LD Mountain Centre is proud to introduce Fjällräven Polar participant, Phil Raisbeck, as our guest blogger. Phil had what he calls his ‘Outdoor Epiphany’ back in 2012 when he agreed to his step-brother’s suggestion of walking the Cathar Way in the Pyrenees. Soon hooked on the outdoors, hiking and gear, Phil pursued his new found passion by completing the Tour du Mont Blanc. His highlight, however, was winning the chance to take part in the Fjällräven Polar this year.

The Polar is a 300km journey via dog sled across the Arctic tundra from Signaldalen, Norway to the forests around Jukkasjärvi, Swedish. Conditions of the polar can be grim, with participants experiencing temperatures of -30°C, gale winds and exhausting terrain. We’re looking forward to Phil sharing his experiences over the next couple of weeks.

FP 2014: Day 1 – The Fjällräven Family Reunion

After spending the night in the lovely hotel 32 Rum & Kök by the lake in Sigtuna, literally on my own, not even staff present during the night, which was a strange experience in itself, I woke and headed for breakfast where I was relieved to actually see some staff as they served me my pre-ordered porage breakfast.

My fellow participants from around the world were due to arrive from their respective countries throughout the morning, but I didn’t have long to wait until the first two arrived in Alex from the US and Katrina from Estonia. So it was nice that I wasn’t alone any longer as they watched me eat my breakfast, before moving to the lounge area to chat and watch out of the window guessing who would be next to be dropped off by the Fjällräven mini bus.

It was a great experience as we met each other throughout the morning, as it felt was more like a family reunion rather than a meeting of strangers from around the world. This was probably due to us getting to know each other very well via our private online polar and Whatsapp groups in the 4 months prior. With conversations often about personal things rather than polar related topics, and often hilarious in their content, which resulted in many of us been given new nicknames.

After lunch it was time for our briefing form Johan Skullman who explained in great detail about what we could expect during our trek as well how important to use our clothing in the correct way using the layering principal and why certain clothes had been designed in a specific way. You could not help but be engrossed in everything Johan was telling us. It was clear why past polar participants refer to him as a legend. What he doesn’t know about outdoors skills in unpredictable climates and conditions is not worth knowing. We were in very safe hands with our new legend friend Johan.

Following our briefing form Johan, were taken to the room where all of our individual rucksacks were laid out containing all our clothing and equipment required for our trek. It felt like Christmas morning as we headed back to our rooms to try it all out and make any size changes if necessary.

After unwrapping our Fjällräven Christmas presents, we headed to the restaurant for our evening meal where we were told which country team we are paired with. Phil and myself were paired with team Norway’s Madeleine and Jostein. Which I was really pleased with as both Phil and Jostein have plenty of military experience between them and Madeleine lived very close to where we would start our trek, so I knew we would do ok.

It was then back to our rooms before a 5:30 wake up call before heading to Tromso in Norway where the adventure would really start.

Next Time – Polar Training Camp