All physical problems one has experienced earlier in life, suddenly springs to life. All of them at once. For me, this means a touch of lumbago, pains in a left knee, hernia and painful kidneys. Johan is faring better, though. He is strong and young and haven´t had time to attract physical problems yet. Still, he says he feels like he´s been run over by a train, twice, and only wants to sleep. We´re both experiencing mouth sores, painful gums, headaches and, unfortunately, for me, also a real tiring cough
Yes, I do worry quite a bit about everything. I guess I am a worrier. I am at my worst whilst on Expedition since I am, quite often, sure that I have brought on a deadly disease. My worst nightmare is getting an inflammation in my heart. Something which would make me a cripple for at least two years. I have heard, by rumor. On the Siberian Expedition, my partner, Johan Ivarsson had, to a certain degree, the same problem. Do read this little report from the expedition, and enjoy and laugh!
2004-12-02 – Fatigue
2 december, in the tent at N 66°25´45.8 E 151°50´57.6, 15 km;s, 9 hours hard slogging. One of Johans skiboots is on its way to break up and my coughing is getting worse. Snowing and overcast, almost whiteout.
We´ve passed the half way mark now. According to plan. And we´ve also reached the first stage of feeling utterly run down. Also expected. I´ve experienced this nasty fatigue on all of my Expeditions. This moment when all energy- and fat deposits are emptied and one has to find other means to continue forward.
This is when we start eating the extra rations of food that we´ve specifically brought with us, additional fat (5 kg;s of butter), think about the beloved ones at home, understand the privilege one is encountering by being here on the Kolyma during winter, generally daydream about positive things and look forward to the next exiting meeting with one of these fantastic Siberians, which on and off turns up along the Kolyma!
The indoor heating is on sauna level and everybody are chain-smoking, day and night, it´s like sleeping inside a smoking room. Terrible! Next time we come across people, probably in three days time in the Even village Uraba, no matter how cold it is, we´ll sleep outdoors in the tent!
This issue with emptied energy- and fat deposits is a less enjoyable experience. All physical problems one has experienced earlier in life, suddenly springs to life. All of them at once. For me, this means a touch of lumbago, pains in a left knee, hernia and painful kidneys. Johan is faring better, though. He is strong and young and haven´t had time to attract physical problems yet. Still, he says he feels like he´s been run over by a train, twice, and only wants to sleep. We´re both experiencing mouth sores, painful gums, headaches and, unfortunately, for me, also a real tiring cough. A result of these three times that we slept inside when visiting people during the first days after leaving Zyryanka. The indoor heating is on sauna level and everybody are chain-smoking, day and night, it´s like sleeping inside a smoking room. Terrible! Next time we come across people, probably in three days time in the Even village Uraba, no matter how cold it is, we´ll sleep outdoors in the tent!
Naturally this is a mentally tiring time. It is now you ask yourself why on earth do one put oneself through this freezingly, almost dangerous, hard slog. One definitely doubts once a day! In fact, there´s in reality very little you see during the skiing. It is to dark and the cold makes you cover your face thoroughly and you can´t see anything sidewise and your facemask makes it impossible to look down. Worst, though, is that your eyelids are continuously frozen together, so one almost gets a feeling of being inside a prison cell. So, the only thing you really see during a day of skiing, is the tracks made by the local fauna, one passes. Which, amazingly enough, isn´t to often. There´s no traces of people around. The only tracks we see are mainly left by hares, but also fox and wolf.
We´re therefore, a week earlier than hoped, been forced to use the extra rations of fat ( 50 grams of butter/person/day) and that also forces us from now on, to ski nonstop for 14 days to reach Srednekolymsk before we run out on food. It feels totally impossible right now.
Physical and mental fatigue was expected at this stage, but it is worse than I thought. The reason is not only the cold, which already has gone below -40°F, but also these far too heavy pulkas/sledges (100 kg;s per person), the grainy and heavy snow and these, sometimes 2 meters high, barriers of broken up ice. We´re therefore, a week earlier than hoped, been forced to use the extra rations of fat ( 50 grams of butter/person/day) and that also forces us from now on, to ski nonstop for 14 days to reach Srednekolymsk before we run out on food. It feels totally impossible right now.
We´ve also got problems sleeping, we just seem to be tossing and turning all night. For different reasons. I suspect Johan is only influenced by my worries. He´s just 21 and he´s done more than one can expect from someone who´s out on his first Expedition. So, if he would be forced to give up, that wouldn´t harm his future. Or life.
One subject of exploration, well, life in general, which people very seldom talk about is what happens if I fail? And, I am one of these uneasy people who worry about far too much. Both professionally and personally. And, always, about half way through an Expedition I get cold feet and a dreadful feeling that life will go to hell. That I will fail. The toughest period of anxiety was about half way during the Siberian Expedition. This is the report I wrote than, which still stands true today. Enjoy the read and please comment!
It is the 3rd February today, -49°F, and that means the extreme cold is back again. Plus a freezing northerly wind! No big joy, that´s for sure! We´re still having a cold, but no fever, so we think we´ve turned it around with the help of garlic, enormous portions of food and additional vitamins, heading for the better and consequently we´re setting off tomorrow!
At the present, we´ve been traveling for 6½ months. We´ve put most of what we hoped to accomplish behind us. As we see it, we have one remaining difficult stretch left. 350 km:s and a months skiing to Kolymskaya from here. After that, we reckon we have two easier stretches, at least on paper, where we only see polar bears and blizzards as the major obstacles. However, I am worried that we might fail during this upcoming stretch. Not we, but that I will.
The worry to fail is a subject nobody wants to talk about, even though this feeling is always present amongst most of us. What happens if I won´t make it? Or we?
