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robert

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

Documentary about Katy Parrott’s MLAU 2022 adventure

Copyright: Follow The Sun Photography

Montane ambassador Katy Parrott came to participate in the MLAU 2022 last winter. It was her first big race after a pretty complicated knee injury. So, not only did she participate in her first Arctic Ultra but she also had to find out if her knee would be up for the challenge. This short documentary will show you how things played out for her. At the same time you all get of course a good look at the kind of nature we are in up here – also during our current MLAU 2023. Enjoy!

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

Wind, snow and a fast race

Copyright: Callum Jolliffe

The Montane Lapland Arctic Ultra 2023 started at the Grand Arctic Hotel in Överkalix at 09:35 this morning. The night before was windy and there was more fresh snow than we had expected. So, the trails on the surface were softer than before. Still, the athletes have made very good progress.

Stefan Zahlten (Germany) and Maximo Martin Escribano (Spain) are in the lead in the foot category of the 500 km race at the moment. The first 185 km athlete is German Alexander Davydov. He pushed hard and had a good day.

Unfortunately, we just had the news that Mike and Maren Kraft scratched at Laxforsberget. Nothing serious but they decided not to continue. Robin Landin is currently bringing them back to Jockfall.

All others are going strong.

The crew at Laxforsberget is waiting for a few more athletes and hopefully around midnight all will have been through our first checkpoint.

At Jockfall, Callum is working on editing today’s photos and he will soon make some posts on our facebook and instagram pages. Our medical team here is resting and will be ready for arrivals.

Our crew at Polar Cabin #1 is ready, too.

Some athletes have started to settle down for the night, too. The first ones being Karl and Harriet Shields.

Temperatures tonight should not go much below -15 degrees Celsius. Tomorrow it could get a bit colder and it definitely will cool off further in the days after. That’s perfect for the athletes because trails will remain solid and they can gradually get used to the freezing temps.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

MLAU 2023 starts March 5th

Not much longer now! The first athletes to arrive in beautiful Jockfall were the participants of the training course powered by Rimfrost Adventures. During 4 days they were taught important lessons on important aspects such as layer management, building a woodfire, using equipment such as stoves, how best to set up camp and the list goes on. It was great to see the enthusiasm by everyone involved and feedback has been absolutely amazing again!

In the meantime, other athletes have arrived and still are arriving. The same goes for the volunteer crew who get busier each day now with the many things that need to be taken care of during the last couple of days before the start.

Also, many members of the regional snowmobile clubs and our crew have been busy grooming and marking the trails. This work is actually a process that has been going on for weeks now. A big thank you to all who have been part of this enormous effort!

The inReaches from Fjällcom Satellite SOS and will be distributed to the athletes tomorrow. Thanks to this great service, from March 5th, we will all be able to follow the athlete’s progress along the trail via a map that is embedded on our arcticultra.de MLAU landing page.

Please also check out our Instagram and Facebook pages over the next couple of weeks. We will post many updates and great photos there.

Start of the Montane Lapland Arctic Ultra 2023 will be March 5th 9:30 am at the Grand Arctic Hotel in Överkalix and we hope many locals will join us when we count down from 10 and cheer our athletes on when they head north on loop #1.

If the weather forecast will remain unchanged, it will be a cold one this year – with temperatures reaching – 30 degrees Celsius. Needless to say that this will add to the challenge. But before we get into race mode we still have a couple more days in Jockfall, getting everything ready and admiring the amazing Northern Lights which have been out almost every night.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

Entries to MLAU 2023 still possible

Copyright: Swedish Lapland

WE WANT YOU!

Normally, entries to the MLAU 2023 would only be possible until tomorrow. Since our race roster is not full, we decided that athletes can still sign up until January 31st, 2023.

To sign up please send an email to info@thegreatoutdoors.de. You will then get the necessary paperwork. Before you fill anything in, our Race Director will arrange a meeting with you, the so called “Safety Talk”. You will learn about some of the risks of the event and the required skills. If you have no prior cold weather experience, you must participate in the training course. You will also hear about accommodation and logistics. Last but not least, you can use this conversation to ask any questions you may have. Afterwards, you can sign and send in your forms.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

Fjällcom confirms partnership for 2023

Copyright: Linnéa Isaksson @Follow The Sun Photography

Being able to track athletes has become an important thing in event organising. Not only does it allow us to see where everyone is but also all „dot watchers“ at home can see the progress their family members, friends and colleagues are making. Another service that can be vital is communication, i.e. to have the possibilty to contact athletes and to be contacted by them. Last but not least, it can be literally life saving if an athlete is able to signal an emergency quickly and easily. All this is fairly easy when you are within cell range. Once we leave this „comfort zone“, things get a bit more complicated. That’s why we are really happy to once again count on Fjällcom. This company, based in Isreal and Sweden, provides all these vital services. The device we are using for it is the Garmin inReach. Fjällcom rents these out and with their SOS Satellite Service then makes the satellite signals we are getting visible in an interactive map. We can follow our athletes and also get some great and very useful statistics. As the event organiser this easy to use service also allows us to send any message to all participants at one click. And it works the other way around, too. Athletes can send certain pre-set messages or custom text messages to us at any time. If an athlete gets into a life threatening situation, all he/she needs to do is to push a button on the inReach. The police department in charge will then be informed and already has got the gps co-ordinates they need to reach. All of which will work no matter how remote things get.

