There is nothing like the 'joyful suffering' that comes from a challenge to help catalyze thoughts you may have about your life and/or your circumstances. This challenge helped highlight some lessons for me and below are anecdotes you might enjoy reading about my experience.

Day 1 - (Garmin File)

Everyone is running their own race, have empathy for others as they deal with their circumstances and for yourself in your own failings along the journey. - The amount of time(s) we all fell down on the first day for sure tested our own patience and that of others; however, nothing a good giggle wasn't able to accomplish to move past it quickly. I should add that I almost quit at the end of the first day, as have a back injury that flares up from time to time and I was super scared of it flaring up again. The backpacks we were carrying with all our kit likely weighed somewhere between 12-15kg, and after the first day's load (which as you will shortly read, was likely unecessarily bigger than it needed to be), my wife, who is a Physio, coached me through the anxiety I had of how it might manifest the next day and encouraged me to continue in spite of that fear of re-injury.
The more you carry the more it will slow you down. Travel light in life; you think you need some things, but you really don’t. - As we were carrying quite a bit of kit on our backs for the multi-day challenge, anything extra was just costing you more energy in the long term and likely increasing the risk of injury. I stupidly was carrying a bunch of stuff that I had hoped I'd get use out of (including a swimsuit which I was delusionally hoping would come of use if we found a lake or sauna), but ultimately got rid of it after the first day as realized all that 'crap' was just exhausting me faster.

Day 2 - (Garmin File)

You’re never too old to [fill in the gap]. - Somewhere about a third of the way in on our journey, we saw these two people head out in front of us, and then about the halfway point we encountered them on the way back, so I stopped to chat a bit… turns out they were grannies expecting to receive loved ones on the train that day, and skied 30min in each direction to get phone signal. If that doesn’t make you rethink the ratio of motivation to action as we age, I don’t know what will.
Breaking ground is a team sport. - Looking back on Day 2 where we had a bigger group vs. Day 3, I noticed how much easier it was to make progress as each individual skier broke the path a little wider and a little more compactly for the one behind. Sure, coordinating pace and keeping together can frustrate you at times, but in the long run, you can get further and arrive at your destination much less tired.
Happiness comes from sharing time with loved ones and friends. - On Day 2, we spent the night in a hut where I shared a cubby hole in an attic with one of my friends and looked around wondering how ironic it was that this was the farthest thing from luxury you'd expect in a holiday. At night, rather than putting my boots on and trekking through deep snow to the other huts where the bathrooms were, I just went outside to pee with the wind howling on my back at about -13 deg celcius (indoor toilets are awesome, don't ever take them for granted). However, after the banter and good chats we all had both in the kitchen whilst cleaning up and in the attic whilst going to bed and waking up, it made me focus on 'what is a luxury' in the grand scheme of things, and frankly, it's about spending time with those you like and making great memories.. the more challenging the circumstance often make the memories funnier.

Day 3 - (Garmin File)

As I mentioned before, this day for me was the absolute hardest. It was a combination of poor visibility and deep powder making any forward progress a challenge.

Appreciate your leaders. It's much harder up front that it seems. Those that pave the way even when the way seems obvious, expend a lot more energy than you think to provide you with a path to follow. It’s a lot harder and more energy consuming up front than you think. Thank you to all those that I’ve had the pleasure to follow over the years, and thank you Louis for guiding us through the hard part of this day and the next.
There is always someone who is carrying more baggage than you, dealing with the same shit as you, and still cracks on with life. - On the way down a particularly difficult hill for me, I bumped into a guy who was dragging two pulks and a dog up the other end of the hill. I have no idea if he was able to overcome it or not, but what I do know is that we bumped into him again the next day (see photos of his camp) and he seemed to be as equally happy as he had been the day before. What a guy.
When on a journey that’s got no exits and is difficult, stopping outright is not an option, take a break that’s for sure, but the moment you mentally stop, it incrementally becomes something that erodes at your ability to persevere. - During this particular segment, I for sure got frustrated several times, but at no point did I actually contemplate 'giving up', there just wasn't an option for that, but I did contemplate my choices for Day 4 as I neared the hut for the evening. As we wrapped up dinner and were heading off to bed, the hut's caretaker came into the room we were all in to ask us if we'd seen a solo woman on her journey to the hut. Apparently she'd been missing/expected, but no one had seen her, and she was asking us this question at roughly 9pm or so; way past sunset and with the light and darkness at near zero, even with a headtorch, we were immediately concerned. Next morning, however, we were told that at 11pm, they had spotted her headtorch approaching the hut, and went to pick her up via skidoo to reduce her misery. If that's not a stellar example of 'stopping is not an option', I don't know what is.

Day 4 - (Garmin File)

It’s more about attitude than mindset. - After the beating from Day 3, I had a good chat with Louis, and whilst he didn't outright come out with it, I deduced from his wisdom that you can effectively trick yourself into the right attitude faster than you can change your mindset. Even it if feels like 'cheating' this changed attitude will still forge your mindset later. Deal with adversity as ‘it is what it is’ and don’t worry about the things you can’t change. You can always do more if you don’t let your mind linger on the setbacks. In time, all comes to its natural conclusion.
When something is too steep, it’s ok, even if it takes more time, to cut it up into smaller chunks first. - On the way back, there were a few hills that were just too steep for the half-skinned Nordic skis I had on. Even though were were following the tracks of a couple of skiers who were ahead of us, we hit a point where we caught up to them as one of them was struggling and had fallen down multiple times due to the steepness of the particular hill we were tackling. The issue was that the angle they took was too aggressive for the challenge, by taking a slower, but less aggressive approach, we were able to get over the hill in the end.
Don’t underestimate the value random acts of kindness can have on those around you. - This trip is my second time ever on Nordic skis, so you can imagine, I'm far from elegant on them. So, it didn't surprise me when a trio of Norwegians went past me on the route home and joked with me if I was on full-skins (a very elegant 'burn', tbh). However, after a quick dialog later down the track, they assessed my skis and noticed I had popsicles of ice hanging from the skin and thus was creating way more drag for myself than needed. They happily volunteered not only to scrape the ice off of my skis, but also add some hydrophobic gel to the bottom of them. After their tune up, I was gliding at double the pace and am super thankful for their willingness to stop and help. Never hesitate to stop and ask others how they are doing and if you can help, do it. Thank you Leif!

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