We´re mentally and physically run down at the present, after a fantastic journey, but still, an extremely demanding Expedition. Our thoughts are as much at home as they are here. I know by experience, that these worries occur after a long time of travel. At least 6 months. You suddenly want to get it all over with, you miss your loved ones and there´s a potential of great danger in these thoughts.
There´s definitely a possibility this could happen on this upcoming stretch. We´re mentally and physically run down at the present, after a fantastic journey, but still, an extremely demanding Expedition. Our thoughts are as much at home as they are here. I know by experience, that these worries occur after a long time of travel. At least 6 months. You suddenly want to get it all over with, you miss your loved ones and there´s a potential of great danger in these thoughts. Of course, for this reason, we´ve both caught a cold. We still want to get going, though. We´ve also got problems sleeping, we just seem to be tossing and turning all night. For different reasons. I suspect Johan is only influenced by my worries. He´s just 21 and he´s done more than one can expect from someone who´s out on his first Expedition. So, if he would be forced to give up, that wouldn´t harm his future. Or life. It´s worse for somebody like myself who´s done this all my grown up life. 20 years. The full weight of the success of this Expedition is all on my shoulders.
Why do I worry? Because I don´t have a decent reason like Johans inexperience? Well, there´s a simple answer. The worry is that I won´t be able to keep the promise I´ve given to so many. Our sponsors, people who follow us from all over the world and the worry not to be able to tell others about this great remaining stretch of the Kolyma! And, of course, partly due to the fear how I will cope with a possible failure myself. I don´t fret regarding how other people will look upon me, I´ve stopped worried about that years ago, but how I would see myself. But than again, this anxiety is of course a normal human emotion. The sentiment called shame. Gee, I would like to know the thoughts of evolution which gave us humans this tiring emotion!
Fortunately, I´ve been in this position so many times, that I do know, that the only way to handle this wall of worries is to just throw in everything you have in the way of capacity and knock it over on the way with not one single thought of apprehension! But, still, what if?
It is indeed easy to get blinded by this worry and forget about all the overwhelming positive aspects. Like these fantastic people waiting in huts along the way, our chance to document the last stretch of this unique area and, once out there, experiencing that feeling of total freedom, stillness and harmony. One of the main reasons why it is impossible to stop doing this, living this life. When doing 10-12 hours of hard physical work every day, you clean your brain completely clean every day and that in combination means your sleep is really good. Most of the time. Anyhow, we will know how it all went within 4-6 weeks.
The other day, one of the globes biggest outdoor magazines asked me for an article on the choice of equipment during Arctic travel. Since I am in desperate need of time, due to changed family circumstances, I decided to send them this article which was written in the midst of a very cold Expedition! It is dated the 3rd of January 2005, but still does the job!
´´Why´´ , they ask, ´´haven´t you learned anything from the native people you´re living among, who´s knowledge how to dress and what equipment to choose in an extremely cold climate like the Siberian, has to be superior to any other. They have thousands of years of amassed knowledge!´´
A small note regarding the choice of equipment during Arctic Travel
3 Jan, 05 – 21:35
GPS-pos: N67°28´ | E153°42´ | Alt: 11 M
It´s the 3rd of January in a grey and overcast Srednekolymsk. It´s terribly cold out there, -55°F, but there´s no wind. The New Year Celebrations is continuing with the same unhampered joy. The bar´s and disco´s in the settlement are alive.
We continue to get mails from readers all over the western world, full of interesting opinions, heaps of advice and encouragement. Inspiring, fun and thought-provoking. Many of them has to do with our choice of equipment. Quite a few are of the opinion that we´ve picked the wrong choice of clothes and equipment for an extremely cold climate like this.
´´Why´´ , they ask, ´´haven´t you learned anything from the native people you´re living among, who´s knowledge how to dress and what equipment to choose in an extremely cold climate like the Siberian, has to be superior to any other. They have thousands of years of amassed knowledge!´´
One reader from Moscow even pointed out, that natives of this region probably have lived here for more than 300 000 years! (A Russian scientist, Yuri Mochanov, have found proof of this amazing fact along the northern part of river Lena, at an excavation site called Diring Yuriakh. That means, if it´s true, that there was a small pocket of life surrounded by the immense continental ice long before the dates we´re being taught in Scandinavian schools today!) Anyhow, I was of exactly the same opinion before leaving Sweden, namely that we would as fast as possible, get our hands on proper fur clothes before setting off on skis. And copy the natives way to dress. However, that was before I did any serious thinking. Especially regarding polar history. And, I changed my mind completely once Johan and I had a chance to try out these ancient and well-tested outfits.
Anyhow, I was of exactly the same opinion before leaving Sweden, namely that we would as fast as possible, get our hands on proper fur clothes before setting off on skis. And copy the natives way to dress. However, that was before I did any serious thinking. Especially regarding polar history. And, I changed my mind completely once Johan and I had a chance to try out these ancient and well-tested outfits.
Every single piece of equipment that we´re using on this Expedition, is the result of an ongoing development, which has taken place since the father of all polar travel, Frithjof Nansen, in the late 19th Century, started looking for the optimal equipment to use during physical travels in cold climates. Every single piece from the stove to the clothes we use. All the other knowledge we carry with us today as well, regarding how to travel and how to survive in this extreme cold, is also a development from this era. Arctic legends like Nansen, Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen, Knud Rasmusen, A.E Nordenskiold and Robert Falcon Scott have tried and used pretty much all existing materials like fur, canvas, leather, wool, cotton, felt to nylon. Tested under circumstances far more demanding than we´re experiencing at the moment.
