Adventure runner Jukka Viljanen has announced that he will attempt to run across the ice sheets eschewing the use of skis to travel on foot instead. If successful, he'll become the first person in history to accomplish such a feat. In doing so, he hopes to shine a spotlight on the impact that climate change is having in the polar regions of our planet, including Greenland where rising temperatures is already starting to have an impact on the lives of the individuals living there.
Viljanen intends to set out on this journey in April of 2019. He has partnered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his home country of Finland for support on the project. Since Finland is currently the chair of the Arctic Council, it seemed like a good fit for all involved. The expedition will serve as a call for action against climate change, with thousands of runners and adventure junkies following Jukka's progress throughout the traverse online.
This certainly isn't Viljanen's first major expedition. We've followed his adventures in the past here on The Adventure Blog as he has run across the Sahara and Kalahari, and traveled to the North Pole and through the Antarctic. Traversing the Greenland ice sheets will be a challenge on par with those undertakings, and perhaps even more challenging. It is a difficult and demanding place, with frigid temperature, harsh conditions, and difficult terrain.
For now, we'll have to wait until 2019 to learn more about this undertaking. But it should certainly be an interesting one to follow next spring.