From 29 March to 5 Apr, a team of 8 Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force Reservists using Nordic skis will attempt to cover part of the of the extremely challenging Kungsleden (King’s Trail) in Sweden. Sponsored and planned by the Ulysses Trust, and underwritten by the Nuffield Trust, the expedition will be lead by John Howie, a highly qualified and professional adventurous training leader. John, formerly of the HAC and the RAuxAF and now serving as an expedition instructor in the Army Cadet Force, tells us that:
“In total we shall ski 122 kms. Temperatures can vary at that time of year from -5C to as low as -30C, and we can be skiing into savage wind, snowfall and poor visibility. Participants will be skiing with expedition size rucsacs, and we shall be cooking for ourselves on the Trail, chopping wood for fires and accessing water with the use of an auger from frozen streams and lakes. There are emergency wind shelters on some legs which can be used in extremis. Terrain will vary from gently undulating which is typical of the northern reaches there to some steep and physically demanding ascents, and some descents which will prove challenging to the less experienced skiers, especially with a rucsac. Bathing is a rub down in the snow.
The aim of the expedition is to experience adventurous training rather than arduous training, the latter being more pertinent to hardened Mountain and Arctic Warfare troops. I aim to introduce the participants, most of whom will be new to nordic ski touring in a very remote area, to wild arctic conditions, where they will develop survival and navigation skills as well as the technical skiing skills needed to climb the hills and descend the other side safely. If the conditions are good, we shall snow-hole, and we shall also cover avalanche awareness as a matter of course. I strongly believe, and have been taught over the last 30 years of military adventurous training, that the essential is to take people out of their comfort zones, to push their limits but in such a way as to encourage them further on this path, but not to make the expedition so technically hard or physically demanding that the resultant effect is that they are put off for life! This is a challenging tour, and one which will test the participants and also encourage them. It is a great Nordic classic and an exceptionally good introduction to the North.”