The technical development has taken a big step since this epoch. We also understand the importance of what food to eat, what training and what type of preparations are needed, the full potential of the human body and the mental aspect much more. This also applies to the choice of equipment and clothes. Which is a certainty, since we´ve learned from the wide experience and mistakes of all those earlier travelers. Or at least it should be a certainty, but since we do continue to get questions and opinions about this, and since we´ve had doubts ourselves, maybe not! There´s also a fact that every single hunter, trapper and fisherman we´ve come across since leaving Zyryanka, have been utterly shocked and worried when they´ve seen how we´re dressed. They just shake their fur clad heads, look us in the eye´s and say:
´´This is no good at all. This is what you should have!´´
Then they point out, as we would be utterly mislead, what clothes and boots should be worn. What they don´t understand, and everybody else with the same opinion, including ourselves before we realized properly, is that when the native Siberians head outdoors in this extreme climate, every single step and thought they have, has to do with either getting food, do as little mistakes as possible, they never stress or overwork themselves and they try to preserve as much heat as possible. They´re not outdoors to do any sporting adventures which involves sleeping in a tent with no heating and physically abusing yourself. They travel either by snowmobile, slowly walking or, not that often, ski. They´re dressed from top to toe in a variety of fur clothes. Thin and thick garments in layers. By far the best choice of clothes if you ain´t moving too fast and you want to keep the cold at bay. And if you have a warm log cabin to return to in the evening. But if you´re out there, pulling a 100 kg heavy pulka/sledge behind you, going through rough terrain and sleeping in a tent, fur clothes are on the verge of being dangerous. They make you sweat enormously and sweat is no good at all. And not sweating is almost impossible if you do any hard work. And, anyone, who´s been sweating in fur garments, knows that it turns to ice in no time. And, for example, getting a fur glove on when it is frozen to ice, is a lot of unnecessary hard work. And it adds on to the risk of getting a nasty frostbite. By the way, even in our light wool underwear we sweat tremendously even in temperatures like -58°F and at times we have woken up in the morning, after freezing all night, having to thaw out the ice of the long underwear. That is a reality I don´t wish anyone to have to experience.
Nevertheless, there´s no doubt that we´ve been freezing too much lately. Dangerously much. And we will freeze even more once we start skiing again, the 1st of February. The reason for this is due to the fact, that temperatures will continue to be low plus that there will be more snow and, worst of all, February and March are a time of blizzards and snowstorms. Therefore, we´ve realized, some parts of our modern clothes are just not sufficient below - 58°F.
The human body is a phenomenal heat source as long as you´re moving. Which we do all the time, except when we´re inside the tent. Therefore, we dress to avoid sweating too much. Therefore a light set of underwear, a shirt, a pair of trousers and a Gore-Tex jacket with a hood is more than adequate to travel in. Even at these low temperatures. Plus a thin balaclava with a facemask and a pair of wind proofed gloves. And two pairs of light socks inside the boots. But, as quick as we stop, say just for a dump, we immediately whip out the thick down Jacket, the thickest down gloves and the thickest hood out of the pulka. Otherwise we would get serious problems. And when it is time to camp, boots off immediately as well and on with the down boots (bivvy boots), quickly inside the tent, get the stove going, get inside the sleeping bag and hope for a relatively warm night. Furthermore, these modern clothes dry much faster, the seems are better and more comfortable, they´re windproof, but they still breathe and they´re much lighter. Fur clothes are really heavy, the seems are uncomfortable after awhile and they´re clumsy to handle. And once they freeze to ice, they´re hard to handle. But, this should be said, the modern clothes and boots are nothing for someone who´s hunting, working in the forest and chopping wood. The normal life of a Siberian hunter.
Nevertheless, there´s no doubt that we´ve been freezing too much lately. Dangerously much. And we will freeze even more once we start skiing again, the 1st of February. The reason for this is due to the fact, that temperatures will continue to be low plus that there will be more snow and, worst of all, February and March are a time of blizzards and snowstorms. Therefore, we´ve realized, some parts of our modern clothes are just not sufficient below – 58°F. We need to add on some sort of solution involving fur. As additional protection. Especially on our hands since they´ve taken too much damage already. We´re presently working on a pair of big wolf skin gloves, with fur on the upper hand but only normal leather in the grip of the hand, to pull on quickly over the other gloves when needed. We´ll see how they will turn out.
What, than, can the modern developers of polar equipment and clothes learn from the Siberians? First of all, I think it is, once again, important for them to properly understand how extremely inept, slow and awkward all movements become in this extreme cold. The longer the time, the worse. (I have a feeling that most gear to day are made to last a normal modern polar trip. Maximum 2 months.) Gloves shouldn´t be too tight, arm sleeves neither, no unnecessary and complicated solutions as for example to many zippers. The pocket openings have to be wider and longer, more space and more back up solutions if the gear brakes. Which it will sooner or later in extreme climates. Siberians also always have a quick backup. As an example, our ski bindings, who´s weak points broke immediately when temperatures went below -58°F. Luckily, there wasn´t too much snow at this moment, so we could walk. If this hadn´t been the case, we would have faced serious problems. It wouldn´t have been a problem at all if the manufacturer had added two simple square holes on the sides of the bindings, where we could have slipped through a piece of string, to keep the boot in the binding. This backup solution would also have made the binding lighter. A Siberian binding is just a piece of leather which is tied over the front part of the boot. If it brakes, there´s a spare at hand immediately. This solution is no doubt much weaker, more uncomfortable and is made only for shorter trips, but, there´s always a backup possibility.
We´ve definitely progressed a lot since the day of Nansen, but there´s still some distance to go to complete perfection!
This article and many others can be found in the dispatch compartment at www.siberia.nu! Or, if you speak Swedish, you can watch as below….
I have done three documentaries and look forward to doing a forth. God knows when this will become reality! But, the other day somebody phoned me from abroad, to ask me about doing documentaries whilst on Expedition. So I told him to read this report below, from the Kolyma expedition, dated 25th of January 2005 in -58 degrees Celsius!
