The Expedition in bullet points
- Distance/Duration: Finnmarksvidda – 94km/58 miles, 3 days
- Summary: The polar explorer, Vincent Colliard, and I, along with a professional photographer, Maxime Mergale, went on a short but hardcore trip across Finnmarksvidda for 3 days, skiing for about 30km a day mostly in the darkness in the bitter cold winter months of the Arctic. It was a part of my training trip, and getting the solo expedition details sorted with Vincent.
- Weather: Air temperature -35C/-30F, most of the skiing hours in the darkness due to minimal daylight
- Mode: Sled-hauling cross-country skiing
- Risk factors: Storm, frostbite, Hypothermia
Expedition report:
Prior to embarking on my solo expedition, I went on a quick classic Finnmarkvidda crossing for 3 days with Vincent Colliard, a polar explorer, and Maxime Mergalet, a wonderful professional photographer.
Days were still very short, so we were skiing much of the day in the darkness, as the air temperature dipped around -32C/-25F. When it’s dark, cold, and with high humidity, nothing gets dry and frosts form everywhere – so brushing our boots and gears became the nightly routine. I also had to sleep with my ski boots – tuck them at the bottom of my sleeping bag to avoid having the hard, frozen boots in the morning, lol. It was a short but real Arctic winter trip with lots of great polar insights and inspirations from Vince 😆
Ayuka Kawakami 