I’m lying face down on the ground under 3 feet of snow, it’s -30 degrees Celsius and I’m unable to move. Moments before I had been descending from the Tjäktja Pass on cross country ski’s pulling a pulk behind me. I was fully in control and everything was going well .. until it wasn’t. Until I built up to a speed I wasn’t able to control, lost control and fell face forward into the deep snow.

For a while now I’ve been drawn to adventures in the polar climes, having followed races such as the Yukon Arctic Ultra and Iditarod and read a number of books and accounts. When I heard the Spine team were going to be launching a race based in Arctic Sweden I was immediately interested but also very apprehensive. I have spent many a day and night in some pretty horrendous conditions in the UK but nothing like surviving in temperatures as low as -40 degrees C, strong winds and limited daylight hours.