Korpijaakko

Ehm… Another post starting with “it’s been quiet here lately”. The blog has been quiet as I’ve been busy with the everyday chores of being a dog sledding guide and then occupying all my spare time with putting together guided ski expeditions and courses. The latter are actually turning out to be quite a success and I have the minimum number of participants for each course/expedition secured so they will happen! If you’re interested, take a look at the info page (info-sivut Suomeksi) and drop me an e-mail!

At Vatnajökull in 2012. I will be heading back there in 2013 – and you are welcome to join me!

But while I’ve been busy with dogs and sitting behind the screen, there are people out there doing incredible expeditions. And you can follow them (nearly) live on you own computer. Neat!

The most awesome expedition for quite some time (in my opinion) is Alex Hibbert’s Dark Ice Project together with Justin Miles. Their plan is to do an unsupported ski expedition to the North Pole in full Arctic winter during the polar night and do it all unsupported. Oh, and to start from Greenland and possibly ski back (at least to the floating Barneo ice station). Quite something, huh? To make this happen requires a lot of work performed in two stages: The first stage is a long depot laying expedition this winter and the bid to the Pole will happen the next winter. The expedition is at the moment in Qaanaaq in North-West Greenland doing last preparations and launching to the ice on Friday! You can follow them on their website, Twitter and follow the progress tracked by Yellowbrick Tracking.

Another interesting expedition is Eric Larsen’s Cycle South. A “full” bicycle expedition from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole. This has never been done before and even though Eric will have two resupply caches on the way, it’s quite different from truck and TV crew supported celebrity stunt seen earlier. And as good adventurers do, Eric also plans to cycle back from the Pole conditions permitting. Every fatbikers wet dream has just launched from Colorado and will be starting from Hercules Inlet in 20.12. There should be web updates coming from the ice. Twitter and expedition website are probably the best sources to catch up with the expedition.

The third expedition is not especially ground breaking, it’s “just a” guided (by Hannah McKeand) and supported expedition to South Pole but the other of the customers on the trip happens to be Finnish Eero Oura, a 63-year-old doctor about to retire. The expedition is already skiing at Antarctica and Eero has a blog in Finnish about the expedition to South Pole and at least I find it interesting to follow. Something that proves that any fit normal guy with enough savings can go and ski to a Pole. Dreams are always worth following!