The hardest part is getting to the start line.
28th February 2026 - Hemmavan, Sweden
It was a beautiful sunny day when we flew into Hemmavan 5 days ago. A touch cold perhaps at a balmy -20°c but beautiful nonetheless.
Our journey from London, lugging more than 50kg of kit and involving one international and two internal flights had been remarkably smooth. No wheelie bags for us, just ungainly pulks (sleds), skis and multiple kit bags.
Sweden/snow from above
Hemavan airport and our lovely little plane. As photographed by someone who clearly doesn’t know better than to take a photo directly into the sun.
It had though taken many weeks of hard work to get us here; checking and buying kit; researching and plotting the route for the garmin GPS device; getting and staying fit (the less we say about how successful we were in that regard the better) and myriad other tasks that any expedition requires.
Our start line at that point was still 5 days away and there was still much to do.
The next few days were dedicated to shopping for food supplies, fuel, batteries etc. We also needed to pack and send resupply boxes filled with freeze dried food to various places along our route, which is always fraught, but, once again, everything went relatively smoothly. We even had time for a few acclimatisation skis.
Shopping on skis. Bright lights big city. Downtown Hemavan. That’s pretty much it apart from a lot of holiday homes.
A good friend of mine once told me that the hardest part of any race/event is getting to the start line. He wasn’t wrong.
It’s now the last day of February though and our start date is less than 24 hours away. The preparation is complete. We have finished all the chores. Our pulks, Pulky III and ALP (Mrs P’s initials) are all packed and, apart from our toothbrushes, ready to roll. Erm, not roll… Ready to… erm… slide. Yes, that’s it ‘ready to slide.’
We have, barring overnight disasters, made it to the start line.
Me, dropping hints
All hotels are ski in, ski out on cross country skis
Mrs P making the most of her last day without a pulk
Chillin’ by the fire.
So, tomorrow we head off and I am finally prepared to share part one of our adventure. We will be skiing north(ish) approximately 76 kilometres (47 miles) over five days to a place called Ammarnäs. We will stay in a mix of mountain cabins and our trusty tent along the way. For those with a map fetish the points on the map follow.
Day 1 - Viterskalet Mountain Cabin
Day 2 - Syter Mountain Cabin (a tent night)
Day 3 - Täransjö Mountain cabin (a tent night)
Day 4 - Serve Mountain Cabin
Day 5 - Ammarnäs
At Ammarnäs we will assess our fitness and capability to continue on to stage 2.
You can follow our progress via satellite tracking by going to the website homepage and clicking on the map image. Once the map opens click on the crosshairs icon (bottom right hand corner) and it will show the route and our current location. It updates every 10 minutes.
You will have to read the next blog to find out what happens on this stage but don’t expect anything for at least 6 days as there ain’t no wifi in them thar hills.