To be your own camera team is very difficult and I think it is impossible if you don´t make it a life style as we´ve done, Johan and myself. Every single moment we´re spending in the canoe or skiing, when not thinking about our beloved ones or when one is too tired to think, one has to plan for the next scene. Where to find the right atmosphere, the right light and a scene which can develop and move your documentary ahead. And trying to plan your filming when you get attacked by a 800 lbs heavy bear isn´t easy. And it is even harder to get it on film! Fortunately, we´ve understood a long time ago, how utterly dull we are ourselves in comparison with the people we meet during our Expeditions. But filming other people can even be more difficult. Especially in this extreme cold, which is putting a severe strain on the success of our upcoming documentary and our monthly TV-program´s.
It is the 25th of January today and the temperature is -55°F. Unfortunately the temperature seems to be heading downwards again. We´ve both, Johan Ivarsson and myself, caught a cold and this is due to two types of stress we´re experiencing at the moment. Firstly, the positive stress, because we´re working day and night with a new TV-program to be sent off. And secondly, the negative type of stress, since we know that we´ll soon be outdoors, day and night, for a month to come. We´re really worried this time. Unfortunately, we know what to expect out there.
One of the most frequent comments I get from people back home, generally whilst lecturing, and through many emails on this trip, is how in earth did we persuade a camera team to join us on the Expedition and film us at all times. I tell them the truth. We are the camera team. We do every aspect when it comes to producing the documentary. Except the final touch of editing the right colors, the subtitling and graphics. We don´t have the machinery to do that. People seldom believe me. Which I can well understand, since they´re used to adventurers who primarily do sporting Expeditions and lack the knowledge how to film, edit, think dramaturgically and don´t understand the full value of proper sound editing. They´re used to adventurers who have a professional camera man which shows up on and off during the Expedition, or as the general rule seems to be, they do a lot of professional filming during the preparations and afterwards and then use static cut-ins from the Expedition taken by the adventurer himself. All generally shoot from a tripod. There´s absolutely nothing wrong with this. At times it is very exciting, interesting and ground breaking. But when you´ve seen a bunch of the same types of production, it turns out utterly boring. My opinion. I am of the belief that every new documentary should add something new to the general knowledge of daily life and its own genre. The worst, though, I think, is when this type of adventurer considers a production made this way as his own. Unfortunately, this genre of ours, is full of too many self-centered individuals. An adventurer, only known in Sweden, once called me on the mobile a few years ago and asked me if I could assist him with the right contacts at SVT, Sweden´s biggest, most serious and best TV-company.
´´I know how to film!´´ he exclaimed when I told him it was no easy thing for your work or your idea to get accepted, but he continued self-assured: ´´It is dead easy!´´
As an example if this, let me tell you about last week when we spent 12 tedious and bumpy hours in a jeep to reach a very interesting village. The temperature was so low that we couldn´t persuade people to stay outdoors more than quarter of an hour, they simply froze too much, so we didn´t get one single decent scene from this visit.
It isn´t. This adventurer hasn´t, of course, done one single production by himself. And nothing he´s done so far produced by others have appeared on SVT. To be your own camera team is very difficult and I think it is impossible if you don´t make it a life style as we´ve done, Johan and myself. Every single moment we´re spending in the canoe or skiing, when not thinking about our beloved ones or when one is too tired to think, one has to plan for the next scene. Where to find the right atmosphere, the right light and a scene which can develop and move your documentary ahead. And trying to plan your filming when you get attacked by a 800 lbs heavy bear isn´t easy. And it is even harder to get it on film! Fortunately, we´ve understood a long time ago, how utterly dull we are ourselves in comparison with the people we meet during our Expeditions. But filming other people can even be more difficult. Especially in this extreme cold, which is putting a severe strain on the success of our upcoming documentary and our monthly TV-program´s.
As an example if this, let me tell you about last week when we spent 12 tedious and bumpy hours in a jeep to reach a very interesting village. The temperature was so low that we couldn´t persuade people to stay outdoors more than quarter of an hour, they simply froze too much, so we didn´t get one single decent scene from this visit. And when we do have interesting people in front of the camera, and who on top of that doesn´t get bothered by continues re-takes, the camera fails us. In general, the camera doesn´t cope with the cold more than 10 minutes per day before the tapes freezes solid. And it takes at least two hours every time for the camera to thaw out. It doesn´t seem to help at all that we´ve made a cover from and old blanket to keep it warm! And it is only during the first 30 seconds that you actually can see what you´re filming. After that, all you have in your eye piece is a lot of lines. Once back indoors we leave the camera untouched for four nervous hours until we check what has stuck or not. Unfortunately we´ve lost a great deal of good material due to the cold. But it is not only cameras which freeze. Almost all frostbites that we picked up during our last ski trip from Zyryanka was due to the fact that we were handling the camera too long.
However, even if we get everything we want together and filmed, we still have the worst to come. Namely to safely transport all the material to Sweden and hoping it will be ok once at home in the studio. This fact causes a terrific amount of worry during every Expedition. Much more than attacking bears!
Most of the time tucked into a relatively warm sleeping bag in a horrendous cold, in an ice frozen tent, on a small IPAQ, software from ExWeb and one dispatch in English, one in Swedish. We carried all technical gear on the body during the day, and slept with it during the night. Amazing really. But it worked.
The best travel writing I have ever done was during the Siberian Expedition. Johan Ivarsson, my amazing partner, and myself, we wrote every other report. Most of the time tucked into a relatively warm sleeping bag in a horrendous cold, in an ice frozen tent, on a small IPAQ, software from ExWeb and one dispatch in English, one in Swedish. We carried all technical gear on the body during the day, and slept with it during the night. Amazing really. But it worked. We didn´t get any technical equipment ruined by extreme cold on the trip. One of these inspired reportsI wrote, noted the 28th of March 2005, was this one:
The art of getting close to people
25 Mar, 05 – 20:28
GPS-pos: N68°43´ | E158°42´ | Alt: 9 M
Friday the 25th today and it´s a grey and slightly depressing day. 14°F with a light south-easterly. There´s hardly any people on the snow-covered mud streets of Kolymskaya, except overloaded snowmobiles heading north for the tundra, yurtas and the reindeer.
