Back from Alaska

After a fabulous week of training in Alaska, I flew back to London. It will be difficult to go back to training on rollerskis in the park again, after the beautiful cold Alaskan snow. I had only one sled there, which means that it tended to sink in fresh snow thus making it more difficult to drag. But the harness I used and which was sitting tightly right under my hip bones was more comfortable than the shoulder harness I used in Norway. I found that it was much kinder on my back and made me use my legs more. The last day of training I decided not to use my poles at all and found out that it was actually great training for my technique. I must be careful not to use my arms too much as I need them for digging the snow when putting up the tent, but instead let my legs do the work as this is the right way to cross country ski. I could do this as I was on a track all day and the snow was pretty hard. The 50 minutes of effort/ 10 minutes of resting routine is also much easier now, and at the end of the week, I was really well organised and the rest time was plenty enough to eat, drink and recuperate. Of course, it probably did help that we ate very well in the evenings with plenty of delicious fish, crab and meat, so I had enough proteins and calories and so did not get tired from the exercise. In the mornings, I tried to have a similar porridge than the one we are going to have on the trip, and it worked very well.

Just 11 days to the start of the trip!! It is really coming fast now, but I feel that I am ready. My clothes from Bryjne should arrive at Petter's home any minute now and I am confident that they will fit perfectly. As I was leaving the lodge, Bret, the manager surprised me with a present. A big warm jacket to wear during the trip, and I must say that it was a very pleasant surprise as just looking at the Tordrillos logo will bring back some wonderful memories and make me very happy, which is what I will need when the going will get tough. I just need to buy some last food items and then I will have everything I need.

Just as I was coming through my front door, I got a call from Petter regarding our trip's insurance. It seems that the Danish authorities are very strict now on the level of insurance we have to take, as they had to conduct much more Search and Rescue operations last year due to big lakes forming on the ice cap from the melting ice. Siometimes those lakes are so big, that, not only are they very difficult to cross, but all the equipment becomes wet which makes it impossible to continue as we have no way of drying anything bigger than what can fit with us in our sleeping bags! But we all called our contacts who were wonderfully helpful and ressourceful and it seems that we have solved the situation. I just booked my hotel in Copenhagen on the way out on April 29th, and my return flight from Iceland on May 26th. So it looks like I am all set!