They were battered by blizzards, fell through a frozen lake and their sleds broke, but a team of Tayside women made it across the Arctic and raised £110,000 for charity.
The Atte Huskyteers embarked on a six-day wintery adventure that saw them live, eat and sleep in the Arctic, driving a team of huskies 285km from Tromso in Norway to Kiruna in Sweden.
The team today told the Tele of the trials they faced in the unforgiving frozen Arctic wilderness — with temperatures on their trip dipping as low as -16C.
Kirriemuir’s Fiona Laird, 45, said the group — which also included Anna Stephen, 43, Georgina Spacey, 39, Amanda Nissen, 45, Sarah Moss, 47, Sabrina Simpson, 36, Amanda Wiewiorka, 47, Julie Husband, 47, and Dundee woman Carroll Gibson, 46 — were caught unaware by the horrendous weather conditions.
But their training regime prepared them to face the testing elements head on. They also had the help of 56 dogs.
Fiona added: “The first two days were spent in the middle of a blizzard. All you could do was try to not lose sight of the person in front of you and keep ploughing forward.
“It was weird, you lost all sense of time and you just kept going and going until it was time to camp.
“We all managed to stay on our sleds but everyone fell off at one point or another. It could have been a lot worse than it was, but we were lucky.
“The most demanding part of it all was at the end of a long day having to get the dogs sorted out and tied up.
“Then you had to look at getting your own tent up with a blizzard raging around you. The blizzards made everything harder and you couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you.
“When we were on the lakes two people fell through. I thought they had fallen right through the ice, but they had just fallen through the first layer and landed a few feet down.
“We thought they were going under — it was terrifying in the moment. We also had a few sleds break but we managed to keep going. The last day we travelled 97km. Even our guide hadn’t done that much in a day before.
“The dogs were amazing but I didn’t realise how much you needed to work with them. They were always looking back at you for instructions, but we totally adored them. They worked so hard for us.
“The final stop was an ice hotel, 200km north of the Arctic Circle, and we saw the Northern Lights when we were there. It was a great way to finish the expedition.
“It wasn’t easy but we are all really glad we did it. Although when I got back I was adamant I would never do anything like it again — but it was still a great experience.”
The idea for the expedition came about after team member Amanda Nissen revealed to the group that it was her mum’s dying wish to mush huskies across the Arctic.
They then set about a year of gruelling training and fundraising, including a dress sale, car wash, fashion show and a ball for 350 people.
The money will go to charities; Insight Counselling, Age Scotland, Medical Detection Dogs and Coppafeel.
Fiona said the support the ladies had received was fantastic and added: “The generosity was just amazing – to raise that amount of money.
“That money will make a real difference to all the charities.”
Left; Amanda Nissen and Sabrina Simpson in her tent.
Some of the team’s sled dogs rest in the Arctic Circle.