So many firsts on my Arctic adventure – Shannon Semenikow

My EO extreme dreams trip was a kaleidoscope of new experiences and firsts. For me it was my first time snowshoeing, first time cross country skiing, first time in Scandinavia as well as first time dogsledding, seeing the northern lights and even organising a MyEO adventure.

The adventure started in the Tromso in Norway where we all met and acclimatised ourselves with the -18 degree temperature and the sun rising and setting in the space of an hour. After getting our hire gear of winter gear, we headed north to Finland to a little town called Kilpisjärven.

Once we arrived, we met our two finish guides and together, our crew of 10 EO members (and Ben), loaded our duffel bags, dehydrated food, sleeping bags and all the supplies for our four days onto our pulkas (sleds) and set off into the northern Finland wilderness. For 4 days, we hiked up to 14 km a day cutting our own tracks through layers of freshly dumped snow. Being so remote, we quickly detached and lent into the experience. Hearing the snow crunch beneath the snow shoes as we took turns at cutting through the deep powdery snow for others to follow.

It was a surreal experience with the sun rising and setting within an hour at the same point on the horizon leaving us with only 3 – 4 hours of twilight to see the vast open and snow covered wilderness. Using our thermoses to fill our dehydrated food and sharing a laugh farther from home than many of us have ever been. As the twilight crept into night, we donned our headtorches to light our way to the remote ice encrusted cabins where we lit fires to keep warm, boiled water to restock our supplies and shared Finish liqueurs to warm the cockles while sharing our highlights of the day.

There was also something special about having a crew of EO members together in the wilderness, far from the connectivity, normality and bright lights of our daily lives. One of those times in life where everyone is instantly thrown into living in the moment, embracing the experience and sharing deep conversations as EO’ers know how. Conversations flowed from raising kids and family to AI, unique travel experiences, investment, business and comical sessions of would you rather x or x (individuals choosing the lesser of two evils).

The allusive Northern Lights also danced for us a few nights giving us a glimpse into the beautiful green hues against a purple sky. Risking frostbitten fingers to get the shot to say we’d been there.

After our 4 days in the wilderness we returned to Kilpisjärven where we spent two days alternating between cross country skiing in blizzard conditions, snowmobiling past wild reindeer and slipping into sauna sessions / ice lake plunges. We also sampled the local reindeer stew and reindeer burgers. From there we headed up to Camp Tamil, in a remote part of Norway where we met Tom, a former Norwegian dog sledding champion and spent 2 days meeting the dogs and learning how to cut our own path through the trees.

Returning to Tromso, we had a last supper of sorts with the crew, shared our war stories on our last night before all jetting off to our various parts of the world. A month on and the chat group is still strong, some sharing PTS stories of dreams of carrying pulka’s through blizzards, others wishing they could return to simplicity of the Arctic wilderness.