´´I´ve done plenty of documentary filming all over the world and I know how difficult it is getting close to people and getting them to open up´´ ,a well-known documentary filmmaker told me the other day in an email and added; ´´but I´ve checked the 3 minute film slots you´ve done on the Internet this Expedition, read all your dispatches and it seems like you get to know everybody, wherever you are. How do you accomplish this? Please, advice me how!
This question, how in earth we can get along with everybody as well as we do, is one of the most common ones we get. The answer is simple, but still very hard to bring about. It is partly a question of behaviour, partly the way to travel and than the ability to understand the odd ways of the human ape. Let me use our visit here in Kolymskaya as an example.
Today, for example, a young Evenk woman with a newly born baby came to visit, because she had heard that we were very interested in her culture, the Evenk, another northern reindeer people, and she wanted to know things about Sweden.
There´s a small stream of people knocking on our door every day. Today, for example, a young Evenk woman with a newly born baby came to visit, because she had heard that we were very interested in her culture, the Evenk, another northern reindeer people, and she wanted to know things about Sweden. Two youngster´s knocked on the other a bit later, ready to take us to visit an old Even lady, who wanted to tell us about the spiritual aspect of the Even people. They´re also animists. When they left, a group of school kids came to ask for our autographs, since they´ve heard that we were both Olympic Champions in cross-country skiing. They probably mistook us for Gunde Svan and Sixten Jernberg, the two great Swedish Olympic Champions of the past. (Both originate, and still live, from the taiga of the Swedish region where Johan and I come from, of course?Sixten was Champion several times in the 60´s and Gunde in the 80´s. And since a friend in Sweden, very lovingly pointed out that I´ve become almost bald on this trip, as far as he could see on the photo attached to last Sunday´s report, I guess they though I was Sixten?) A fur-clad Chuckchi reindeer herder knocked on the door a few minutes later an wondered if we wanted to borrow his TV to pass the evenings easier, just in case nobody could be with us and keep us company. Which is the least of our problems. Every evening, the local chief Rima, her sister Ludmilla or the chief of the Museum, Vera, or one them, pass by to ask us if we need anything, they give us food, since they´re so fantastically nice and generous people.
Our way to travel is of great help in that aspect. Wherever we come, we get the best treatment and respect possible, since sport in general, had a very high social standing during the Soviet era.
What I in actual fact mean is that you have to be a person who enjoy socializing with other people. This is no place for negative minded people! On top of that you have to get other people´s respect. Our way to travel is of great help in that aspect. Wherever we come, we get the best treatment and respect possible, since sport in general, had a very high social standing during the Soviet era. So, if we would have travelled by a mechanical way, we wouldn´t have received to same level of respect as we do now. Nevertheless, most important of all, is the ability to understand the behaviour of other human beings. And to be dead honest. All humans, no matter what cultural or social background they have, or which age or job, they like talking about themselves, their life´s and dreams they have. But to get them to do this, you have to be genuinely interested, not just pretend to be, in them. And have some kind of background or specific knowledge, which makes them able to associate to their own daily life. Easy for us along the Kolyma, since we can always talk about any form of hunting and fishing, the great nature, the ghastly weather and since we have the same rural background, this even makes things easier. Even if our Russian is dreary. We get along with people immediately. And, as important is the fact that you have to tell them, over and over again, how you appreciate their generosity, their kindness and how you appreciate their culture, country and surroundings. Never complain about anything! If you do, you shouldn´t be there in the first place! Therefore you have to mean what you say. Otherwise people will see through immediately. This ability to praise, is unfortunately a weak human attribute globally. Because, fact is, if you honestly mean your flattery, doors will open everywhere.
This is advice which can be applicable everywhere, globally, and of course at home. It is really simple. If I trot down to Bert The Mechanic in my home village of Särna and praise his ability to fix my car, and his humanity as a person and also listens genuinely interested to all his stories about tourists from the cities who´s driven off the winter roads, since they don´t know how to drive in the bush, of course, he will fix my car in the most perfect of ways!
About a month ago I was honored beyond belief when I was invited as one of six lecturers who the organizers thought worthy of keeping to the TED idea. It was a group of young students from Singapore who very professionally with much joy and work ethic put this inspiring event together. I choose to speak about Normal-na, the Siberian way to the meaning of life. I´d like to share this with all of you my readers.
Review:
“Mikael Strandberg spoke at TEDxMälaren that was held in Stockholm. TEDxMälaren is an independently organised event which is a sub-programme of TED in the vision to share ideas worth spreading. Mikael kicked off the event with an inspiring talk on humanity and communication especially in foreign countries through his expedition in Siberia. He delivered messages of how one should never judge people, how one should learn to adjust in foreign environments and the humanity of people through his experiences. He left the audience pondering over these lessons and reflecting on themselves. Mikael proved to be a remarkable explorer, braving through what seemed impossible and an inspiring lecturer, teaching people great values and lessons that one should learn in life in a humourous and relaxed manner. He is definitely one of the best lecturer I have come across and I hope he will continue to inspire people around the world!”
It seems like my Siberian journey has, once again, become interesting globally. So interesting that I met my partner on that trip, Johan Ivarsson, a few days ago, first time in 3 years! It was great seeing him, so he wrote this piece for me. About his time after Siberia, a trip which dramatically changed both of our lives!
Johan Ivarsson freezing his butt off in Siberia......
