In Summer 2005 Lottie Riddle from Coldwell Street Wirksworth, joined an expedition to the Norwegian Arctic. This is an account of the adventure in her own words.
So. Here it is. I have a few lines to capture a whole month to convey to you the sincere gratitude I feel towards every person who supported me to help me undertake the most amazing, indescribable and life changing experience I have ever had.
After months of fundraising, preparation and anxiety (on top of my A-Levels!) not just from me but everyone around me who helped (or just got in the way of my stressing!) I was finally at the airport, with my fellow expeditioners, ready to go into the unknown! We didn’t know what lay before us in the month ahead.
My fire group (exploration group) named ‘Aegir’, became my family for the month. We went through all the highs and lows together. From this expedition I not only gained an experience but friends that I will have for life and whom I will share so many memories with. I was also blessed with 2 magnificent leaders who mentored, befriended and cared for us while pushing us to our limits as a group.
ARCTIC OCEAN BY KAYAK
For the first 2 weeks of the expedition we were exploring the North most Norway islands in the Arctic Oceans. We were free with just the decisions of the weather conditions to where we could go-we explored the mostly untouched environment, unseen by so many eyes. The exceedingly cold temperature of the sea and the scary jellyfish infested waters prevented me from capsizing, which I was very worried about due to my minimal kayaking experience! We caught fish everyday, which brought a welcome change from the dry packed food! Due to stormy weather we were stranded on an island for 4 days, as it was too dangerous to go out into the sea in our kayaks. Unfortunately the island we were stuck on had a 20-minute trek to the water source and all we were tent bound. Eventually as food supply became problem we called in for help and a local fishing trawler came and rescued us and took us back to safety! I don’t think they had ever had to do anything like that before!
During the kayaking experience we carried out pollution tests of the beaches and were monitoring wildlife citings.
MOUNTAINS AND GLACIERS
We had a rest day 2 weeks into the expedition where we sorted out kit, food supplies and packed ready for 2 weeks on the glaciers.
The walking was the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do, physically and mentally.
I’ve always thought I was pretty fearless until I was put in a unknown environment, with no safety net where I realised I was actually scared of everything, every movement I took was conquering a fear. The steps we took could lead to a fatal situation, there was no certainty in anything we did.
It took days to get up to a reasonable altitude and we discovered the glaciers had retreated by quite a lot since the maps were made, so we noted down these changes and carried on our search.
Some quick ice training with the crampons and ice axe arrests were practiced in case we encountered an emergency situation. The glaciers took hours to climb and were exhausting. Avoiding crevasses and looking down were 2 of my main objectives! Once at the top though all the effort was worth it as the views were like nothing I’ve ever seen before and I felt like I was in a dream. It was surreal and something I had never even imagined.
Coming down the mountains was a struggle especially with the weight of our rucksacks as we had to carry all our food supplies, ropes, tents, personal kit.
I think the most culturally challenging parts of the expedition were going to the toilet (as you can imagine), eating the same food everyday for a month, and wearing the same clothes for a month (very smelly!).
When leaving the Artic I was sad to leave the environment I had made my home. I realised that in reality you don’t need much in life to get by-give me a mountain, a tent, some food and a great bunch of people and I’ll be happy.
THANKS
Thank you for everyone’s support, advice, organisation help and tolerance of me!
The expedition as well as supporting the protection of the environment was the best thing I have ever done and hopefully there will be more expeditions for me in the future.
