99. Explorando el Ártico | Karina Sánchez Bazán

En este episodio platicaremos con Karina Sánchez Bazán, la primer exploradora del ártico mexicana en completar la expedición Fjällräven Polar. 
A dos semanas de su aventura, en la cual, con otros exploradores de diversas partes del mundo, cruzó el círculo polar ártico desde el norte de Suecia hasta Noruega.
Durante una semana, recorrieron 300 km en trineos de expedición tirados por perros, y se adentraron por completo en un ecosistema intenso en la tundra helada.
Acompáñanos a escuchar cómo fue su aventura en uno de los entornos más inhóspitos de la Tierra.
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Sobre la invitada:

Sigue en Instagram a Karina@ksanchezbazan
Aprende más sobre la expedición: https://experience.fjallraven.com/polar/2024

Link expedición 2025
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No olvides compartir un screenshot y mencionar a Andrea en Instagram @soyandreapalacio o conecta con Andrea en Linkedin.

Sigue a Andrea

El Club de Impacto es producido por Milky Wave Media.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome to the impactclub. I' m Andrea Palacio and
I' m dying. I'm dying of the excitement, of talking,
of asking a thousand questions to theguest we have today. I must
confess, this was a little selfishof me. Or use the podcast to
be the first one I heard thisstory, to get the scoop of this

(00:25):
conversation that, even if we weren' t recording it to me, I
would have loved to hear this storyand hear from his mouth everything he lived.
And today I bring you the firstexplorer of the Mexican Arctic to complete
the expedition. If I hope tohave said well to the polar raben,
he has just arrived on this adventurein which, with different explorers from other

(00:47):
parts of the world, he crossedthe Arctic Circle from northern Sweden to Norway.
For a week, they traveled threehundred kilometers in dog- drawn expedition
sleds and also, as they wentcompletely into this entire ecosystem so intense that
it is the icy tundra and sheis here today at the impact club to

(01:08):
tell us how that adventure was inone of the most inhospitable environments on Earth.
This is Karina Sanchez Bazán. Welcome. Thank you, Andrea Thank you
very much. Thank you so muchfor wanting to share this with your audience.
It gives me a lot of excitementif it' s the first time
I' m gonna count as wellas in voice what happened. I'
ve been counting like bits and piecesand I went back to Mexico two weeks

(01:34):
ago and it' s been likea process of being able to go having
like these reflections and these insights andthis huge gratitude of having been part of
that expedition. So it gives mea lot of excitement to be able to
tell them, too, and toencourage more people to do it too.
Of course not, thank you,thanks for the trust and notice that good

(01:55):
I tell you a little bit thatKary and I know each other from a
few years to here, but throughoutthis time that I have known her not
when I saw what I was goingto do about the expedition, the truth
is that I am not surprised,because I have this impression of you Kary,
that you have an explorer spirit,that is, from what I know

(02:17):
you and from what I see throughyour social networks, not only this is
a reflection of a since what willbe like a taste that you have,
but I think that the impression thatI have is that you live your life,
that is, you explore not onlybecause this kind of adventures, but
it gives me the impression that evenin Mexico, all the time you are

(02:40):
exploring coffees, places, like thatin your own city, in your own
world. It also gives me theimpression that you love the topic of adventure,
you like to travel a lot andthrough your work, that you were
the first person I knew, thattalked about food safety, that now I
understand it a little more, beingin Canada, like I' ve heard

(03:01):
more conversations about it, and itgives me this impression that you have a
soul explorer. I' m right. Yeah, I' m gonna tell
you that when I was a kid, my mom was laughing and it was
an anecdote she was telling because oneday I told her. As Mom hears,
I think I have a traveling spiritand for me my life is always

(03:23):
full of being curious, of tryingto see what' s new, what
' s out there, what Ican learn. I don' t really
like being locked up, and that' s funny because I, in my
professional life, am locked up,I' m basically in the company and
I do research, but just becauseI do that in the other part of

(03:45):
my life. I don' tlike being locked up and I find in
nature a way to heal myself andhow to really appreciate what you have to
appreciate sometimes in the professional part.Suddenly the approach is very competitive, very
next. I achieve the next goalwhat I' m going to do and
for a long time I lived inmy life like this and being in touch

(04:09):
with nature taught me how to calmdown, not all the time. You
have to be chasing super- ambitiousthings. Rather, you have to be
pursuing that curiosity of soul and spiritand whether there is a place where you
are in a comfort zone but nothappy, then you have to go out
to explore and where this part comesfrom. Yours is something you learned,

(04:32):
or you molded it from someone youknow or it just went away. It
' s part of your personality,so look. I had the fortune to
think I identified very well the momentwhere this curiosity started and in fact,
it wasn' t the child.It was because I liked going out for
a walk. I have a momwho taught me how to love nature.

(04:53):
My mom is from a very smallmunicipality of Tlaxcala, and then she liked
to be on the plants, totake care of the birds. You don
' t know then how that's nature. I learned it from her,
but she identified very well that whenI was in the Prepa I had
a friend who was much bigger,adventurous too and he was the first one

(05:14):
to go from nothing exchange to Japanand was very cute, because at that
time there was no Whatsapp and theInternet was not so much in Boom.
I' m already big. ThenI got the betrayal. I don'
t think he' s that bigon the Internet, and he was doing
something very nice to his best friends. He sent us every two weeks an
e- mail with photos from Japanand he told us that a little Parish

(05:38):
that he had lived and that startedwaking me up like that wow, there
' s another side of the world, there are other countries like all the
time you can be meeting. No. And he went is called oscar oscar
slab, if he listens to them. He was the one who in me
is still the traveler and explorer,and he was the one who detonated that
in me as curiosity of ay Iwant to go and I also want to

(06:01):
go meet other sides. And Idon' t want to be locked up
either. I didn' t livein Queretaro, which used to be smaller
than it is now. There weren' t so many things to do and
then he was like me, Idon' t want to stay locked up
here. I also want to goout and see what' s out there,
because I' ve already seen thisworld that I didn' t know.
And fortunately, my academic life hashelped me to do so, because

(06:23):
there were always schools where they havethis important international link and support and drive
it. And then I' vebeen kind of lucky that my academic life
in my professional life, also allowsme to do those things. Of course
not, and how beautiful what youdescribe. I think you just don'

(06:46):
t necessarily have to be constantly comingout of the country or because the first
thing that comes to mind is good, is that maybe several of those who
are listening will say good, butmaybe I won' t. I don
' t have that capacity for you. And let me tell you that Kari
is constantly looking for scholarships and ina moment you' re going to tell