For several reasons I haven´t met my old pal Johan Ivarsson from the Siberian Expedition for a long time. We communicate often though. But I probably get 2-3 questions or emails a week regarding Johan and what he is doing nowadays. So, I asked Johan to fill all of us in about his life, which he has done below. In an expert way as always. He is the best of the best when it comes to partners. At 19 he performed like an aged professional in every way. He is a unique human being and, if he had those ambitions, could easily become a legend in exploration. Here´s his thoughts about life after Siberia:
The aftermath of the Siberian Expedition
‘It couldn’t be more different’, I’m thinking to myself while sitting here at my apartment in the city of Enköping. The temperature outside is at +29 degrees Celsius and the inside temperature somewhere around +26. I’m thinking back to the adventures in Siberia where I together with Mikael spent ten months in a land which in many ways was so different to what I was used to, but in many others very similar. The climate was of course the biggest difference and adding to that we were risking our lives several times during the expedition. But the people, the mentality and to some extent, also the culture were at least similar to what I was used to. It’s been just over five years now since we arrived back in Sweden.
How did the expedition affect me, and what has happened during these five years? Well, that’s a very good question that I will try and answer here below. The truth is, though, that I’m not quite sure. It’s very hard to know in what ways certain experiences changes or affects you. You’re right in the middle of it and before you know it your thoughts have changed and your life has simply just taken a slightly different path.
Anyway, the first change that hit me when coming home was the fact that everyone seemed to recognize me. That was a new experience for me. It was certainly not throughout the entire of Sweden but in my home village, the surrounding areas and amongst the people I would soon be in contact with. You see, even before we had finished the expedition I was offered a job at one of the companies that we had cooperation with, over satellite phone. It was from one of the, at that time, leading distributors in Sweden for outdoor equipment. After having explained that I at that moment had no thoughts at all about what to do when I got home and that I would have to take their suggestion into consideration, I went on with the current task of surviving until the end of the expedition. After we had finished and gotten home I contacted the company and said that I would gladly accept their offer. Two months later I moved to the small town of Alfta in the beautiful parts of Hälsingland. Almost all the people that I got in contact with during my time at that company knew something about the expedition, which of course was of great help in building relations.
Johan Ivarsson showing the locals how bad our skins were in the cold.....
Another major thing that I noticed pretty soon, and this has more to do with how the expedition affected me personally, was when meeting some of my old friends. These were good friends that I had spent endless hours with during the years before the expedition, but now I couldn’t believe how childish they were acting and the way they were thinking about everyday life and their situations. At least it seemed like this to me and it was absurd. It took a while before I realized that I was actually the only one thinking this, though. They were still, just like me, only 21 years old and there was nothing strange with their ways. I had been exactly like them before the expedition but something had changed during it. I had matured a lot, or at least I’d like to think that this was the reason. Whatever the reason, it affected me a lot since because of that I lost contact with many of my old friends. We had simply grown apart and things had to change. With this came of course also new friends and new perspectives which has lead to a lot of fun and many experiences.
I spent four and a half years working for the same company in Alfta before moving on. Currently I’m living in the city of Enköping, just west of Stockholm. I moved here in December after finding a new job in Uppsala, still working with outdoor equipment, but in a better position than before. This was not the main reason for moving though, because when moving here I also moved in with my Dutch girlfriend. We met over the internet a year or so before the expedition. She was one of the few people that I kept in contact with throughout the expedition, even though we were not a couple at that time. It took almost 3,5 years after coming home before we finally met for the first time, though, and since that first time we have both been looking forward to her moving to Sweden.
Marieke and Johan Ivarsson figuring out life together!
My plans for the future are not that clear at the moment. I would love to go for another expedition somewhere. However, it would have to be something that I really feel for and would love to do. I have some ideas, of course, but at the moment I’m not pursuing any of them. My short term goal is to settle down in my new situation with Marieke (my girlfriend) and get into the rhythm of things. Everything is still new and exciting and there’s no reason not to enjoy it! You never know what might happen, though.
Johan together with Dima who was quite drunk during our visit, but extremely generous!
Normal-na!
Two words of great wisdom! Words that, by the day, is turning me way to be into the Siberian way of Normal-na! It defines pretty much how one has to look at life to be able to survive the harsh Siberian circumstances. It is definitely a way to live, and be relatively happy, no matter what happens!
Just to give you readers an idea what I mean, please read this report below, sent during very harsh circumstances from Siberia!
29 Nov, 04 – 14:54
GPS-pos: N66°18´ | E151°46´ | Alt: 24 M
-43°F, it is cold into the bones today. We´re at an abandoned logcabin at N 66°18´52,0 and E 151°46´34,7 after 3 freezing nights in the tent. We´ve got the rusty stove going slowly. It is just below zero after 3 hours hard work on getting the fire working.
Even though we´ve had -43°F the last three days, we´re freezing pretty much all the time and it is no doubt very cold, I think we finally are getting used to how to handle this extreme cold. We needed to, since it will only get colder from now on and we´ve done only 35% of the distance to Srednekolymsk.
I promised myself before leaving Zyryanka, no matter how much the cold would dominated our lives or would damaged us, the dispatches would have to be more than words of suffering. Even though there´s very little positive aspects with freezing in itself, there´s plenty of positive things out here in this freezing cold. I am thinking about the extremely hardy, but enormously kind and generous, people living out here along the Kolyma. Let me tell you about three of them.
Ivan Fralov - a true Siberian and one of the most extra ordinary people I have ever come across! Mr Normal-na personified!
Ivan Fralov is a living legend in this neighborhood. This is due to the fact the he in the late spring 1979 skied from Zyryanka to Cherskii. It was, and still is, considered heroic. Today he´s in his early sixties and he´s still a small packet of power. And when he during his yearly holiday in Moscow heard about us, he cut his holiday short and returned to Zyryanka to be able to help and give us good advice. He turned up at our flat the same day we left and wanted to show us the best way out of Zyryanka and to a place we´re we could spend the night indoors. He set of running, in -35°F, making a track for us to follow, for 20 km;s! On and off he stopped, waited for us, gave us cookies and sweets and than sat off running again. Once he reached the old hermit Alexej he turned around in the darkness of dusk and ran back to Zyryanka! Almost a marathon in -35°F.
