A Lapland fund raising challenge– April 2008

By George Bruell

• See George's photos 

In 2005, my five-year-old son, Joshua, started having unexplained seizures. After several hospital visits, consultations and tests he was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. My wife and I were in a state of shock. We had no idea what lay ahead for Joshua, his younger sister Anna, or us and the rest of the family.
 
Lennox-Gastaut is an epilepsy syndrome that starts in childhood, is difficult to treat and is characterised by frequent seizures and different seizure types. We were advised that it is often accompanied by problems with understanding and behaviour.
 
After a very tough twelve months, however, his symptoms slowly started to improve and stabilise. Since the beginning of 2007 he has improved in a significant way, amazing his doctors. He is now able to fully participate at school and in other daily events with only occasional and subtle effects of his condition being evident.
 
The time was right to consider how I could help others in a similar position. This led to my signing up for one of Epilepsy Action’s fundraising challenges, promoted on the charity’s website. I decided to go for Lapland: the Husky Trail – a week’s dog-sledding in the Arctic! In a moment of weakness my good friend, Matthew, agreed to join me in the fundraising challenge.
 
After months of preparing ourselves physically, assembling the right kit for our week in the snow and some serious fundraising, we embarked on our journey in April 2008. We started our adventure in the town of Tromso, a small town in northern Norway, 350km inside the Arctic Circle.
 
Our first night was spent on reindeer skins in a traditional lavvo (a tent that looks like a wigwam with a roaring fire in the middle). The next morning, our group of twelve cold and anxious English trekkers set off for the high Norwegian mountains, accompanied by four guides from the dog sled centre.
 
Each of us had our own sled. It held all our personal belongings and provisions for the next six days – including dog food and our tents – and was pulled by a team of six willing and enthusiastic husky dogs. With over 100 huskies between us, the sound was quite something when they all started to howl and bark in their excitement.
 
We developed a routine for each day, normally starting at around 7am. Being as far north as we were, the daylight started around 4.30am and lasted for nearly eighteen hours. We would start with a bowl of porridge – cooked in our tent and often eaten in our sleeping bag. We would then pack up our tent, feed the dogs and prepare our sled by attaching and harnessing our dogs.
 
We had to take great care to have the sled well secured. The dogs would happily run to the other side of the North Pole, taking the sled with them – together with all your belongings, if not secured fast! We travelled in convoy, always led by our chief Norwegian guide, Tore. In his tireless style, he would soldier on into the wild wilderness of the Lapland terrain, with the rest of the party following – sometimes going five hours without a stop.
 
The terrain was very mixed. We saw wide expansive mountains  – where often we spotted reindeer in the distance – and flat lakes. We negotiated narrow paths through woods that were steep enough to get the adrenaline flowing. While most of the time the sledding itself was relatively straight forward, most of the English party still managed to fall off once or twice. Most amusingly, this would then require the rider to rapidly pursue the sled in order to stop the dogs running away – much like you would imagine a gardener pursuing an out-of-control lawn mower.
 
We all wrapped up warm to withstand the cold temperatures and wind. I wore up to six layers on my body (including a down jacket) and three layers on my hands. I also sported a windproof hat, jacket hood, goggles and balaclava – plus a neckwarmer over my face. All this was just about enough to keep me comfortable!
 
Each day when Tore found a spot to camp close to where he knew there was running water, the afternoon routine would begin. Sledding rules dictate that the dogs are always provided for first. Once they are staked out, fed and watered it was our turn to set up our tents and settle down for the cold night ahead. This was hard work since we were often in snow up to our waist.
 
Finally, we would retreat into our tent to prepare the evening meal: always some‘boil-in-the-bag’ form of culinary delight. I have to say, in those conditions any warm food was a great comfort. Conditions were hard, with temperatures sometimes dropping to -25 °C. We found the secret to sleeping on a ground sheet directly on the snow was to have warm food inside you, as well as high-quality equipment (sleeping mats and sleeping bag). Even then, we still woke up with ice on our hats – although that was nothing a bowl of hot porridge couldn’t help to cheer us up with!
 
Five nights and six days after setting off we arrived at our destination – the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, 250km (over 150 miles) from our set-off point across the border in northern Sweden. The sense of achievement and satisfaction was immense. We were left with a strong feeling of appreciation for the husky dogs upon whom we had greatly relied. They had each run about a marathon distance each day.
 
We spent six days in the wild – with many of the things we normally take for granted taken away. This gave me an enormous appreciation for anything I did have during those days, however basic. The husky dogs’ drive to keep going was relentless, even in the face of strong headwinds and severe conditions. This just illustrated some of the resilience and persistence we all need when faced with adverse conditions of our own.