(07:08):
us a little bit and you've had opportunities that you' ve been
looking for and that it doesn't necessarily do because you financially solved,
no, but going back a littlebit to the fact that because you just
came back literally two weeks ago youcame back from this and I know that

(07:30):
there' s probably still a lotof ideas in your head going around,
there' s going to be otherthings that eventually you' re going to
go because they' re going tosettle down. But today, Karina,
how would you describe what you livedduring that expedition today, what has sat
down. I believe that if thepolar Rabbi is an experience, they call
him an adventure of life, noyes, it is an adventure that marks

(07:51):
your life. In other words,there is a before and after having gone
to faithful, polar raven one witha very deep sense of gratitude that,
while the truth is that I practicedaily gratitude and such things, I have
never felt a sense of gratitude asseriously, as deep as it is so
deep within the spirit. For threethings. One. The first, for

(08:13):
having the privilege of being there asa gift of life, because we say,
we don' t pay anything,it' s not this thing that
covers 100% of the brand.So, first, gratitude for being able
to live that and being there,having that gift of life. Two,
to be able to see those ecosystemsthat are intangible to most people and that

(08:33):
when we talk about things like climatechange, like why my actions, so
small in my house, matter,well and you see that majestic ecosystem.
That' s why that ecosystem candisappear. And the third thing of gratitude
is because I was literally accompanied bymasters of life that right now in my

(08:56):
life I needed as if to regaininner strength, and I was accompanied by
my companions, nineteen other adventurers andexplorers, but also by brand guides.
The brand has a very beautiful philosophyof caring for the earth, but also

(09:18):
as of this resilient spirit. Andone of the things that struck me the
most and that is a gratitude forbeing able to strengthen my spirit is that,
although the expedition was very rough interms of physical effort and danger a
little bit, the focus was neveras in poor, not as in piti.

(09:41):
That poor thing? Can' tI help you or poor thing?
I' m doing it for you. It was never like that, that
is, every time there was adifficulty. The focus was like good and
what you learned today, how youcan do better tomorrow. You couldn'
t sleep today why then, whatare you going to do different tomorrow so
that you can sleep then. Theapproach was like very agile of all the

(10:03):
time to be improving and not tobe in your own condescension. And I
think, of course, I bringit as a gift, because for me
that' s in life, notjust in pola. Sure, hey,
and see pins in context how youfound it. This is an exact team

(10:24):
brand that is teaching us for thosewho are listening on podcast kariy is teaching
us because besides, you were veryequipped. Don' t be a Swedish
clothing brand, it' s abrand. They are described as a brand
of outdoors, that is as clothingand equipment to be in nature. They

(10:48):
are Swedish, they were born moreor less in the sixties and they have
a super father philosophy, because forthem today in the capitalist world, it
is not something you hear much froma brand. But their philosophy is that
everything that one does that has theleast impact on nature, or uses sustainable,
recyclable materials and stuff from them,but also that they have a low

(11:11):
environmental impact because they last a longtime. I mean, the idea of
them is that you literally crawl,have an adventure life, and that'
s still there for many years.In fact, on Earth’ s last
day, April 22. The martatook out a campaign to say I want
to make a dial with you asa consumer, that the jacket you buy

(11:33):
today don' t throw it orchange it in two seasons, but that
you do everything you can to makeit the only jacket you buy me then.
He has a very fatherly technology likeresistance in clothing, like normal outdoors,
but they have also developed a veryspecialized technical part of equipment that withstands
extreme and extreme temperatures. They're extreme, I mean, they'

(11:56):
re medium minus thirty degrees outdoors.Not all a development of clothing equipment,
but also campaign homes, lippings,that is, everything that allows you to
enjoy nature regardless of the weather.I love going to look if here,
in Canada, you have? Theytend what' s in it? Why?

(12:16):
Because I like one of my colleaguesis Canadian and in Canada there is
a very good shop. I likethat idea of a jacket all my life.
I like that, hey. Andhow did you know this expedition,
how did you get to them,how did you apply, because I know
you mentioned it a moment ago.It' s not commercial, it'

(12:37):
s not something I want to doand I pay. It' s something
you have to apply exactly. It' s not a commercial expedition. In
fact, there are places where theexpedition arrives that actually does not reach anyone
other than the indigenous people of thearea. There are Indians in Sweden,
something I didn' t know inthose areas and well the brand does this
campaign or this call, every yearIn fact, we were the nineteen generation

(13:01):
to make this expedition. But beforeone approach as of a beginning, it
was from a race, that is, it was a competition to see who
was coming. First, it wasnot a sled competition and it was focused
only on Europeans. Then he changedto make it an expedition and began to
open it as to Europe. Andit' s not really many years,

(13:24):
about eight or nine years ago thatthey started opening it internationally and there'
s only been a pause in allthese years that was in the pandemic when
they couldn' t make the expedition. But now it is a fortune to
be brought to the international market.And the only requirement, say, or
the only two requirements, is thatyou speak English, and the other is

(13:46):
that you are relatively healthy, obviously, that you can move, that you
can make physical effort, and thatyou are healthy to make the expedition.
So, actually, they' retwo requirements and it' s true there
' s no requirement of dice.In fact, in my generation the youngest
person was twenty- three or twenty- four years old and the greatest person

(14:07):
was sixty- two years old.So, in that age range, while
you' re at it, I' m healthy and I can and I
speak English, you can do itand how I found it. I think
it' s a gift because Iwas already following the brand on this side
of the world, as in theAmerican continent they became famous and in Mexico

(14:30):
too Mars became famous, because ithas these square backpacks that have this logo
of the fox and that say fieldraven Canken and that they have anvil or
that have many colors. Then theybecame like this, they went viral and
looked at the backpacks. So,obviously, I said to myself I want
a backpack, I don' tmean and I bought the backpack and I

(14:52):
started to keep on buying the backpackfrom the brand on Instagram and I remember
that the campaign usually comes out everyyear between Ctubre and November. And I
remember that there was one day thatI had had a day as super hard
as life, let' s sayit and literally I was at night scrolling

(15:13):
in instagram and I got the brandannouncement. And the ad on the brand
was super powerful, because it wasa picture of a campaign house in the
middle of the snow at night,lit up inside and said small Rome to
dancing bull You join no and itsaid like that there is a place like
in this little house for a fewdays, it joins us and I said

(15:33):
what this is and it took meto the page, to the call of
the expedition. And basically the pageto call. Every year he starts by
saying you don' t look likean Arctic explorer. We see you as
not and then they begin to describewhat is and what is the contest process.

