Thriving below zero: an Antarctic experience with the Frozen Dagger expedition

“‘We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.’”

— Barbara De Angelis

After designing his expedition’s branding in 2022, I travelled to Umeå, northern Sweden, to meet Sam Cox, a former Royal Marines Commando officer, and see how he is preparing for a world-record breaking expedition to the South Pole at the end of 2023.

Entitled the ‘Frozen Dagger’ project, Sam will be skiing almost 2000 kilometres in the name of biomedical sciences and human performance, whilst also fundraising for the Movember and Rock to Recovery charities. A hugely inspiring endeavour, I’m sure you’ll agree!

Facilitated by the hugely knowledgeable, Toby Cowern, an Antarctic survival and wilderness therapy specialist and his fantastic set-up at Hello Nature, we spent a really interesting few days in the beautiful Swedish snowy nature seeing his equipment, checking training routes, and hearing more about how he will carry out this incredible expedition – within a few hours, the idea of my own polar expedition has found its way into my subconscious, and I find myself looking at how much equipment costs. Suffice to say, it’s not cheap, but I can see you pay a premium for products that have been extensively tested to literally keep you alive.

Sam has invited a number of expedition partners, supporters, and those interested in Antarctic travel to join him in northern Sweden, to experience a 5-day long Antarctic experience to help empathise with some of the conditions that he’ll be facing on his challenge, and how he’s preparing to tackle them.

 

The participants join the experience.

After a few days setting up and checking the conditions, Sam and Toby travel an hour to Umeå city, to collect the participants for an immersive week-long experience in the Swedish wilderness, where they could understand the depth of preparation that goes into big endeavours like this and undertake several days dragging pulks and sleeping in the cold temperatures.

Notably, one of the participants is Ali, CEO of the adventure food company, Resilient Nutrition, who kindly bought out a load of their products for the members to eat on their nights under canvas and experience what Sam will be eating for many months to fuel his world-record-breaking expedition. We get chatting and it quickly becomes apparent he knows what he’s talking about in the complex world of expedition nutrition and the body’s unique needs for operating in the constrained space between weight, taste, energy types (i.e., protein, fats, carbohydrates, etc), and product lifespan.

My third day with the group is great mixture of theory and practical demonstrations. It starts by discussing basic principles such as layering, how to choose and setup the skis, how to use the cooking systems, and ends up taking a deep dive into complex nutrition requirements, katabatic winds, anaerobic respiration, and a slew of other hugely interesting topics that really bring the symphony involved in physical endeavour to life.

I’m utterly engaged in this stuff and wrestle my own impulse to jump in and prolong the discussion – they’ve got a lot to cover before their first night ‘in the field’.

Our fourth day of the Antarctic experience sees the participants taught the fundamentals of how to survive and thrive in the polar environments, cross country skiing, and navigation, before putting it to the test hauling everything they need for a night out in sub-zero temperatures, through the beautiful Swedish wilderness.

For some people, it’s their first time even seeing camping gear in years, and they’ve gone straight into some cold temperatures so I’ve huge respect for them, and resolve to ensure that I’m still able to do these kind of endeavours in my sixties!

We have a workshop on the principles of cold weather travel from Toby, and how to ensure you have the right priorities to get you to your destination in the optimal condition by economising your effort. Being based in the Baltic country, Estonia, I see some direct overlap for tactics I can use on the days I’m out exploring it by mountain bike when the temperature is well below zero. It’ll last for the next few months before spring kicks in, so I can immediately apply the lessons.

I’ve also come to accept that my time as a Royal Marines Commando officer has given me more than just a passing interest in cold environments and I may likely explore it further with my own Antarctic expedition at some point, when I figure out whether it’s on two skis, two wheels, or some other method.

Almost time to go home.

My last day of the experience is a visceral tour through the incredible Swedish wilderness, with some epic spring sunlight!

Coming in after a night in -5 °C and some deep powdery snow (itself a physical workout to move about in), the group makes its way back to the apartment (aka basecamp) to rewarm, recaffeinate, and restock, before making its way back out into the countryside for more exploration.

In the afternoon, a long pulk haul gets replaced with a leisurely lunchbreak at a trailhead and bothy, conveniently located next to a stunning fast-flowing river, and optimised by a blue skies and zero wind – as if to get the grey matter moving for planning my own Antarctic challenges.

Whilst sadly, it’s my last day hanging out with the group of hardy explorers, it’s been a fascinating and insightful reminder by Sam and Toby, of the benefits of nature (especially for those of us millennials), adventure, and physical endeavour at regular intervals. Not only do they keep the ‘joie de vivre’ topped up, but also keeps me able to concentrate on work and career goals when the finish line is obscured.

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