A cross-country skier who took on the world’s longest and oldest race through the Arctic Circle said it had been “a little bit scary”.
Matt Ireland, from Didcot, took on the 137-mile (220km) Nordenskiöldsloppet race across northern Sweden in March in a bid to raise funds for the search and rescue team he volunteers for, Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire.
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He completed the event in just over 27 hours – all whilst battling sleep deprivation, exhaustion and isolation.
The 36-year-old, who describes himself as “barely an amateur” skier, said the challenge had ended up being “as tough as it sounds”.
Ireland described himself as “barely an amateur” skier [Matt Ireland]
But he said his surroundings during the race had been “amazingly beautiful”.
“[There was] amazing, picturesque scenery – skiing through silent pine forests, across frozen lakes with the backdrop of the of the mountains towering above, really cool sunsets,” he said.
Although he said he found the seclusion of the challenge “a little bit” scary at points, he explained that it also led to an “incredible moment” at nighttime.
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“There was one moment where I stopped, turned my torch off and just tried to listen to what was out there,” he said.
“Absolute silence – there was nothing out there, no movement, and I looked up into the sky and saw the northern lights.”
“There’s not many places or chances in life to go where you have no light pollution, no noise pollution and you’re just there in the moment.”
When he’s not skiing more than a hundred miles, Ireland volunteers for Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire [Matt Ireland]
Matt explained that of his 27 hours on the snow, his total rest time was “two to three hours” in total, with “no sleep whatsoever”.
“I don’t think at any point during that whole period of time I closed my eyes longer than a blink. In the early hours of the morning, it was definitely trying to sleep when I didn’t want it to,” he said.
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“I think that there were a few moments where I had to motivate myself to get back out there – I really had to dig quite deep.”
Following the conclusion of the race, he said: “I felt like I was hungover. [I was] dehydrated and nauseous from eating high energy foods.”
He said he had taken up the challenge “as a kind of reminder that occasionally when you’re making a big transition in life, feeling lost can be a necessary prompt to find that next step forward”.
“It may come from a direction that you don’t realise,” he added.
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