(15:56):
And that' s when I saidMira, I would want to do
this. There was like one tosay, because I would like to get
to those inhospitable places of the earthand see what is clear there And that
' s how I discovered it makesme very curious, I mean a little
bit, because the mindset you bringbecause if I would say so, then

(16:18):
God bless you not, that is, how good that there is a place,
because I or it isn' tgoing to be no, but to
you he spoke, he spoke toyou and called you this, this curiosity
and this gift that was there foryou and this message and I am very

(16:38):
much attracted by the attention as thismindset. I think it' s something
super important that you and your colleaguesprobably had in common. However, I
think there still has to be asa preparation period, not one thing,
that is to say I go therewhat. Another thing is truly what it
involves. I mean, once theytold you, you were selected. I
guess they had a period of preparation, of training somehow. Yeah, the

(17:03):
contest process is every year changes.So what I told you today is going
to be different from what you dowith contest dynamics next year, which also
makes it very fun and the branddoes it in a very congruent way.
Also then this year, the wayto select people was through launching three challenges

(17:26):
in a three- week period.Every week they were challenging and whoever wanted
to contest had to respond to thechallenge with photos videos or whatever it was
in instagram and good, and youhad to have your public profile and have
a hashtag and all these things theydo in social media dynamics. But the
questions were very powerful, the questionswith which they launched the contest and to

(17:51):
see how the first question was likehow you take care of your environment to
keep it no and they as theythrew a little video in which they gave
you as there an idea of whatthat question meant to them. And what
I thought is that I like adventure. I' m a scout. Yes,
I have climbed Kilimanjaro and I dogo up and climb hills, but

(18:18):
I do not live in these places, like many other natural contestants, as
well as I am prepared, becauseyour question was how they prepared it,
that is, as they say.She' s very prepared and has plenty
of skills to survive here. Notthen I decided that all the questions I
was going to answer in a veryhonest way in what was in my heart,

(18:41):
without thinking a little bit about theoutcom i e, without saying I
' m doing all this marketing strategyso that they actually choose me. No.
In fact, one of the mostimportant questions was how you hear,
and in other words, you canconvulse anyone. Or anyway, you'
re going to choose outdoor influencers oradventure life influencers that already have lots of
skills and let' s say that' s what you do. And the

(19:03):
brand' s response was very forceful. It wasn' t here we'
re looking for normal people who havethe right attitude. And then, when
I was asked about taking care ofyour environment, literally I live in Mexico
City and literally my video was aboutthe park that I take my dogs to,
about my way from my house,to the park of how suddenly,

(19:26):
once a month, at least Iclean that park, because it' s
a park that I use. It' s a public park, but it
' s a park I use.And I think for me, like this
part of saying, I' mnot going to show you that I'
m super prepared and that it wasscout, never of scout that I have
like all these skills, but rather, the process for me to answer the

(19:49):
questions was very therapeutic. It wasto be vulnerable to say as the truth
in my heart and to show thatI was prepared, but more prepared as
the terms of attitude, to beable to face it, for whatever came
and yes or is good. Afterthey announced the selection in December and we

(20:11):
were like super anxious when they're going to start saying we' re
getting ready and the brand and theorganizers of this event are especially super chills
or they don' t mean us, like they told us, congratulations,
welcome, but we' re notgoing to have any calls of doubt,
zoom or anything until March, thatis, a month before the expedition.

(20:33):
It' s then for us JanuaryFebruary was just like that of ah the
madness. No and what your familytold you, your friends told you oh,
we already know you, obvious Kari, or they told you what you
' re talking about, how you' re going to go yes, that
is when we were seeing, asthe announcement of winners, I was with

(20:56):
my boyfriend and just the announcement ofwinners was a Monday for us in Mexico,
it was like his super early,and I remember that one day before
I told my girlfriend like me,I don' t think they chose me
because a brand wouldn' t wantto make a public announcement like without first
touching base with you and saying heywe' re going to do this and
we' re going to announce youno, I mean like that very in

(21:19):
the mindset, like Latin, no, just like they' re going to
make sure first and he just toldme that no. I think I don
' t think so, that is, I think the brand is just so
authentic that it' s going tobe a surprise. And that' s
when they announced it. I couldn' t believe it. I screamed like
crazy that my neighbors came to playand everything was fine, because I would
think because what I already screamed reallyhard and I wasn' t super happy,

(21:47):
because I met. I knew itwas like a longing for my heart
to be there and when I talkedto my dad, I didn' t
know if I was happy or veryworried. So I mean, I looked
for these very extreme things and thenthey give them to you like what I
' m going to do. Butin general, as everyone' s reaction

(22:08):
was like wow, what' sgoing to say where. And that'
s for sure. But I don' t think it' s a surprise,
that is, I think it's a part of my personality,
not the extreme adventure, like lookingfor adrenaline and it was dangerous, but

(22:29):
as the curiosity of always knowing newplaces and being moving. Wow, I
love it and watch us tell.What happened after a month before they had
a call, we had callables yesok and they told them a little how
the dynamics would be? What happenednext? Tell us yes, for a

(22:51):
month we had weekly calls of sumin which we mean, we divided by
subjects a little what it is andwhat it will take and how it is.
Like dynamics, no, one importantthing to say is that in reality
one, as a participant, doesnot need to carry anything. All the
equipment you need to be there.They give it to you and, obviously,

(23:14):
then they give it to you.You bring it back home, not
because you really need your toothbrush andas if you take medicine or so,
very personal things. But you don' t really need to wear anything.
And that' s very funny,because that causes, like it caused a
lot of anxiety or a lot ofgroup. Like, seriously, I don
' t need to carry anything,that' s all. They' re

(23:36):
going to give it to you andit was also like a vote of confidence,
to jump out and say I trustthem that they' re experts and
that they' re telling me thatI don' t need to carry as
any specialized equipment, not and thatI' m going to be fine.
They explained everything to us from whatwe' re going to eat, because
you can' t cook. Imean, it' s an environment like

(24:00):
inhospitable and besides, it' sa very long journey. You can'
t carry as things to cook traditionally. Then they taught us that menus were
like these menus used by the militaryand used by astronauts, that it'
s dehydrated food and you just puthim on the run. Then they showed
us what the menus were like thatcontained everyone. We were asked our height,

(24:22):
weight dietary restrictions and they hire aneutrologist every year who does the individual
nutritional calculation and make the menus asindividual to your physical requirements. But when
normally in life a menu for someonelike chaperrite, like me, mine about
fifty- five, would have tobe as small as a thousand two hundred

