The four friends and explorers have set a common goal: to reach the northernmost scientific station in the world. The expedition, named “White Ghosts, on the trail of Svalbard’s ghosts,” will take place in extreme conditions.
The team consists of Moufid Taleb, a professional expedition guide from Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Ludovic Ibba, an archaeologist and explorer who has led expeditions from the Amazon to the Yukon, Jordan Buatois, a mountain adventurer, and Benjamin Peroni, a seasoned traveler with adventures of all kinds.
Their goal is to reach Ny-Ålesund, the northernmost scientific station in the world, located on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Along the 400 kilometers of the route, the adventurers will pass through a ghost town abandoned since the Soviet era, and then an isolated cabin marked by the tragic disappearance of seventeen people in 1873. Between these stages, glaciers, ice floes, and vast silent expanses will punctuate the journey. And the polar bears, other white ghosts of the present, whose presence requires constant vigilance.
The quartet will depart with approximately 350 kg of equipment and supplies, distributed in pulkas, which are special sleds, pulled on skis. The route will pass through Narvik and then Tromsø, in Norway, before reaching Svalbard. Faced with meteorological depressions in chains, storms, and extreme cold, there is no question of being physically overwhelmed.
The preparation phase was completed in Lapland in recent days. Material tests, bivouacs, and encounters with local wildlife (owls, ptarmigans, hares, and northern lights) have marked these past weeks. The group’s flagship training: pulling tires to simulate the sensations of the pulka on ice. The entire adventure will be filmed, and a documentary will be released once it is completed.
