaps like that in the world. And his snap-making tool broke.

He was like, "eh, I'm old. I might not fix it. I might just retire."

CHAOS.

The snaps shortage is, like, one of the main topics of musher conversation. Q and I have been checking every hardware store we pass on our travels. Our Amish friend who repairs our broken harnesses? Even he can't find them. "Yeah," he told us. "I heard there's a shortage."

Anyway, I tell you this cause we're driving to the north shore of Minnesota and we've heard whispers of a place that might still have Swedish Snaps. It's at the end of an unmarked road. We're ten minutes away.

And if we find them?

WE'RE BUYING 20 SNAPS, BABY.

Stay tuned. This has been your #mushertwitter high-stakes thread of the day.

UPDATE

Ok. We've emerged from the snap dealer's den. We found her--her name's Deb--at the end of a road, down an unplowed driveway, in the back of a garage that was stuffed with boxes.

We tried to be real casual. "So," Q said, "I heard you might have snaps."

"I got snaps," said Deb. "What kind?"

Q kept his voice light. "Swedish snaps."

Deb was reaching for a box. She froze with her arm out.

When she spoke again, her voice was low. "I might."

I am not exaggerating. This is literally how the conversation went. All that tension. Sizing each other up.

Turns out Deb got a delivery of 500 Swedish snaps on Monday. She had 30 left.

She opened a box and counted the snaps with practiced fingers. I would have taken more pictures but it felt like that would break an unspoken agreement.

But Deb had something more valuable than snaps. She had intel.

Deb knows Mats.

Mats is the Swedish dude.

Mats's snap machine has been broken for a year. It's so old that nobody makes replacement parts anymore.

But Mats didn't retire. He didn't give up. He knew that we needed him, all us mushers around the world. Waiting and hoping.

Mats just got a NEW SNAPS MACHINE.

The machine's not quite up to speed yet, but the end is in sight. The long Snaps Drought of 2017 is ending.

It'll be a few months before we're back to the glorious wealth of Swedish Snaps in every hardware store. But Mats is hard at work.

And if you need snaps before that, talk to me. Just between us... I've got a new source.