(24:44):
maximum thousand calories. The caloric calculationfor me daily in flying was six thousand
calories. Fifteen thousand, but notsix thousand. No. It' s
not six thousand heats, because justbeing in the cold makes your bowl pop,
lose, energy and more all thephysical effort. Then the counts were

(25:06):
six thousand calories and we were taughtwhat it was like how many times we
were going out to eat. That' s what we were taught, and
that was pretty cool. Like allthe science behind temperature preservation. I mean,
like a little bit of teaching usthat the team was really good and
the technology was really good, butit wasn' t magic, so there

(25:27):
' s something about you from yourown body, that you have to learn
because the main responsibility for your safetybeing out is yourself. So, as
there' s one thing like that, as a key point of staying in
those temperatures is not letting your bodysweat if you sweat inside and then that

(25:51):
' s never gonna get back inthe heat and besides, that can freeze.
I mean, when you' rein those temperatures and you want to
dry out clothes like here, thatRome is never going to dry. What
' s going to happen is thatit' s wet and it' s
going to freeze it' s goingto like then, like the whole first
part was learning how to drive andknow the temperature of your body so you

(26:14):
wouldn' t allow yourself not tosweat or how to make us Judaate most
of the time and teach us whatall the layers of clothing and technology were
like. Here we were going tohave how they were used and what they
expected, like you did, asif it was very cold that you had
to bring, then in all thelayers, but if you were going to
move, then not like half thelayers. Not then, as we were

(26:37):
taught, especially the temperature management thatthere if curious, the brand has many
videos on YouTube of how to handlethe temperature and how the body in those
extreme temperatures, and also what todo if you start to have as some
signs that something was serious, likenot feeling the fingers of the hands,
not feeling the toes, or howto start losing mobility in some part of

(26:59):
the body that you, when youare listening for zom says ay not how,
that is, they have a lotof technology. That' s not
going to happen and if it doeshappen I got scared one morning because I
didn' t feel my toes,but suddenly you remember how ah I already
learned what to do when I don' t feel my toes or hands,
I mean, I know what todo not ok Wow and besides, how

(27:22):
strong, because you tell me thisfrom the sweat part, but at the
same time I say good. Butthey have to travel three hundred kilometers,
that is, if it is somethingthat is because it is a balance that
I find difficult to process separately.Another thing is that they sled it with
dogs, I mean, I haveso many, I mean, I have

(27:44):
a lot of questions about that.You have dogs, but that doesn'
t mean you know how to drivea sled with six dogs. That'
s what I' m for.I' m also a mom of two
dogs, two citadin dogs with feelingsand slacks who like to be lying on
the couch. And this has nothingto do with those dogs. On the

(28:07):
sled note that in Zoom' sinitial preparation we were told. The only
thing we' re not going totalk about in these calls is the sled
because it doesn' t have acase, because they won' t understand
it until they see it as live. No And for me the sled was
the most challenging thing of the wholeexpedition look beyond the cold of enduring temperatures.

(28:29):
For me, the sled was themost challenging thing, because the sled,
because I don' t know aboutthis side of the world. We
have as the romantic view of Santa' s sleigh as that Valento and it
' s great dowry, not becauseit carries juggernauts and the individual sled,
that is, a sled that theyare basically competitive sleds and are the triminos
that they use for the expedition.They' re individual sleds made of metal

(28:52):
that have like little ducks, likeyou' re up on a little bit
of an account, they' retwo individual paws. The position of the
legs is very similar to the positionyou would take more standing. And the
position of the legs is very similarto what you would do on a ski
you have to go a little bitwith your legs, knees, a little
bent, making balance and swinging.So that sounds good until you realize those

(29:17):
dogs are all howskys, and thosedogs have incredible strength and power, that
is, when they pull and startrunning. It' s a speed you
can' t imagine, I mean, it' s not slow, especially
me who, like I told them, I' m shorty. I don
' t weigh much. Then itwas super hard for me to keep control

(29:38):
of the sled, because I wasbeing played as a papalote. The dogs
were starting to run and I rememberthe first day they called me braking.
The sleds have a brake and havea speed control and literal is a pedal,
it is a brake. Not thenthey told me to brake, for
if I brake with a foot realizethat I did not stop the dogs,
they kept running. I stopped withboth feet and all my weight and also

(29:59):
a little bit stopped because in weight, for them my weight was nothing.
Then they had to stop someone elsefrom the organizers, who were big and
super strong, to step on thebrake with me, to run and step
on the brake with me. Sofor me it was super challenging, because
I couldn' t distract myself whilegoing in the tennis court, because if

(30:21):
I was distracted as much as towatch the landscape then to record videos story
not my teammates, who were aDanish and a Swedish, one is a
fireman and the other ace helped andare like giant forts. They could,
but because they, with their weightand height, could control the sled super

(30:42):
well and they could take pictures.And so I could never ever take a
picture from above, because all thetime I had to weigh the speed control
and brake, but they would takeme. And that in something like horizontal
is, so let' s sayit' s not as dangerous, but

(31:03):
in descents and embassies as with alot of inclination, very steep, it
' s super dangerous. And alsoon roads like they' ve got flying
on one side or something so thatyou fly out or carry the speed of
the dogs is like super hard.And that' s important because the expedition,
as you well mentioned, is threehundred kilometers. So what you do

(31:25):
is like from northern Sweden you goup the mountains and once you get up
the expedition stays flat, because youcross from Norway to Sweden over the mountains
and it goes relatively flat. Buteverything that goes up has to go down.
And when the mountain falls begin,the sled for me became super dangerous.

(31:48):
I flew out of the daily sleigh, that is, the day I
was going well. I flew outonly once, but in the days of
descent, I flew out three monthsand the last day, which was the
roughest in the steepest casualties, theyhad to take away a dog because it
was too much potential. Then theyhad to take one of my dogs and

(32:10):
leave me with five so as totry to avoid as much as possible that
there was an accident. But Iimagine how to go skiing, but with
the speed of dogs that low.Yeah, if it' s dangerous,
hey, but they were supposed tobe doctors. Yeah, not all of
that. The expedition is super wellorganized. We were carrying a doctor who

(32:35):
would be my respects. She's an equal doctor, adventurous and enthusiastic
about these extreme things. She wason a ski bike and she was carrying
an ambulance cart. So, ifanything happened, they could get you in
the ambulance cart and take you ona ski bike. The thing was,
I mean, as much as theybrought that. If something happens, it

(32:55):
takes a long time to get youout of there, because it' s
literally up the mountains and in themiddle of nowhere. No, but just
me on the first day I triedthe trineo, because the technics literally teach
you half an hour, that is, they sit us all down. There
are some guides, the sled guidesare called Moshers, and they' ve

(33:20):
been doing that for twenty- fiveyears, thirty years. They have,
in fact ranches that breed howskys,that is, it is like a specialization
that they already have and the expeditionbegins at one of these ranches, which
is also a meeting point of thebrand. Then list you from Mexico you
flew to Sweden and from Sweden youwere taken to that ranch in Sweden.

