There’s a saying “On a harsh expedition, there’s no place for someone who does not intend to finish it.” It explicitly indicates that one needs to have courage and firm determination to step forward for a back-breaking expedition.
Irshad Abdulazeez, a 32-year-old Indian expatriate from Kerala, has mustered up the courage to take on an expedition offering tough weather challenges including high altitude cold temperatures. Born and brought up in Kerala, he has been living in Qatar for five years. Besides his courage, Irshad needs a lot of online support to be selected for Fjällräven Polar 2019.
Community recently caught up with Irshad to talk about his plans and the expedition in Norway.
Talking about his background, the Indian expatriate said, “I have been working in Qatar in automobile sector since June 2013. I have a diploma in automobile engineering. I’m quite excited about adventures and trekking. I am an aspiring outdoorsman. ”
Regarding how he came to know about Fjällräven Polar, an international polar expedition covering 300 kilometre of Arctic wilderness between Norway and Sweden, he said, “I visited Norway in 2016 for a few days. When I was in a hostel in Oslo, I learnt about the expedition from one of my roommates. As soon as I heard about it, it caught my attention since I have always been thrilled about venturing out in wilderness and at high altitudes.”
Talking about the expedition, Irshad said, “Fjällräven Polar is an annual competition that is held along the route of Norway-Sweden. The participants need to travel for seven days straight for 300 kilometres, bearing the temperature that can go as low as -40 degrees centigrade. Each participant is provided with eight husky dogs and sledges in order to accomplish the task.”
He added, “Fjällräven, a Swedish company specialising in outdoor equipment, mostly clothing and rucksacks, has been organising the expedition since 2002. The organisers select 20 people across the world for the annual event. They have divided the world in 10 regions and two people are selected from each region. The selection is done on the basis of online voting. The one who gets maximum votes is selected for the expedition. The fact that only 20 participants from all over the world make it to the final list, makes the filtering process extremely stringent.”
About his physical preparation for the event, Irshad said, “In Kerala we do not have high mountains. I had never experienced freezing cold before.
“However, in March this year, I went to Nepal and spent about 10 days at a base camp in the Himalayas at the altitude of 4,130 metres. I also did some physical training with trained guides in Nepal to prepare myself for the expedition, if I am selected.”
Irshad further said, “In 2017, a man from Kerala was selected for the expedition after he got around 50, 000 online votes. I have searched for people who had earlier taken part in the expedition but I’ve found no one from Qatar to have had been a part of this event. I think I will be the first one from Qatar who will take part in the expedition.”
He said, “People are voting for me, but I desperately need many more votes to make the cut. I need support both from India and Qatar. If I make it to the expedition, I will carry Qatar’s flag during my travel. There is no trophy or prize money. I am taking on the journey only to pursue my excitement and love for wilderness. The only achievement is to complete the journey.”
People can vote Irshad at
https://polar.fjallraven.com/contestant/?id=5207&fbclid= IwAR067jWJUGMSUs8cCgpo7Wyl WVnmJYirqyIQOB4woIduNYtOLF FRKkh0XlY
ADVENTUROUS: Irshad Abdulazeez, a 32-year-old Indian expatriate from Kerala, has mustered up courage to take on an expedition of Fj?llr?ven Polar, offering tough weather challenges including high altitude cold temperatures. Photos supplied