´´Are you really going to make it?´´ I asked him. ´´Normal-na!´´ ,he laughed and set off.
The old man Alexej had lived by himself for 20 years. He had a rough, but big and majestic beard, and like everyone else we´ve visited north of Zyryanka, his logcabin was pedantically clean and tidy. Alexej offered us hare stew, lot´s of sweet tea and had lots of intelligent questions that we were unable to answer. We slept on a couch near the fire, which Alexej kept alive all night. He had a severe tooth-ache, but didn´t complain. ´´Normal-na!´´ , he said.
Anatolij wasn´t that happy with us. He thought our Russian was poor and said, why do you travel all this way, with all this gear, and can´t even communicate about the great Russian authors? What a waste of energy!
Dima, the yakut, offered us, a couple of days later, frozen raw fish liver when we arrived frozen to the bone, straganina (cold raw fish), hare stew and downed a liter of vodka whilst watching us eating. The liquor made us unable to sleep since it gave Dima lots of energy to entertain us throughout the night with playing the harmonica, discussing cold war politics, crying at length over his dead mother, loathing our choice of equipment or showing us the compulsory family album. The following morning he cooked us fresh pelmeni (Russian variety of ravioli) and gave us a pair of beautiful wolfskinn gloves and a furhat from fox when we left as a parting present.
´´Normal-na!´´ , was his answer when we thanked him profoundly for his kindness and generosity.
Our home in Srednekolymsk, Siberia....one little flat......but a very good place to stock frozen fish which later can be used as a weapon!
If it is one truth I have realized throughout all years of travelling, it is the need to speak the language of the place one visits. But, no matter how much you study and learn, some important issues does get lost in the translation. In every way! As this dispatch from Johan Ivarsson and my Siberian Expedition shows!
It is the first of February today, -22°F, a strong southerly have hit us, but we understand that this heat wave is just visiting us briefly and that the extreme cold will soon return. But winds will stay. We´re still in Srednekolymsk. We don´t want to leave until we´ve shown our appreciation to everybody who has helped us during our visit, so we´ve spent the day walking around town, thanking people. At least that was our intention?.
I should have known the minute I heard it knocking on the door early this morning. That a terrible day of misunderstandings was on its way in. It was our neighbor from the flat below us. The same alcoholic neighbor, who together with his alcoholic wife, has kept us awake a third of all nights we´ve lived in the apartment with constant quarrels, fights and with the TV continually turned up on maximum volume. Since we´re happy just to be indoors, we´ve ignored it.
´´It´s my birthday today!´´ , he hollered drunkenly at the same time as he burst into the apartment swinging a frozen white salmon, the schirr and yelled; ´´I´m 59!´´
At the same time as I stuck my hand out to greet him, he thrust the frozen fish in my gut. Now, I am the first to admit that a frozen schirr is one of the best gifts, since it makes the best straganina, but I am utterly against the use of it as a weapon. Fortunately, Johan in his short underwear, quickly grabbed the fish, to avoid further aggression. The neighbor immediately brought out both his passports, the one during the Soviet Era and the new Russian one. As proof of his age. With bodily movements he also showed us that he was still sexually active. Than he started a 20 minute drunken political monologue where we understood that he considered us as spies, that he thought that it was shameful the way Sweden assisted the Nazis during the Second World War and how brave he was himself during this nasty war. Even though it ended a year before he was
Johan and me together with one of our neighbors......we were trying to film him...but batteries ran dead in seconds.....
born. After a while I got fed up with his abuse, since I have a cold and therefore have no patience at all, and shouted euphorically in Russian:
´´Really fantastic to hear!´´
These words made him explode with anger and abuse! Johan, who actively listened until the end, thinks that my remarks came at the wrong time, when the drunken neighbor ranted on about all the Russians that got killed during the war. Terrible mistake again due to the language barrier! No wonder we greeted Julia with joy, our excellent Ukrainian translator, when she arrived at our apartment a couple of hours later to help us with other translations that needed to be done. At least until she uttered the following truth:
´´You are sinners and will burn in hell!´´
I just want to say that she meant no harm. But since she´s a Baptist and since they consider everybody a sinner until they´ve acknowledged the right way to Salvation, she just wanted to make us aware that we, together with 99.99 % of the world population, are going to burn in hell. And during the upcoming hour she lectured us in a way so that my cold changed to a flue and Johans normally pale face turned to the color of rage. After that, utterly exhausted, we all three headed down to the White House, as the local government building is called in Srednekolymsk, to thank the mayor for the great assistance he has given us during our visit. Or at least we tried. Unfortunately we got on to the subject of how we tried to document the extreme cold through our camera lenses. And since I have a habit of trying to pass the odd funny joke, but truthful, in all serious conversations, I explained how we had noticed that when you have a dump outdoors in this extreme cold, the crap almost freezes before it hits the ground. And that we therefore had noticed that many outdoor toilets in Srednekolymsk had mounds of shit the size of an Eiffel Tower. Either it was a bad joke or it, once again, got lost in the translation, because it didn´t go down well with the Mayor.
´´Well, I know we´re still not fully modernized yet´´ , he hissed with anger and continued: ´´I had no idea that you two, who I trusted, would disgrace Srednekolymsk with filming crap like this!´´
Johan and me together with the mayor, Grigorjev and our great friend Anatolij Tarasov....Tarasov did understand me jokes, Grigorjev not....
I spent half an hour, through Julia, asking him to forgive me and to try to get him to understand that it was a misunderstanding.