(33:40):
We fly to the capital of Stockholmand Stockholm fly you to the north of
Sweden called Kiruna, it is Kirunaairport and from here a base in a
truck that already takes you on atruck of the expedition that already takes you
to the beginning that they are fromthese ranches that if they are already in
the middle of nothing and on thatranch, they teach you as the last

(34:02):
part of your team. For thefirst time you see the sleds, the
size, the sleds that are big, big, I mean like long and
heavy. But with everything and thatdogs have incredible power. They sat us
all down and told us we're going to show them the sled,

(34:22):
where the brake is, where thespeed control is, teach them that the
movements are similar to those of skiing. You have to balance the weight of
your body when you feel like you' re going away, that you'
re going to fall and very important, you don' t have anything to
tie you to the sled. Youmust be holding on all the time,
because if you let go or slip, you' re gonna fly away.

(34:44):
I mean, the only thing youcarry is your hands. Of your hands
and legs to have you and teachyou about half an hour, as we
say of lejitos and then it's like yavan. We' re going
there, we' re going toform their sleds, we' re going

(35:05):
to join their dogs, we're going to introduce them to their dog
team and they' re going,I mean, there' s no,
and how you felt at that moment, I mean, at that moment you
said what I' m doing hereuntil that moment. You dropped the twenty
or you know that since I'm very dog- like, because to
me it was like wow the dogsand when they introduced me to my team,
it was like oh what cool theytaught us how to assemble. But

(35:28):
for me the first of this istough, that' s when I put
my two feet on the sleigh andfelt the first pull. It' s
the first dog pull, not thatit' s at that time a super
cute, super powerful moshaer, aswell as a physicist like that super powerer.

(35:50):
He told me you have to understandthat you above the sleigh, you
must not feel small, because themoment you feel small, you will be
weak. Then he taught me sometricks so I could hold the sled with
all the strength of my body,pulling down so I could control a little
better. And he said to mejust like I remember perfectly the phrase he

(36:14):
said to me when he saw mein total panic, because it was the
first pull. He climbed up withme to step on the brake and told
me, as king membry orar tineybot Mity. Then how to go a
little bit to these tricks of howto exercise the strength of the body.
But yes, in the first descent, which was nothing compared to the other
descents that we had that day,the raffle or the tour, the first

(36:37):
day is small, are about threehours like a little to catch the wave.
Yes, I remember at one pointI said don' t invent that
I' m going to be thisdaily for many hours, I mean,
there are roads that I have noidea if they are downhill and dangerous,
I mean, one part, forexample, dangerous of the journey is to

(36:58):
pass in the middle of a verynarrow bridge to the dogs of scare the
heights of bridge and if you don' t drive them well they may not
want to climb the bridge and throwyou a freezer river. So yes,
that is, as there is apart that I, even the first night,
told my roommate that I was touchedby a wonderful girl from Argentina who
lives in Spain, who called herselfFlor told her the brand and these people

(37:23):
who bring us I think that shehas a lot of faith in humanity,
that is, she has a lotof faith that we are going to learn
fast, that we are going tolearn what we need to learn and that
we are going to come out asa forward of all difficulties, because it
is not a minor thing, becausenot clear hear I imagine this about dogs.
Maybe I' m wrong to correctme like a little bit, like

(37:45):
horses, when when someone who's had the experience of riding a horse
tells you you practically have to seestraight because you get distracted the horse feels
it and goes away. So itis also yes a bit the same,
especially at the beginning as at thebeginning of the day, when dogs are
with all the energy, you haveto be very careful because it is when
they have the most power, theyare trained to follow the path and to

(38:07):
follow the one ahead. So it' s not like they' re leaving.
If you take someone forward and youshow the way. Dogs aren'
t going to leave as such,but they' re going to want to
outrun each other. Then there's a guide dog like the herd on
the sled The guide is the moshore. It' s not this person who
' s sledding, he always goesahead. Moshoers usually carry eight dogs,

(38:31):
that is, they carry even morepower, and they are the ones that
mark the way. And then thewhole team goes to Fila, India,
one behind the other and the ideais almost always that the weakest one goes
to in this case almost always wasI go behind the musher because they have
to go looking at you and,as you mean, the rest of your

(38:52):
team also have to go looking afteryou go behind the musher or in third
place, that is, between themusher and two people of your team,
because what happens is that if youfly out of the sleigh, the dogs
don' t separate they keep running. Then someone on your team or the
Mosher has to be like batteries andbe able to pull the dogs or stop

(39:15):
them because they keep running then.As one of the basic principles is if
you slip or fall try not tolet go of the sled because dogs keep
running. I' ve always letgo. I keep flying very hard and
I always let go. And fortunately, my team was physically very strong,

(39:35):
that is, the four teams werefour. The two guys on my team
were physically very strong and so wasmy musher and they were always there to
stop my dogs and to help meget up. And you don' t
hurt very ugly if I came backa little bit now I' m in

(39:57):
physical rehabilitation therapy of the knee,hand, back, no bigger things,
but yeah, this in rehab.Hey, honey, why don' t
you put us in a little bitat the moment. I mean, how
' s a routine you get up. The first night has passed and how
it is a daily routine, howit looks in everyday life to be there.
One thing is important to say isthat on this expedition they are looking

(40:20):
for all expeditionaries to be autonomous,that is, there is no one who
is going to do any homework foryou Then you do everything that means surviving
in that place. Then let's say I tell you more about how
the afternoon starts. In the afternoonit starts with getting to the point where
the camp is going to be setup. There, the first thing is
that you have to decide to seewhere the wind is going and decide where

(40:45):
the tents are going to be,because in a very dangerous place of snow
you put the tent wrong, thatis, if you put it against the
wind, because all the time youare going to try to take it away.
So, the first thing is todecide where the houses are to be
put and, as we say lookingat that side, so that there is
no danger of wind, then,with shovels crush everything. Let' s