To better service events, Fjällcom took our permiere MLAU and wrote a special program for it. Learnings were made and details of the service have been improved. So, the experience for all involved will be even better next time. MLAU participants can either rent a Garmin inReach trough us or use their own device and get it hooked up to the system. The rental fee (tracking service, shipment and set-up included) is EUR 80.00/unit for the 500 km and EUR 60.00/unit for the 185 km. Individual text messages going out are EUR 1.00/message. All rates include Swedish VAT. Messages being received are also EUR 1.00/message but this is paid by MLAU. If you bring your own inReach, there is a set-up fee of EUR 25.00.

November 3rd will see the start of the NonStop 700 bike race in Israel that is supported by Fjällcom. If you want to see how their service works in real time, please check out their tracking page.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

Winter is coming!

Copyright: Swedish Lapland

Finally, it’s getting colder! A reminder that the second edition of the Montane Lapland Arctic Ultra is approaching. A big welcome to all athletes who have signed up so far! The race roster is still fairly short but it’s great to already see that, once again, we will have people from all over the world with us. At the moment England, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, USA and Australia are represented. What country will be next?

Entries are still open. Anybody interested in signing up, please check out the contact details.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

Trail maps now online

The page about the trail has received an update today. It now features two embedded Google maps of both loops that make up the Montane Lapland Arctic Ultra. This gives all of you interested in participating next winter the full details of where the trail will take you. This page now also contains the most important waypoints. However, please note, trail details may change. If this happens before the race we will update the page again and also talk about it in the race briefing.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

2023 training course details

Copyright: Linnéa Isaksson @Follow The Sun Photography

Once again, Per and his team from Rimfrost Adventures will be hosting the MLAU training course. It will take place immediately before the race and thus enable athletes to do both the course and the MLAU in one trip. However, it is also possible to do the course in one winter and return to the race in another year.

Feedback to the course of 2022 has been excellent. Therefore, there will not be many changes to the original format. One difference to last winter will be that one indoor session will be done online prior to departure. That will allow for even more outdoor training time when the participants are in Sweden. Another change is the location. Rather than being in Kalix, which is quite a distance from Överkalix and Jockfall, this time the course will take place in Jockfall. For the athletes this is very convenient because Jockfall is also where any pre-race activity after the course takes place – see Race Info. So, no more transfers needed.

To book the training course, please get in touch with Per. For contact info and an overview of the course details, please check out the Training Course information on our website or go straight to the Rimfrost Adventures website.

Impressions of Rimfrost Adventure’s 2022 Arctic Survival Course – photographed by Linnéa Isaksson @Follow The Sun Photography.

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robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

MLAU 2023 will start March 5th

Copyright: Linnéa Isaksson @Follow The Sun Photography

It took a bit longer to set next year’s start date because there was a delay regarding confirmation of the timing for the Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra.  Now that this is out of the way I am very happy to be able to announce that the Montane Lapland Arctic Ultra 2023 will start on March 5th in Överkalix. The distances offered will be 185 and 500 km. There could be some minor changes to the trail but by and large it will be the same as this year, i.e. a loop of 185 km to the northeast of Överkalix and a second loop of 325 km to the northwest of Överkalix.  Time limits will be 4 days for the 185 km and 10 days for the 500 km race. Disciplines to choose from are foot, xc-ski and fatbike.

Entries are possible as of now. Our Application page features the entry fee in Euros. Please note that entry fees will go up after the end of June and again after the end of August. Anybody who wants to sign up, please send an email to info[a]thegreatoutdoors.de. Then you will get the necessary paperwork.

Updated information on the training course should be available soon.

robert
In NEWS ENGLISH

The MLAU 2022 documentary is out now!

Copyright: Linnéa Isaksson @Follow The Sun Photography

It is here! The documentary of the very first Montane Lapland Arctic Ultra is now online 🙂

Thank you Silverbullet Film for the hard work while filming and the many hours of editing. A big thank you of course also to the European Regional Development Fund and our title sponsor Montane who helped financing this film project. Last but not least, once again, thank you to everyone else involved – all athletes, crew, sponsors and supporters.

Happy Easter!