´´It´s a joke´´ , I said, ´´nothing else. Just a joke about the problems involved in trying to describe the extreme cold through a camera lens.´´
Something got lost in the translation again.
´´I thought you had come here to promote this region to attract tourist´´ he continued very angered: ´´Not to show any proof that we´re still in the Ice Age! Your film will scare away tourists, not attract them!´´
It took an hour to calm things down. We left the Mayor, me feeling utterly misunderstood and sad. We wanted to go back to the flat and hide, but instead we ended up at the local newspaper. The chief-editor wanted to make an interview before we left. But when we sat down to be interviewed, he was still stunned by the news that had traveled there before us, namely that we didn´t use fur clothes whilst skiing and that we lived in a tent with no heating!
´´You´ve gotta be out of your mind!´´ he exclaimed and spent an hour trying to get us to understand our mistakes in choosing modern polar equipment and therefore completely forgot the interview.
Another day of giant misunderstandings bites the dust.
A broken down car in Siberia during winter is life threatening....our guide Julia had to go through a lot!
I added on plenty of fat before setting out to walk against Maasailand....fat is good!..
My friend Nick Gallop, who has written one of my guest writer columns, sent me an interesting query about nutrition on Expeditions. It is a very interesting question, what to eat on an Expedition! So I decided to use his great questions for another blog report!
1. On long, man-powered expeditions like yours what problems do you have getting enough calories and nutrition?
Well, most of the time, there´s just not enough food around! And one can´t haul enough……Therefore, one just have to eat a lot of fat, loads of caloeries and hope that one comes a cross some kind of civilisation every month to be able to fill up with the best possible foods! There´s no doubt about it, that you do take a good beating on long, man hauled Expeditions!
2. What food tips do you have for anyone planning such an expedition?
One just have to add on a few extra kilos before leaving, maybe not 26, like I did before the Siberian Expedition! But quite a few, yes! Because you will loose lots of kilos!
Most of the time, one is really, really tired, so there´s little energy to either fish or hunt or do any complicated meals, so bring lots of freeze dried food, but with some tasty food 1-2 a week. Like dried moose fillet…..I recommend REAL when it comes to freeze dried food. Tasty and filling!
3. It seems to me that people eat some real crap because it’s light to carry and find it too easy to skimp on nutritional content. How can we find the right balance?
Well, REAL is quite good, actually, but on top of that, eat everything you can get your hands on!
Nalim is probably the best fish to make stroganina out of!
4. What’s your favorite expedition food?
Dried moose heart. Dried fish. Like straganina! Yummy!
5. The kit list for your 2004-2005 expedition along the Kolyma river in Siberia included the following items:
Fishing and hunting equipment
• 1 Rifle, Blaser R90 Off-Road with .3006-pipe [barrel]
• Telescopic sight
• Extra ammunition holders
• 1 Cleaning kit
• 2 Fishing rods
• 60 bullets, lead .3006
• A Couple of baits and wobblers
• Extra line, flys, casting balls
• Float, hooks
• Landing net
• Fishing net
Being Swedish, I’d guess that hunting and fishing is very natural to you but many people in the UK probably wouldn’t consider taking this kind of hardware – especially a firearm. How did carrying it change the expedition?
Lot´s of fresh, nutritious food!
The Siberian hares were not only big, but really tasty and nutritious!
6. What problems did carrying a firearm cause you?
In Siberia, on and off, they, the authorities, thought we were hired guns, mercenaries or/and snipers!
7. When planning the expedition did you have a rough idea how much food you could get by hunting and fishing? Were your ideas right?
No, much more difficult than I thought! A typhoon moved in the second day, we didn´t get anything for the first month!
8. Was the time for food gathering included in your plans? – how did the sometimes time-consuming task of finding food fit in with the objectives of the expedition?
We only fished and hunted before the arrival of winter. Hunting and fishing is also part of who we are, so it is a fulfilling work!
9. It’s very easy to pack some simple, lightweight fishing kit and simple hunting kit such as a slingshot. Do you think the time invested in learning to use these effectively will be worth it?
No, hunting should be efficient and the game shouldn´t be suffering unnecessarily. Always shoot to kill the easiest way, e.g the heart. Fishing, sure, but it is harder. Better to bring a net…..
You need a good knife to be able to eat stroganina!
10. If you could carry one packable hunting or fishing item on expedition what would it be and why?
Knife! Well, it is the most vital item. You can do pretty much everything with it!
11. You’ve done some very long cycle expeditions – how different was the food situation on these?
Well, you can carry more food and roads are most of the time close to settlements where u can fill up!
12. As you know I’m very interested in the connections we can make with indigenous people through the use of primitive skills. If we learned about wild food and hunted, fished and foraged on our expedition how would it change our relationship to the people we meet along the way?
Good question! It would make a dramatic difference, since getting to know local people, indigenous or not, you need to have some very close things to associate with to open the door to their hearts, hunting and fishing is part of their lives!
13. How do you think our expedition food choices affect the environment?
Depends where…….In Siberia, hunting and fishing in a proper way, doesn´t harm, but otherwise, if you by local food, this is of course, helping the local economy. So buy locally! If possible….
The food amongst the maasai wasn´t always easy to digest.....
14. What’s the worst thing you’re ever had to eat on an expedition?
Well, drinking raw blood with the maasai wasn´t a hit, I can tell you that! Basically due to the heat and other surrounding smells…..like urin…..and also, am now fan of tree slugs in Congo! And my friend Dogan Tlilic´s iskembe soup, am not big on tripe in soups!
15. Have your food experiences while on expedition changed your thinking on how we treat food back in Europe?
Well, being brought up in the countryside and forest, hunting and fishing has been a big part of my life. So Siberia taught me to take care of every single part of the animal, including the muzzle of a moose and their brains…..yummy!
