THE ARCTIC : Extreme Training

When you decide to make a solo journey overland from Russia to Canada by way of the North Pole, you don’t just get up and go. No, you train, you practice, and – you hope – you prepare for all eventualities.

            That’s what Borge Ousland, a veteran f polar trekking, did before his journey. Knowing that he might unexpectedly break through as he trudged across the frozen Arctic Ocean, he slipped beneath the ice in a fjord not far from his home in Oslo, Norway, wearing skis, so that he could work on escape techniques. Aware that he would have to swim across leads too wide to leap, he donned a dry suit he dubbed “Captain Nemo,” testing its drawstrings inside his house while wearing makeshift skis. Borge was conscious of the strength it takes to haul a heavy sledge across high-Arctic ice and trained five or six times a week for nearly a year, dragging two rubber tires while wearing a 66-pound pack. “It’s the same kind of physical effort, “ he says.

            The trek was Borge’s fourth major solo effort following journeys to both Poles and across Antarctica. “This is my last big solog,” he says. “I’m quite content.” Still, he rules out nothing, “There will be other trek with other people at other places, but it’s far too early to know now.”