By organising Fjällräven Polar, we hope to demonstrate that during the winter the outdoors is not inhospitable and cold – rather with the right equipment and preparations it can be both enjoyable and safe. Our dream is to help more people experience winter in the outdoors. One thing is certain - nature is seldom as grandiose as when it is coated in a frosty winter coat.
It has always been a goal of ours to help more people discover how wonderful it is to spend time outdoors. In the 1970s we took curious rookies out into nature during our “Fjällräven weeks” at Riksgränsen (which actually is not very far away from the where Fjällräven Polar will take place). Today, thousands of trekkers flock to our Fjällräven Classic, which is also held in Lapland.
A dog sled driver has an idea
The idea of Fjällräven Polar was born when Kenth Fjellborg, one of Sweden’s leading dog sled drivers, met Fjällräven’s founder, Åke Nordin, in the beginning of the 1990s. Fjellborg had participated in the Iditarod, the world’s most difficult dog sled competition, which is held in Alaska. Kenth and Åke began to discuss the idea of organising a Swedish equivalent – but for the general public. When they announced their idea, it was extremely well received. Every year that Fjällräven Polar was held between 1997 and 2006 it drew thousands of applications.
Reality the best product test
Now that we are once again planning a Fjällräven Polar, we can hardly wait for the winter to arrive. We are looking forward to meeting the curious participants in Signaldalen and experiencing a unique winter adventure out on the tundra. And this is not all about “action”, either – it also provides us with an excellent opportunity to test our products in the proper environment. The reflections and opinions of the participants are extremely valuable for our product developers.
Nature’s careful balance
There is one final aspect of Fjällräven Polar that is just as important as everything we have mentioned above. Fjällräven Polar goes through one of the last areas of wilderness found in Europe. The natural environment there, which offers tough living conditions for the plants and animals that call this area home, is very sensitive, and these living conditions are now being exposed to massive changes. No one knows what will happen to these ecosystems as the average temperature of our planet rises. What we do know is that some species, such our namesake, the arctic fox, are highly endangered. If more people witness first-hand what is happening, we hope that more people will engage themselves in environmental issues – and not in the least the issue of the climate – in their everyday lives.
The environmental aspect of Fjällräven Polar is very important, and one of the fundamental conditions of the event is that we participate with our dog sleds on nature’s conditions. All necessary motor-driven traffic will be held to a minimum and we will compensate the climate for its use.
Fjällräven Polar trailer 2011