Arctic Imposters; a sledge hauling expedition across Spitsbergen

Join us for a lecture by Dave Cowell, who will describe how he mounted an expedition to haul sledges across Spitsbergen It’s 1995. Living in London in their mid-twenties, Dave and Andrej dream of escaping their humdrum lives in the city for a grand adventure in the wilds. One drunken night they settle on a 600km sledge-hauling expedition across the island of Spitsbergen in the High Arctic. Against the odds, and all sound advice, with the help of a commission from Radio 4 and the unlikely, but highly apt, support of Newcastle Brown Ale, they somehow get it together in just 4 months, and their mad dream becomes a reality. But finding themselves alone 600 miles from the North Pole, poorly equipped and out of their depth at -30oC, reality hits hard. Like all the best adventures, things don’t go quite according to plan… This lecture tells the story of their expedition, recounted in full in the memoir Arctic Impostors.