Extreme Arctic Adventure And Test Of Character – “Fulda Challenge”

Sixteen, mostly young, people were participants in the first “Fulda Challenge”; a sporting competition held at the end of February in the North-west of Canada. Dog sled racing was only one discipline of the Challenge. Each member of the winning team receives a gold nugget worth 5,000 Canadian dollars.

Driving is the most important discipline in the competition. Over 1,500 miles by car were covered by the participants in the ten days. The tour led straight across the North-west of Canada.

With their jeeps, the competitors started in Whitehorse on the Yukon River, travelled to the old gold-prospecting town of Dawson City, up the Dempster Highway, and into the Arctic Circle. Along the way, various tasks awaited the participants. For example, the participants had to climb up a 20-m high ice wall in the dark, then master a ski slalom, or race through snow-covered forests and over frozen rivers on skidoos.

The tour was jointly worked out and planned by Fulda, the rally driver, Jutta Kleinschmidt, the racing driver, Hans-Joachim Stuck, the Olympic skiing gold medallist, Markus Wasmeier, and the mountaineer, Olaf Reinstadler. The four celebrities accompanied the tour as well. And then in Tuktoyaktuk, everything came to an end – the American continent included.

Only those who drive over the frozen Mackenzie River got to Tuk on the Arctic Ocean. Almost only Eskimos live in the town, which has 1,000 inhabitants and colourful wooden houses – a suitable backdrop for the igloo building competition. The inhabitants of Tuk were amused by the diligent Europeans who had taken over their village for several hours, and who, at minus 40 degrees Celsius, and dazzling sunshine, were stacking up lumps of snow to make wonky igloos.