The Idea

Leaving our places with public transports, crossing Europe on the train, to discover the Sarek Range, 200 km inside the Arctic Circle.

The Rail and Ride project : A ski touring expedition.

Lapland, famously known to be the paradise of cross country expeditions, is not so often a destination for ski-tourers. Our first tour in 2010 showed us the amazing possibilities there are in this region, "lost between Sweden and Norway".

As we have solid experience of the Nordic environment, this expedition will make us leave the large valleys where the Kungsleden (King's trail) takes place, letting us to the isolation and technical nature of the Sarek Range.

The Idea is to mix classical ski tours with hiking across Scandinavia. The plan is to set base camps all the way along our path, and from these, we will go around to the surrounding summits, reachable with great ridges and faces that only ask to be skied !

The Rail and Ride project : A sustainable transport praise.

As we love distant adventures, our choice is to travel only with sustainable transport. With this goal, we decided to join the experience of traveling by train to a ski-touring expedition beyond the Arctic circle.

This project is the third of its kind, using the train to go ski-touring in Lapland. As we appreciated this way of traveling and organization, and encouraged by the success of the two movies made out of these experiences, we want to increase the range of our audience.

Because we believe in the idea of joining distant travels and sustainable transport!

When ?

As Spring is the best season to ski in Lapland, as the days are longer than winter, and lakes are still frozen enough to allow us to walk trough fairly long distances, we plan to realize our project from the 23th of March to the 11th of April.

Feedbacks Our trip lasts less than 3 weeks. Through this project we want to prove the fact that it is possible to find solutions to travel long distances, and minimizing our impact on the environment, within a month. A trip accessible to everybody...

As a consequence of different reports and movies we made from the last two trips, at least 20 people traveled to Lapland using the train.

Media repercussions For this adventure, Bruno Peyronnet, professional film maker, is coming with us, who will film the whole trip.

A documentary produced by Helioprod will be made. It will be presented on the channel MontagneTV, and Helioprod is in contact with other channels.

In parrallel, the movie will be presented on different festivals, linked to sustainable transports or outdoors sports, or through local associations.

We have been talked about on different situations:

– on the Internet: our reports have been published on different websites, and have been discussed on several forums (camptocamp.org, skitour.fr, atacamag.com, mountainwilderness.org, skirandonnenordique.com)

– in magazines linked to outdoor sports (carnets d'aventures n°26...)

– through the films realized and presented in different well known events in our region and around ( Grand Bivouac 2010 and 2011, Nuits polaires 2011, Rencontres Expé 2011 and 2012, "d'un regard à l'autre" festival, Festival Mont Blanc Durable ).

Other communication means

– Blog of our last expeditions : rail-and-ride.blogspot.com

– "Rail and Ride" Association website: www.rail-and-ride.org

The "Rail and Ride" team Bruno Peyronnet

Professional film maker, mountaineer and founder of the "Réalpinisme", which consists of making films in mountainous area. Presenter of the "Journal de la montagne" on the Channel "TV8 Mont Blanc".

Bruno is in charge of recording pictures from our trip, in order to make a 26' long documentary. Its diffusion will take place in the TV and in presentations.

Olivier Cartier-Moulin

27 years, engineer in Natural Risks Management, mountain leader, mountain-bike teacher.

Realizations:

– 2005 French academical Adventure Racing Champion.

– Regular practice of ski-touring, hiking, and mountain-biking.

Fanny Cathala

26 years old, mountain leader, geographer, Rock climbing and ski touring instructor (non professional). Has a solid experience in rock-climbing, mountaineering and ski touring in the Alps (up to TD alpine grade).

Expeditions : Kayaking down the Rupert River in Quebec, North/South Crossing of Iceland by foot.

Yann Foucard

28 years old, environmental engineer. Rock climbing and sailing instructor. Seaman at the beginning, became mountaineer, the Outdoors are the essence of his life. Accomplished many climbs in Rock-climbing, mountaineering and ski-touring in the Alps (up to TD alpine grade).

Expeditions : Kayaking down the Rupert River in Quebec, North/South Crossing of Iceland by foot.

Jean-Marie Gallou

30 years old, Building engineer.

Expedition : Long distance trek in the Tatras Range (Poland/Slovakia).

Xavier Janet

26 years old, structures engineer.

Outdoor realizations :

– Mountaineering outings (up to D alpine grade).

– Regular practice of rock-climbing, ski-touring and Telemark.

Baptiste Calliari

21 years old, studying environmental sciences at EPFL (Swiss federal institute of technology).

User of sustainable transport in the everyday life, it becomes a sport challenge "in the weekends".

Realizations :

– mountaineering and rock-climbing up to D alpine grade, mountaineering instructor.

– Long distance ski-touring.

Logistics Expedition dates : from the 28th of March to the 18th of April 2012

Train travel : Outward journey : 23th to the 25th of March

Backward journey : from the 9th to the 11th of April

Approximate train travel :

The expedition :

Phase 1 :

Sarek Range crossing, Base camps every second day or so, from which we will go to the surrounding summits.

Phase 2 :

Crossing to Norway and the fjord Hellemobotn, where a boat shall come pick us up.

Accommodation To guarantee a good mood for everybody and keep an excellent team spirit, all nights will be spent under our Tepee ( 10 kg for 23 squared meters ), warmed up with a small wood stove ( 800 grams ).

Gear The ways of transport we chose make us need light gear, as we will need to carry our gear in the train and all along the expedition.

A good ratio between protection against the cold climate ( -30°C at night ) and lightness is to be fou nd !

Partnership offer The Rail-and-ride team offers to its partners to promote their image and/or and test in real conditions their gear that will be used in the expedition.

Communication

"Rail and Ride" is an original opportunity for your business to communicate its spirit through an adventurous, sportive, project, based on an actual environmental problematic.

For your external communication, we offer you:

• your logo on our presentations and or conferences posters.

• Your logo on our expedition gear.

• A particular mention in our reports and at the end of the documentary.

• Photos with your logo, in situation in Lapland.

In order to guarantee the success of this communication , and to increase the interest of your staff in your brand's spirit, we can organize a conference to your staff.

Then, the image of your brand will be highlighted by the diffusion of our documentary on MontagneTV and also on the different festivals linked to Outdoors and travels. The participation of Bruno Peyronnet, professional cameraman, ensures a great quality for the films and pictures to come.