EXPEDITION LIMITLESS 2023 –PREPARING FOR THE ARCTIC

Words by: Martin Malone & Sian Coleman Photography by: Simon Powner, SP Media Productions

In the winter 2022 edition, the 6 Bay Swim Challenge was featured as the first fundraising event for Omnia Mind’s Expedition Limitless 2023, which raised an incredible £17k. Since then, the Expedition team has been busy fundraising and preparing for the Expedition, which included a week of intensive cold weather training in Sweden.

The expedition will take a team of 12 people (10 from the Isle of Man) on an incredible 110km, unsupported, snowshoe trek above the Arctic Circle, along the Kungsleden Trail, with two goals in mind, to raise £50,000 for Isle Listen and to demonstrate the innate resilience that resides in all of us, which is revealed through adversity.

In preparation for the unforgiving Arctic conditions, the team has undergone extensive winter survival skills training to prepare us for every eventuality including temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius. At these temperatures, even the smallest decision, like taking off a glove, has consequences. The training was delivered in Kavstabacken, Sweden under the expert guidance of Matt Larson-Clifford, (the owner of Sweden Outdoors Coaching) and Expedition Leader and Phil Quirk of Omnia Mind who conceived the idea of Expedition Limitless and who will also be an Expedition Leader.

Having met together as a full group for the first time in Arlanda airport, the Expedition team was about to embark on what would become an unforgettable week of adventure, resilience training and team bonding. There was an air of apprehension as we politely exchanged greetings, but it wasn’t long before we were faced with our first challenge when our bags and Arctic kit didn’t arrive from London. The calibre of the team was quickly revealed as we worked together to get the bags on the next flight, negotiate a change to our non-refundable, non-changeable train tickets and get to Indal on time.

As we stepped off the train in Sundsvall, into -21 degrees Celsius, we were under no illusion that this was going to be a tough week. To put this into perspective, your home freezer is -15! The training week was designed to prepare us physically and mentally for the harsh conditions above the Arctic circle, but it also gave us an opportunity to test our kit and equipment and deal with any issues before the Expedition.

Training started with classroom lectures and then outside for a lesson on snowshoeing, which will be our means of transport along the Kungsleden trail. Trekking in snowshoes bring its own challenges but without them it’s impossible to move across the deep snow, so when outside, you wear them all the time. It was important for us to spend as much time as possible getting used to them.

Once snowshoeing was mastered, we were challenged with a whole host of other winter training activities to prepare us for life on the Expedition. The toughest of which was a full day trek through the forest, in deep snow, with planned 5-minute breaks to eat and drink. Any more than a 5 minute break in the Arctic and your body temperature drops, so we have to keep moving to generate body heat and stay warm. After a long hard day on our feet, we finally arrived at our camp for the night and as the sun dropped below the horizon, the temperature plummeted to -16 degree Celsius, making even the simplest tasks challenging. It was essential that team worked quickly to light a fire, cook food, and prepare for the long, cold night ahead.

At -16 degrees Celsius, everything freezes quickly, so pitching our shelters and preparing our sleeping systems was critical to avoid hypothermia during the night. When sleeping in temperatures this low, all your kit, including your clothing and boots must be kept inside your sleeping bag to ensure they don’t freeze. Even with the appropriate sleeping system in place, it was brutally cold and difficult to stay warm during the night.

We broke camp at 7.30am after what was one of the toughest nights of our lives, we were cold and weary but had an even bigger challenge ahead. In just a few hours, the whole team would have to undertake a self-rescue from a hole cut from the ice on a frozen river. As we walked out of the forest, the team was unusually quiet in anticipation of what was to come.

When we arrived at the river and started to cut the hole in the ice, it became all too real. The air temperature was -13 and the water temperature was on the verge of freezing, but this was what training week was all about, getting out of our comfort zone, building resilience, and supporting each other as a team.

We were all nervous and quiet with our thoughts but thanks to Phil and Matt’s training, we had built a strong team dynamic during the week and not wanting to let each other down, it was clear everybody was going in, including our camera man Simon. What an incredible achievement on our last day of training. On the trek back to camp the team spirit was high with an intense feeling of collective accomplishment. After supporting each other through those last 24 hours, it felt like there was nothing we couldn’t accomplish together.

Training week was a great success. We learnt a lot about ourselves and each other but more importantly, we formed a very strong team bond. We are all looking forward to meeting again in Abisko, at the start of the Kungsleden trail for what will be an adventure of a lifetime above the Arctic Circle.

We are now back on the Isle of Man, training and continuing our fundraising efforts for Isle Listen. We are so grateful for the support we have received so far from our sponsors and the very generous, Manx public. If you would like to support the team by making a donation, you will find the team’s individual and overall donation pages on JustGiving, just search for Expedition Limitless 2023.

Expedition Limitless 2023 is the first of 4 incredible expeditions taking place between 2023 & 2026, with the pinnacle being an expedition to the South Pole in 2026, so watch this space. Along the way, Expedition Limitless hopes to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for IOM charities.

A special thank you to our amazing partners, corporate and proxy sponsors who have made this possible - Omnia Health Group, Zurich International, IQEQ, 1886, MuchBetter, Boston Consulting Group, Atla Group, The Rotary Club, Simply Nutrition and Mountain Equipment for supplying our Arctic clothing.

The team will leave for the Arctic on the 25 March, and you can follow our progress on our Facebook page - Expedition Limitless 2023.