Some time ago Radius agreed to sponsor Ian Hunter, an engineer from Scottish Power, and his Team Artemis, who was undertaking a race, the Polar Challenge 2007, to the North Pole. Team Artemis came in 3rd position, in one of the toughest races in the world! Their official race time was 16 days, 8 hours, 30 minutes.

The Polar Challenge is a competitive, 350 mile team race, across the arctic to the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole. The race takes place between mid April and mid May each year, taking teams approximatley 4 weeks to complete, including training time. Competitors race on skis, pulling their supplies in 120Ib pulks, stopping at 2 checkpoints en route to re-supply. The race itself runs from Polaris to Isaachen mine, through 3 checkpoints. The first 2 checkpoints are for resupply, to take on new food and fuel. The 3rd is the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole. As it is hazardous for planes to land here, the finish line is a further 25 miles, near a disused airstrip.

The arctic is one of the world's most extreme environments, with temperatures as low as -50C, with 80% of the world's polar bear population. Fortunately Team Artemis didn’t come across any of them:

”I didn’t see a single polar bear, but our tent was visited one evening. In the morning, there was a set of fresh tracks around the tent, but the whole polar bear thing didn’t worry me a bit.”

Hunter describes the experience as fantastic, but at the same time challenging both physically and mentally.

Read more about Team Artemis Polar Challenge at: http://www.polarchallenge07.com/