This ice cap journey is an ultimate balance between speed and endurance. To achieve such an endeavour in less than 40 days, over such difficult terrain whilst enduring the most ferocious of weather, the team will require a combination of fitness components. These are endurance, stamina, strength, skill and speed, all of which need to be addressed equally, as any area of weakness will leave the team prone to injury and jeopardise the success of the expedition. Their regime has been designed around maximum exertion both physically and mentally to understand their own strengths and weaknesses as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the other team member.

In this instance ‘Long term training’ referrers to relevant training and expeditions that team members have been on in the past. Although some previous expeditions may not seem to provide immediately obvious skills for this journey, simply being on an expedition under strenuous conditions is an absolutely critical part of undertaking a journey such as this. No matter how many simulation weekends you do nothing will prepare you quite like the real thing. To find out more about the teams previous expedition experience please visit their personal website at www.primaljourney.com

The areas of training needed to make up the 5 fitness components that are specific to this ice cap crossing are as follows. The team will have to develop their STRENGTH for two key areas, the first for carrying their 40KG+ packs, requiring a strong core, back and shoulders, and secondly for skiing and climbing, for which they must build great leg strength. The SKILLS needed seem endless, but the 3 core skills that must be rehearsed again and again are ski touring, glacier travel and rope work. STAMINER will be needed to maintain a minimum distance of 16km a day and ENDURANCE to sustain the workload for 40 days. Finally the SPEED component comes in to play as both team members’ fitness levels must be high enough to maintain their constant speed regardless of the gradient or terrain.

To achieve this, the team have been following a weekly training regime since April, which is when they returned from their previous expedition to the Arctic Ocean. Obviously the training schedule is limited to a degree to leave time for the never-ending additional elements of running expeditions; planning, logistics, sponsorship and earning a living. If only it could be just training!

In addition to the weekly training that the team are able to carry out in the French Alps, where possible they have gone on short simulation expeditions to develop and practice the skills needed in a realistic environment. This is a critical element to the teams safety, knowing procedures in a white out when dangling from a rope is when it matters. Something that is also often overlooked is camp routines, it is crucial to rehearse these time and time again so that in poor weather conditions exhausted and hungry, the preparation of camp can be as slick as possible. Similarly with the packing of the backpack’s, as simple as it sounds having an exact place for every item, which perfectly balances the pack, is very important, but even more importantly is that both team members knows where every item lives in each others pack in case of an emergency. These training expeditions also allow for longer training sessions where their endurance and stamina can be assessed and in turn the weekly programme can be increased or sustained to suit. On the actual expedition both team members will have to move together and therefore understanding their differing fitness levels is vital to ensure that they are both able to cover the daily distance at the same speed and that they also finish each day in a similar physical condition.