(41:09):
say the place where the tents aregoing to be, because the snow,
when it starts to lower the temperaturemore, makes hard ice, then you
can' t mean. You haveto try to be as planned as possible
to get the campaign house on topof you. We don' t have
the kindness of putting a field housein grass where it' s like soft,

(41:30):
wherever you put it. That's how it' s going to
stay and harden. So, howshould we try not to have as much
as boms or as places that arenot well flattened. So, first that
' s an important physical work withshovel to remove the snow. Then you
put the campaign house and once thecampaign houses are on, you have to
put up mats and it' slippings inside so that you can see them

(41:54):
tuning and digging a part of thefaithful raven campaign houses that are for snow,
they' re designed so that inone part let' s say there
are slippings and where you sleep andthat part does have a floor made of
cloth, but then there comes awhole part that is still from the campaign

(42:15):
house, but it doesn' thave a floor. And in that part
what you do is there' sa stringed mark that makes the campaign house
and you have to dig like youdo a rectangle like that in the snow,
because that' s what' sgoing to allow you. Is it
the space where you dress where youcan, as we say, stand up,
even if it' s not right, but how to stand up and

(42:36):
be able to dress and where youcan leave your backback, and those things
then sound like easy, but makethat rectangle? Dig that rectangle to make
deep enough, so you can stop. It takes a lot of time,
because the snow is not soft,because it is not as hard. So,
since you set up the camp,now you have to make the dogs

(42:58):
eat. It' s the responsibilityof the ex- medicaries to keep the
dogs and take them. Let's say, they carry the Moshers,
they carry gas stoves that light upand they' re made like a broth
or hot meat, croquettes and water. But one very important thing is that
the expedition does not carry water.You have to ask for snow so that

(43:22):
water is made and you can usethe water. So, once you built
the camp, all the focus andenergy is on boiling snow lots of snow
pans in gas stoves for one tohave water to hit with it to the
dogs, but another for us tomake bottles. And the rest of the

(43:42):
day your bottles don' t freezewater. Yes, in fact, they
gave us two things to store water, a thermal bottle of large thermos that
kept the lens water and another normalbottle. And on the first day everyone
as he forgot where we were,we forgot and the bottle dawned like a
freeze. Then we learned that wehad to put a thermal sock on it,

(44:04):
that is, put the bottle ina thermal sock and never leave it
out so it wouldn' t freeze. No, that' s why it
happened to all of us. Weall froze the bottle once, and the
hot water, the boiling water,is not kept in the thermos, because,
as the food told you about us, the rations are dehydrated. Then
you have to put water to seein these. In fact, you don

(44:25):
' t even use plates come asin these vacuum sealed packages with a Ziplock
seal, and then what you dois open, pour hot water, close,
leave it, rest, and thenyou can eat it. They didn
' t know, so, Imean, they had flavors. There was

(44:45):
one bolognese paste, for example.There were some things with meat, some
with fish. But the truth isthat one of the things that we were
warned about and it' s trueis that you' re not looking for
a wordmet menu, you' renot looking for something delicious, but it
' s comforting, at least,to have something hot. So what we

(45:06):
did, what we did as importantand what we were told was that we
had to try to finish. Theportions for me were super big or they
were like packages, like from abag, yes medium block account. They
were so big. And on thefirst day I didn' t finish it
and on the second day I sawthe consequences of not finishing the rations,

(45:27):
not because it doesn' t haveenough energy to go on. Then,
as from the second day it wasas if we should try to finish rations
and breakfast rations. For me theywere the happiest, because they were the
ones that were sweet, like oatmeal, with dehydrated fruit, not chocolate,
with nuts. But yeah, Imean, it was a roll, basically

(45:50):
setting up camp and having all thedogs eaten. It was about three hours,
since yes, that is, sinceas many times a day the dogs
ate forgiveness, two in the morningand on the once we arrived at the
camp and we three times, andwhere the dogs slept they sleep in the
open, that is, and theyhave no tent, because that breed is

(46:15):
made. That' s what it' s for. All we did was
put them on like some thermal vestsat night. But they sleep in the
open. So, since I wasthe dog lover on that team, I
was assigned all the dog chores.Then, from the second day we saw
what were the strengths and weaknesses ofeach member of the team, I say

(46:37):
it took me a lot to putthe campaign house, to dig the snow.
And so, but my partners didn' t, but they didn'
t like to do dog things.Then it was my turn to feed them,
clean them and put on their shawlsevery night and take them off in
the morning. But every team wascarrying was I tell you we were four,

(46:58):
each with six more dogs, themoscher that had eight. No.
Then there were thirty- two dogsto feed them, to put their shawl
on and to clean them. Andthat was my task. And the dogs
are trained to go to the bathroom. Also, I mean you kind of
have to walk the dog to goto the bathroom. No, they'

(47:19):
re not dogs who are living aslong as they don' t live in
a house. That' s importantto say. Ranchos are ranches where they
live as free. So it's not like you have to take them
out or they have a specific placeto go to the bathroom, but what
they do is, because that's where they' re going to be.
No, then, the task asa caregiver is to collect all your

(47:42):
waste and do it like cavas,like a hole and put the lids there.
No, and that must be done, because every morning and every night
after they eat and you also wentto the bathroom. So you start too,
obviously, it' s an expeditionwhere there' s no such thing

(48:05):
as any kind of health service then, but there are rules. You can
' t do whatever you want,because there are rules that are to preserve
the environment and try to pollute aslittle as possible. But it was basically
the same rule. It' sa hole in the snow and then it
' s covered and any kind oftoilet paper residue, whatever you use has
to burn. Then the clan kiwas your bag, with your toilet paper

(48:30):
and your box of matches, becausethere can be no paper residue. It
takes them a long time to pleaseeach other. Then what you do that
burns and also covers up with it. Okay, and to sleep, I
mean, you could really sleep socold, that is, inside the tent
with the sleeping bag, that is, if you could sleep like that.

