Back from Norway

Posted February 4th, 2010 by Rob Holden

Two very successful weeks in Norway are complete. Based 30km north of Dombas, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to be an instructor for teams preparing to race 600km to the Magnetic North Pole in late April.

With temperatures down to -22 Celsius, we skied through the day and camped out in order to learn and hone the essential skills required to survive and race in extreme cold temperatures. Many of these skills are transferable to our own record attempt down South. The skills we practised included, camp craft (including dealing with cold weather injuries), navigation, clothing systems, skiing and pulk hauling. In addition I was able to indulge another great passion in my life; photography. I have attached a couple of pictures from a photo shoot that I undertook with a local dogsled team.

As well as instructing I used my time to assess equipment options, training ideas for the team and take wide ranging advice from experienced polar travellers in particular Conrad Dickinson, Gary Bullen and Tony Martin.

I am now in the process of preparing a skills training package for the team before heading off to get cold in Siberia in two weeks time with extreme world races http://www.extremeworldraces.com/