Norway & Sweden In Winter 2011

I spent February 2011 riding 1,600km through Norway and Sweden, from Oslo to the Arctic Circle and beyond. Taking on a solo bike trip in a fairly chilly land — with temperatures down to ‑33°C — proved to be a fascinating, challenging and fulfilling experience.

Watch this 2‑minute video to get a taste of what it felt like:

I wanted to experiment and develop my photography, so I published a blog and pictures every day on the road, which proved really successful, if exhausting and time-consuming. You can follow this ‘live’ journal here from the top, or see some facts & figures if that’s your thing.

Thanks to Schwalbe for providing a set of incredible Ice Spiker Pro tyres for this trip. I was riding on sheet ice and hard-packed snow for almost the entire journey — Scandinavian roads aren’t salted since salt doesn’t do anything below ‑5°C. I fell off only once (which was my own fault for not looking where I was going).

Thanks also to Extrawheel for a modified prototype of their Voyager trailer with extra ground clearance — it worked, as always, like a charm.

• View the whole album on Flickr
• Start reading the ‘live blog’ from this trip.
• More adventures.