The Greenlandic dog is necessary to survive in this part of the planet
“The question ‘why am I doing this?’ crosses your mind many times. I've asked myself dozens of times, always”. who speaks is Manuel Calvo , the architect of an expedition that has taken him on a journey through 27 days on a sled pulled by 16 dogs 450 kilometers in Greenland.
The answer that is always given after each expedition is that "You do it for a good cause that you will not stop pursuing despite everything that is put against you."
Manuel Calvo during the fifth edition of this expedition
And in this fifth edition of arctic challenge the difficulties have not been few precisely. The most striking and dangerous, the two days that Calvo had to spend isolated in a shelter waiting for a snow and wind storm to pass.
“The winds of more than 100 kilometers per hour moved the stones of the mountain and when we left there there were stones nailed to the walls. Obviously I was very scared and I remembered my children, my whole family and how exciting and vibrant life is, despite everything. Fortunately, he was left in a great scare, very long, but I was able to get out of there and continue my route”.
A route that he could not complete according to the planned plans, which passed through leave from Qaanaaq, a Greenlandic city of 800 inhabitants with an average temperature of -24ºC, and reach 21 days later Cape Isabella, in Canada.
“I couldn't get to Canada, which was the initial goal. I knew there could be difficulties, but the big problem was that the sea was not frozen enough to support my weight, that of the sled and that of the dogs that pulled it” he explains.
The change of route, which led them to go along the west coast of Greenland, resulted in a distance of 450 kilometers, the most traveled in the five editions of the Arctic Challenge. "Not being able to achieve that goal motivated me to achieve this one, the distance record."
Despite the difficulties, it is worth it
There is no evil that does not come for good, as the popular saying goes. For this reason, Calvo does not hesitate to take stock, a positive balance because he has been able to meet his objectives: “document the effects of climate change and spread the history and culture of the dog, essential for human survival in this part of the planet”.
The adventurer from Malaga already suspected before his departure that perhaps it would not be possible to reach Canada and he was counting on documenting it to make it known that at a point "where before the great expeditions were trapped by excess ice, now the ice has largely disappeared and we have not been able to pass."
And this, whatever the skeptical tongues say, has consequences for the planet, in general, and for the inhabitants of this part of the world, in particular.
"The inuit, rather than suffer the consequences, what they are doing is trying to adapt to this situation”, he tells and gives examples.
“Since the sea does not have enough rigidity at any time of the year to cross it on foot, locals are now traversing these areas on floating boats. Then, in the areas where there are buildings, they have a big problem because the houses are built on the permafrost (permanently frozen ground layer) and now it is losing rigidity and the temperature is rising, so the foundations are moving.”
Its population is declining
Also “The Greenlandic dog population is declining. The Inuit breed fewer and fewer dogs because the sea is less and less frozen, and they basically use them to move through the frozen sea”, he explained to Traveler.es days before starting the expedition.
These dogs, 16 of them, have been essential in carrying out this expedition that has been done by sled and with the sole company of an Inuit guide. “Doing it alone would be reckless” , he acknowledged.
The sled has been typical of Greenland, like the ones made by the Inuit a century ago: made of wood and without nails, so they have flexibility , in case it was necessary to disassemble it completely to pass ice blocks.
They have slept in a tent, fed on the food they carried for themselves and their dogs, and They have drunk and washed thawing ice with fuel.
“Our day to day will be to get up, prepare and pack up the camp; depending on weather conditions and ice conditions, do 20, 25 or 30 kilometers; camping, the dogs are always fed in the afternoon, we prepare the camp, have dinner and go to sleep and gain strength for the next day. We do not use GPS , but we do carry means in case there is an emergency”, predicted the adventurer.
You don't have to be an athlete, but you do have to be in good physical shape
To face the experience, Calvo assures that it is not necessary to be an athlete, but yes be in good physical shape. Regarding mental preparation, he recognizes that for the cold there is no possible training.
"The big problem you have is being continuously exposed to temperatures of 30 degrees below zero , sitting on a sled for many hours and not doing any physical activity. So, the thermal sensation is much greater and for this there is no prior preparation: carry good equipment, have a good diet, know where you are, what you are doing, but little else”, he was explaining himself.
And it is that the extreme and constant cold is the inescapable toll to pay “for living there, for living with the people there and seeing the landscapes. Enjoying that absolute silence broken many times just by the creak of the glaciers is brutal”.
Calvo recognized that it is worth facing the cold and other dangers, such as freezing, the presence of polar bears or the state of the ice for which they travel, "for living in the Arctic, seeing the greatness of Greenland, share the ancient culture that they have It's like a door to the past."
The cold is the toll to pay to enjoy these landscapes
For this reason and for meeting the objectives of the Arctic Challenge which, in addition to denouncing climate change, includes promoting sports and, above all, help spread the history and culture of the dog.
Because Desafío Ártico was born from the love that Calvo feels for the dog and from this dissemination work that he has carried out for years among the little ones.
“I saw that the boys got bored when you had been talking to them for a while about the work that the dog has had and has in society” , explained Calvo who, in addition to being an adventurer, is president of the non-profit association Maratón Dog through which this expedition is organized with the sponsorship of Tiendanimal.
“Looking all over the planet for places where the dog continued to play a fundamental role in human life, we saw that the most extreme site where the symbiosis between dog and man is greatest was in Greenland and there I went ”to return loaded with videos of each of the four expeditions that he has made to date.
“Going to schools with those videos, you tell the children that the Inuit still depend on the dog, you capture their attention throughout the day, We are sending them a message of responsible ownership, we bring dogs and we do exhibitions and games”, Calvo spoke about a project that at the moment has been developed mainly in Andalusian schools, but that is already studying its extension to other centers throughout the country.
They have the key to the expedition
As everything, education is key . Both children and dogs. “One of the big problems in the issue of dropouts is the lack of education. Just as you educate a child from the first moment, you also educate a dog because later coexistence will be much better. Many of the abandonments come from an aggressiveness that many times is not aggressiveness, it is fear. So, the man-dog coexistence cannot be carried out. And where do they end? The one who loses is always the one with four legs”.
Hence this adventure, this original way of making us look at a place where man and dog still need each other to survive, to remind us that without them, our civilization would not be what it is today. And yes, there will be an expedition in 2020. "My idea is, with the same objectives of all the editions, run the adventure on another continent".
*This article was initially published on 03.12.2019 and updated for the purpose of the issue
Yes, in 2020 there will be more landscapes like this