A Chesterfield-based middle-aged astroparticle physicist recently took her sledge for a pleasant 500km stroll through the Arctic. “It was fun”, she said. “Initially, I didn’t think I was moving fast enough to finish within the cutoff, but in the end I made it.”


Day 3: it’s daylight, but the Sun’s not yet up. A line of poles with red crosses stretches across a frozen lake as far as the eye can see. Cold mist rolls in, and the person in front slowly becomes invisible.

Morning day 5: the sky is clear, it’s a beautiful day. Ahead, an avenue of small trees, adorned with ice balls that shimmer in the Sun.

Evening day 5: head-down, grinding out the last mile or so to the next checkpoint. Two expedition down jacket-clad figures huddled on a pulk emerge from the dark. A familiar but demoralised voice: “There’s still another 10k to go.”

Night day 6/7: the night sky is a pitch-black hemispherical dome, the stars bright lights shining through holes. And slowly the Northern lights start. Initially, a gentle glow that slowly grows until the whole sky fizzes with sheets of green light.

Late afternoon 9: Överkallix, and the return to civilisation, slowly comes into view. I’m happy to finish, but I don’t want this to end.


“I'm in a wide open space, I'm standing
I'm all alone and staring into space

I'm in a wide open space, it's freezing
You'll never get to heaven with a smile on your face from me”

“All the things you learned too young
The songs you knew but you never sung
You waited a long time, you wasted more
Forgotten what you waited for

Excuse me ma'am for being so rude
Feels like 100 years of solitude”

Lyrics: 'Wide Open Space', Mansun; '100 Year Of Solitude', The Levellers