For Thirty Days During the Summer of 2015 a Group of Twelve Sixth
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The group had trained for over a year in preparation for this For thirty days during the summer of venture including an incredibly wet week in the English Lake District in March where we were actually the only group to survive on the 2015 a group of twelve Sixth Formers flooded campsite; using the benefits of prior knowledge of the terrain from Loretto School and four leaders to pick our tent spots! The Borealis Society at Loretto is an academic society dedicated to furthering the students’ knowledge of these took part in a mountaineering northern fastnesses with the opportunity for Sixth Formers to take expedition to North Norway, visiting part in month-long mountaineering and backpacking expeditions as the centre-point and indeed culmination of their involvement. It was Ringvassøya Island and the alpine the academic nature of the society that had really given rise to the peninsula of North Lyngen several exact nature of this particular expedition. During the Second World War Norway was occupied by the soldiers hundred kilometres north of the Arctic of the Third Reich and a good deal of the Norwegian resistance was Circle. This is the third in a series of organised from Scotland with the Shetland boat run being a notable part of this contact. One aspect of this resistance was the execution of expeditions organised by Loretto’s daring raids into Norway for the purpose of sabotaging infrastructure Borealis Society, following on from that was supporting the Nazi war effort. It was one such raid, into the North Iceland in 2011 and East Troms area, to blow up a German air control tower that interested us and actually formed the rationale for our expedition. A group Greenland in 2013 (the latter reported involving a British-trained Norwegian commando called Jan Balsruud on in the spring and summer editions of set off to Norway from Shetland in 1943 carrying eight tons of explosives. They unfortunately blundered into a German coastal East Lothian Life in 2014). patrol vessel (possibly due to being betrayed) and were forced to Nigel Bidgood recounts this detonate their explosives before they were all then killed or captured, tortured and then killed. Jan managed to escape by swimming the icy fascinating adventure. waters to shore; soaked and missing one of his boots he then ascended a snowy gully. Thus commenced a quite incredible journey. Tortured 42 EAST LOTHIAN LIFE An account of the Loretto School Borealis Society Expedition to North Norway 2 015 Recreating an amazing and truly inspiring journey. by snow blindness and frostbite he was forced to evade capture by hiding out aided by Yterssia locals. Eventually crossing several of the archipelago of islands north of Tromso, including Ringvassøya, he crossed to the Lyngen peninsula and then onto the mainland across Lyngen Fjord near to the border. He was then taken into Finland and ultimately Sweden by a family group of Sami reindeer herders. This journey has become the stuff of legend as Jan’s initial escape left him with no arctic survival gear (or indeed not even a complete Scrambling up Solltinden mountain, Ringvassøya Island. pair of footwear) and thus he suffered terribly from the intense cold and even survived avalanches. At one stage he was actually buried in the snow under a rock for twenty seven days whilst the local Norwegian resistance tried to contact the Sami reindeer herders. Although he was periodically visited by the locals, who brought him food and drink, he lay drifting in and out of consciousness with German ski patrols virtually skiing directly above his body buried deep in the snowy tomb below. During this sojourn, he was even forced to amputate nine of his toes to prevent gangrene setting in. This story has been immortalised in a book called “We die alone” by David Haworth and it is a deeply moving story of the willingness of the human spirit to survive despite the most appalling environmental conditions driving the most intense personal suffering imaginable. Our primary objective, on this expedition, was to recreate part of Jan’s journey, albeit in the relative warmth of summer, and without the life threatening presence of German soldiers! We visited Toftefjorden, where Jan swam ashore, and then disembarked from our boat on the northern shore of Ringvassøya to The team on the summit of Rundfjellet. The Lyngen Alps are in the background. follow his journey across the island. During our traverse we climbed a SPRING 2016 43 number of the peaks that dominate this island, including Solltindan and Skalltindan, to gain fine vantage points from which we could really appreciate this entire region of Arctic Norway. The backpacking was reasonably easy going which allowed us to have plenty of energy in reserve for these and other ascents. Once down by the coast on the south side of the island we met up with our boat, containing all our ice gear and food for the second phase of our expedition. Our sea journey round into the majestic Lyngen Fjord was, not only memorable for the superb scenery, but also for the fact that Haakon the boat’s captain organised sea angling for us to enjoy and we managed to catch over twenty fish including some full-bodied Polar Cod. The first two nights of our journey into the Lyngen Alps were thus marked by our totally memorable suppers of open-fire baked Polar Cod! The Lyngen Alps were a huge step up in mountaineering terms from our first phase and the area at the top of the valley of Fastdalen A semi-wild herd of Sami-owned reindeer, Fastdalen in the Lyngen Alps. was a hugely impressive series of peaks – two of which we climbed Tverrelvdalstindane and Fastdalstinden. For many the day spent exploring and climbing on the rim of the Rottenvikbreen glacier under piercingly blue skies was the highlight of the entire thirty-day trip. For others being able to watch herds of semi-wild reindeer, including one or two rare albino specimens, was a powerful reminder of the strong Sami cultural heritage of the Troms area. Although trips like this contain their highs and their lows, the opportunity to spend an extended amount of time totally self- sufficient, camped out under serene arctic skies in perpetually daylight is both life-enhancing and life-affirming. For young people who are taken well out of their comfort zone physically and mentally, particularly in terms of a complete loss of all the social media technology that both enriches and bedevils their lives, it is a formative experience. The lives of young people today are, I believe, harder than formerly in many ways with increased academic expectations, challenges, competition and pressure. Such stress indicators as eating disorders and reliance on addictive substances seem to be increasingly ‘Mellowing out’ in the superb arctic sunshine at the top of Fastdalen. rife and more extreme in form. Education needs to promote the development of self-esteem and emotional resilience such that wellbeing becomes a central part of every young person’s life experience and expectation. Extended wilderness trips like this can have a significant part to play in ensuring that life and education are more balanced, healthy and ultimately rewarding as a journey through which young people must negotiate. Once again the hypothesis of global climatic instability was very evident at such high latitudes. Over the last thirty years of expeditioning in arctic regions I have noted huge changes with a real enhanced impetus, I believe, since the summer of 2007 when the multi-year arctic sea ice almost all fully melted for the first time in recorded history. The summer was very late in North Norway in 2015; we arrived to be greeted by clear blue arctic skies which lasted almost for the duration of our trip. However the huge amounts of late winter/spring snowfall provided mountains that were far whiter in appearance than was normal for the summer months giving us some challenging but interesting ascent conditions. Once again the unpredictable nature of today’s climate was brought home to us in an exaggerated way that is so pronounced in these northern latitudes. Having not visited this particular area of the arctic before, I was immediately struck by the sheer abundance of the woodland cover, especially given that we were way north of the tree line, compared virtually all other arctic areas that I have visited. This provided confirmatory evidence of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream in this Troms area of Norway. An atmospheric ascent of the Rottenvikbreen glacier in the Lyngen Alps. Our journeys and ascents, although hugely enjoyable, were tinged with a dash of sadness as we were all left wondering just how long these sorts of experiences would be possible in this superb terrain due to the changes continually being affected by the climatic oscillations The Loretto Borealis Society’s next extant at present. I think that the young people who experienced this venture will be to North and Central landscape for the first time are now well aware of this. A truly educational experience indeed. Iceland in 2017. 44 EAST LOTHIAN LIFE.