Adventure racer taking on "extreme endurance test" in the Arctic

Wednesday 09 February 2022

A local man is preparing for an extreme test in the Ice Ultra race across 230km of Arctic tundra to raise money for the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation.

Daz Carre will be adventuring inside the Article Circle through five stages of tundra, pine forests, snowy mountains and frozen lakes. It will be an extreme test for Mr Carre as he pushes himself physically and mentally to raise money for the local charity.

The race starts on 22 February - a week next Tuesday - in Swedish Lapland, where temperatures are expected to fluctuate between -5 and -40 degrees Celsius. 

Mr Carre is an adventure racer. He has completed many ultra-distance races, including the famous Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert. 

“It’s just a natural curiosity. Now I’ve completed the race dubbed as ‘the hottest race on Earth’, I should embark on one of the coldest," said Mr Carre. 

“The race is fully marked and starts at the Mountain Centre at Stora Sjofallets and finishes in the small town of Jokkmokk. The longest stage is on day four, which is a 64km stage that starts before the sun rises on the remote island of Laxholmen.

“We sleep in traditional yurts, warmed by a log fire.

"Unsurprisingly, there is a large compulsory kit list, which includes food for five stages of racing - minimum 2,000 calories per day - medical supplies, race equipment and enough clothing to stay alive in this extreme endurance test.”

Pictured: Daz Carre will often battle freezing temperatures as he travels through multiple biomes and landscapes during the extreme race. 

Thanks to FerrySpeed, Mr Carre got to test out his clothing in a freezer at -21 degrees.

“It was an interesting experiment and I learned a few things which will hopefully help me out,” he said. 

He caught covid-19 before Christmas, which halted his training efforts for a short time. He claims his preparations are now back on track, despite running fewer miles than he had hoped since resuming training.

The Foundation is a charity which is close to Mr Carre's heart. It housed some of his close friends in one of its apartments by Southampton General Hospital whilst their son was undergoing life-saving treatment there. It has two home-from-home apartments and they are rarely empty. 

Funds raised by the Foundation help keep Guernsey families together and close to their poorly children while they are in hospital off the island. 

Pictured: The funds raised from Mr Carre's extreme endurance challenge will go towards maintaining compassionate housing by Southampton General Hospital. The apartments, owned by the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation, are known as Isaac's Pad and Aggie's Burrow.

Jo Priaulx, Founder and Trustee of the Foundation, said: “This is an amazing but really tough challenge for Daz. We want to thank him so much for supporting our charity and wish him the best of luck. We hope he has an awesome time.”

Maiden Guernsey, a band in which Mr Carre plays, are performing at The Vault this Friday, 11 February. There is no entry fee but there will be Foundation collection buckets for people who wish to donate to Mr Carre's challenge.

If you would like to support Mr Carre and the Foundation, you can donate by clicking HERE.