(48:54):
That question is interesting because in theory, the cold was not the most challenging.
The technology of the slipping backs offeltraven is very, very, very
pro The truth is they are slippingbacks that insult the temperature. So whatever
you put in them, they keepit like you keep it in a coffee

(49:14):
thermos for many hours. No,but that means cold or hot. If
you put something cold in it,it' ll keep it cold for many
hours. If you put something hotin it, it' ll keep it
warm for many hours. Then therewas a whole protocol to get in to
sleep, because if it was coldoutside and you were cold and you would
go into the campaign house to takeoff all the layers of clothes and stay

(49:38):
alone with the last one, becauseyou get very cold and if you get
in like this, to slip thescipiong what I was going to do was
to keep you so cold all night. So what you had to do was
go removing all the layers, stayin the last layer of clothes and exercise,
that is, with that last layerof clothes being John Ping Jack squats
this like running like that in yourplace, that is, doing a lot

(50:01):
of exercise, like about ten minutesof exercise and then already getting into the
LIPPI so you could get warm.So how many hours they slept a day,
because the truth is that the daysend as early, that is at
about eight o' clock you're already done doing all the homework,

(50:22):
so the time to sleep was likenine maximum ten at night and to get
up was at five o' clockin the morning. Hey, and besides,
you didn' t have Jetlag.Yeah, a little bit. It
really took me a lot of sleep. In fact, the first three days
I couldn' t sleep at all, but not because of the cold.
I mean, I already know theprotocol to get warm to the stipi.

(50:44):
But the first day can' tsleep because we don' t flatten well.
The snow left me like a snowball. Right where my back is.
Then I could never have a comfortableposition to sleep for other days. Dogs
howl at night. Then the expeditionbrought around 180 dogs. Then imagine 180

(51:06):
dogs howling because it starts to owand they all go. No. In
fact, I recorded some videos ofthat sound track. Let' s say
that about howling and it' sso tremendous. Then he won' t
let you sleep much either. Andjust one day it was that I couldn
' t sleep because of cold,wow, and there' s no wildlife

(51:29):
there, so it' s dangerous, so I don' t know what
wildlife there could be. Wolves ordaring, there' s nothing. The
first day I do is like inthe skirts before I start climbing the mountain.
If there are, there may beArctic foxes, there may be moose,
there may be deer, there maybe reindeer, but they are not
dangerous. Let' s just sayit like that and as it goes up.

(51:51):
The truth is that the environment isinhospitable. There' s no life,
I mean, there' s nota mini- plant. There'
s nothing like this one. Lookslike the surface of the moon to me.
It' s pure snow, likethis with snow mounds, but there
' s nothing alive. Wow,he hears what you' d say to

(52:12):
them, which are the most challengingaspects of all of this and, perhaps,
which were also the most rewarding.For me, no doubt, the
most challenging was the sled, ie, driving the sled, because the
sled rights were five hours in arow. So for me it was like
going five hours in a lot ofattention and doing a lot of strength in

(52:34):
the arms, in the legs,and so that was very challenging. In
general, the physical effort involved inthe expedition is very challenging because we say
what in our normal life, thatis, I go to the jim and
exercise, but because an hour isnot, that is, an hour or
an hour and a half, itis not like you are all day in
physical effort and the expedition is impliedto be all day in physical effort.
I mean, I remember that oneday to go to the bathroom, obviously,

(52:59):
especially when you start in the highlandsthat there' s not even a
little tree that covers you, becausewhat you have to do is walk and
get as far away from the campas possible, but you have to put
on snow shoes to walk, becausethe snow is already very high. So,
these shoes that look like you're bringing a tennis racket down so
you don' t sink, no, then I remember so one day I

(53:19):
was like super tired and I saidwell, I' m gonna go to
the bathroom. And here I goand I said it can' t be,
I mean, on this expedition evento go to the bathroom. We
have to work. I mean,you have to walk and make a physical
effort to mean all the time you' re in physical exertion. And I
understand that it is, because ifyou' re not in physical exertion,
then you freeze. Then the expression. What they had to do is keep

(53:42):
us working all the time so thatthe body, all the time, was
hot. So that was very challengingand the most rewarding thing for me about
the expedition was the people, thatis, the people I met and my
team. I think just like yousaid, if I had seen that campaign
house, I would have said Ididn' t want to go to sleep
there. No, but this expeditiondoes a very magical thing, which is

(54:05):
to bring people together with very similarspirits, as with a disposition and an
opening of mind and as a veryparticular good vibe. So, in such
a challenging environment, what you wouldexpect is that I don' t know
there are frictions or people don't get along or something, and not
what the challenging environment does is theopposite. How to join your team more

(54:28):
and show that in such challenging environmentsthere is no way you can survive alone.
You always need each other. AndI think the nicest thing for me
was that. He had a teamthat whenever I find myself in danger,
he took care of me that wheneverhe saw me weak, helped me,
helped me get up, exchanged tasksfor me to do less hard tasks.

(54:49):
I mean, I really had someangels as a team. I like all
this stuff you' re saying andI put myself in your shoes and it
seems something to me, because Idon' t know what it really is
because I don' t want touse the word, but it' s
impossible. Not really challenging, duringall this journey you were going through you

(55:14):
had some personal revelation or had somepersonal reflection that you took along the way.
Yes, yes, very important.The first one is how to feel
really protected all the time, thatis, a point where I was very

(55:34):
much afraid of some journeys on thesled and there was a point where I
breathed. It was like me,I wouldn' t have gotten here if
this wasn' t a gift oflife and if I wasn' t protected
to do this. And as Iunderstood and reaffirmed that always in my life,
when I have taken challenges, asmuch as this type as professionals or

(55:57):
others, and there is always superiorprotection there and that there is no inaccurate
place where you are, that is, where you are stepping on your foot
is the perfect place where you areso be the most challenging or the most
scary place where you have to be. So, for me that gave me
as a certainty to say I'm here, it' s really scary,

(56:17):
but they didn' t put mehere for something to happen to me
or for you to be protected.Quite the opposite. So that was the
first and the second was also likeunderstanding, why, like why I put
myself in those, that kind ofplaces, like in that kind of expeditions
or stuff. I mean, likeunderstanding my inner reason for why I'

(56:38):
m there and whether it' slike a nice thing or not for me,
because people who make mountains, mountaineeringthings like extremes, one thing that
' s based on that kind ofpeople is like adrenaline addiction and putting you
all the time at the risk ofdanger. And there' s like a
fine line in knowing if you liketo do that because you like that fine

(57:00):
line of being between life and deathor putting yourself in adrenaline, or because
it' s just the opposite,because you value your life a lot and
then you have to like trying tohave the most experiences possible. And a
point where I questioned myself, aswell as why I stood here, that
is, why I' m here. And it was the opposite. It
was for me one of the reasonsto make this expedition was literally to return

(57:22):
to life, to return to feelingalive after a very difficult process of pandemic
mourning. So, for me,the process of doing this is to go
back to me what I like todo, what it amuses me and what
makes me feel alive and has nothingto do with putting me in a place
of risk. Okay, and ifyou found that, I mean, yeah,

(57:44):
you found life there. Yeah,I found myself back I found that
spirit as a curious playful who likesto see what' s out there.
Yes, listen to another branch thatI would like to settle, because above
all you have mentioned, because howimportant the subject is for you, because

