ROAD RUNNING
DAY 2 : KABLA 45km with 990m Ascent
Snowshoes … This would be day two of wearing the dreaded plastic torture devices ! We had had little experience with them coming into the event , and for most people these caused serious blisters on the heel , accompanied by expansive vocabularies . This was also the day with the most climbing , as we made our way up Mount Kabla .
We had been lucky with the temperature so far – we had moments on the frozen lakes with the sun shining , and without a breath of wind , when the temperature settled at minus-15 degres . Now , as we made our way up the mountain , the wind would pick up and the temperature would literally drop another 10 degrees .
This race is called the Ice Ultra for good reason !
DAY 3 : THE LAKES 45km with 180m Ascent
In total , we covered close to 30km on frozen lakes , and let me tell you , crossing them is a mental challenge ! Even though it ’ s a lake , the snow is soft , and it ’ s hard work to cover this distance . But the bigger challenge is the scenery , which doesn ’ t change as you traverse these “ flat stretches .” Kilometre after kilometre looked the same , creating the optical illusion that you were not making any progress !
During this third day , we had a lot of snow coming down and , with the wind blowing , this was the closest we came to blizzard conditions . Thankfully , the weather didn ’ t hit in force , but it was cold , with temperatures for the day ranging between minus-20 and minus-25 degrees .
On this day , I met Jane Kelly who had come out from Utah in the USA to race the Ice Ultra . Jane is an organ doner and had donated her kidney and a good chunk of her liver to make a difference to others . She had come to the event to prove that you can be an organ donor and still complete events of this nature . Just another example of the amazing , interesting and diverse people that are attracted to these types of cares , and Jane had the biggest smile at the finish line !
It took us nine hours 20 minutes to complete the day , and best of all , we finished in daylight ! Tarryn and Andre finished in six hours 45 minutes , now solidly in the mix of the top 10 , with Tarryn leading the women ’ s field . That night we stayed in small huts called yurts , which sleep three people , at an outpost on Laxholmen Island . ( Well , it may be an island in summer , but with everything frozen , it may as well have been the mainland !) This place felt incredibly remote , partly because we had traversed three days of Lapland wilderness , where we had not seen another person ( or even a building ) outside of the race crew and overnight stops .
Checkpoints every 10km gave the runners a chance to rest and warm up .
Andre and Tarryn also stuck together for the whole race .
Cordi and Robin kept each other company most of the race .
Thankfully , however , the weather held , and we reached the peak in sunshine , where the view from the top of Kabla was just of endless mountains of snow . Spectacular !
This day took Robin and I 12 hours to complete , while Tarryn , Andre and Nick finished in around eight hours . We stayed at Arrenjarka and this time , four people shared a cabin . Our fourth roommate , Sherief , only joined us the next morning , having been kept overnight in the medical tent for observation . He summited Mount Everest in 2019 and was no stranger to extreme adventures , but he had started showing signs of hypothermia the previous evening , so they put him in a minus-40 degrees sleeping bag for three hours to warm up .
Sidenote : Sherief is an incredible athlete who , in his spare time , started several events in Egypt to promote trail running . Perhaps one of his races will be next on the bucket list …
46 ISSUE 167 | www . modernathlete . co . za