(58:06):
taking care of nature how much youappreciate it impacted in some way this experience
in your perception of the environment orthe importance of its conservation. Yeah,
a lot, I mean, I' ve been to Glaciares, for example,
I mean, I' ve beenin environments like ice, but isn
' t it the same? Inother words, it had been or had
been seen the blaciar of Argentina,for example, the expert Moreno. But

(58:29):
it' s like you see itdone, I walked over the glacier,
but it' s kind of there. But it is very different to see
an environment completely as inhospitable, thatis, as where there are no animals,
where the human does not step,where there are no tourist routes or
as tourist expeditions. And a littlebit can sound very silly. But for

(58:51):
me the fact that we had toboil the snow to have water, as
it made me very tangible, thatand we' re making it that level
is literally them, we' reserving and it' s thawing. No.
And it is how these environments conservea part of the land of much
biodiversity, even though there is nothingalive a large animal. There, if

(59:12):
there is a lot of biodiversity andthere is a lot to conserve. One
of the members of my team isthis sixty- two- year- old,
Dr Roberto Nada. He' sa scientist and sailor and he took
a science kit to make some snowsample shots, because this place is so
inhospitable, it' s so faraway. Let' s not say anything

(59:36):
about human life and more than thisexhibition of fialdada in every year, which
is also super careful. I mean, the reason for doing it with dogs
is not wearing anything like polluting gasoline. And what he did was take some
samples. With the protocols let's say scientists needed to study the presence
of microplastics in those places. So, those samples are currently being analyzed by

(01:00:00):
the University of Burn in Switzerland,because the hypothesis is that they are going
to find microplastics in those inhospitable placesbecause the air carries them and because there
is one say, a concentration oftemperature there that is not normal, that
makes the microplastics also there. So, for me to see that and also

(01:00:22):
to see with my eyes as awhole scientific process to take samples of that
place, I think the most importantthing for me was to say this ecosystem
is not as close. Maybe it' s not the forest I see the
things I see in Mexico, butit certainly made me face the ecosystem that

(01:00:42):
is most at risk today, notthat it' s the whole glacial part.
Sure and another edge of this ecosystemissue seems to me that it is
also the dogs that in the endthey were the ones who took them were,
they were the force that helped themcross. There' s some lesson

(01:01:06):
or insight that you, as anexplorer, learned from the experience of working
with dogs. Yeah, good thingyou ask me that because when I started
putting content on my networks that Iwas going to go and that it was
an expedition in Sleigh, there werea lot of people that I didn'
t even know, that is,they' re not friends of mine,
that they' re people that cameinto my networks like a lot of hete

(01:01:30):
to say that that was animal abuse, that the sleds and that the dogs
there were animal abuse. So Iwent away as if I had a serious
commitment to investigate and to know howif this really was abuse or what the
dogs' life was like there anddevoted myself to it, and I took
a very pleasant surprise, because thefirst thing is that the ranches that are

(01:01:52):
dedicated to raising these hskys do itin a very responsible way. I mean,
it' s not how I'm gonna raise. A hundred and
then as I don' t wantto, or a hundred to see what
I do with the twenty left over, I mean there' s a very
controlled breed of specific numbers to do. The other thing is that, throughout
their entire journey of life, asrunners, they have impressive care, not

(01:02:13):
only in their diet, but inthe veterinary doctor. And there comes a
point where they retire like any livingbeing, I get to an age where
they can' t keep running andretire. And to me it was like
and what they do with them whenthey' re no longer runners. No,
and what these ranches do is oneis there' s an old dog

(01:02:35):
asylum and they put them all thereand there are others that give them up
for adoption, that give them upfor adoption to families, because they'
re very loving dogs. And forme, to make you honest, there
was always like a jaloneo in myheart to see dogs running in front of
me working for me. But whenI asked this question to my Mosher and

(01:02:58):
even my teammates of you feel good, you think it' s abuse.
One of my teammates told me thistwo things. These dogs are of a
lot of character. If they didn' t want to do something, you
can' t force them to dosomething. It' s not like a
domestic dog that you don' ttrain it and learn to give orders and
do them. No. These dogshave so much character that if they didn

(01:03:21):
' t want to move, theywouldn' t move one, that is,
they like to do it, nottwo. The approach to abuse there
is different. It' s likewe think it' s abuse to have
a howsky locked up in a miniapartment without being able to run and without
being able to walk. But they' re free here. Here they run,
here they spend energy, they evenroll in the snow and play in

(01:03:43):
the snow when they' re likeBreck' s running no. And that
helped me to understand that what they' re doing is respecting the nature of
the dog. I mean, thosedogs are dogs who like to run,
pull and be free. No.And if you keep them locked up,
you put their physical abilities to thedetriment. So that gave me as a

(01:04:04):
bit of peace and also knowing thatthey give them up for adoption at the
end of their life as runners alsohalf peace and the other is very affectionate
dogs. When I approached them tofeed them or to put on their vests,
they behave like a dog of thehouse that they play, they wind
you up, they like to befond of them. No and to me

(01:04:27):
it was in fact, it wasa very nice experience, because in the
days that I was most afraid ofgoing up sledding, I said these beings
are super noble. They would beunable to take me to a place that
would hurt me, that was adangerous place for me. Then there'
s one. You have to seethe relationship as a very big trust that
you have to have with your dogteam and in my case, as I

(01:04:50):
had dog chores, because that relationshipbecame as much bigger. In fact,
one of the things I came backengaged to is that the one that was
my leading dog has a couple ofyears left to retire. Then. The
commitment I' m going back towith my musher is when he retires to

(01:05:11):
Mexico. You' re gonna takeher away, that is, she'
s pla. That is the planand we hope that Sana will retire,
that she will be well and thatwe will be able to do all the
paperwork to bring her to her oldage in Mexico City. There' s
how beautiful, Kary I love tohear, well, to start closing a

(01:05:32):
bit, why don' t youtake me to the moment when they arrived
the last day after this whole expedition. How it was, how it was
to reach the goal at the endto conclude, talk to me pins at
that moment look is the day ofmost danger, i e, I think

(01:05:53):
the route is designed so that youjust close like that with gold brooch,
i e, the moment of mostdanger is the last, the last three
hours of the route before reaching theend, literally at the end, they
put a finish line as if itwere a race of runners and they position
themselves, put some giant banners andput the entire team of the mark around

(01:06:16):
the finish line to applaud you whenyou arrive. It' s a very
exciting moment, because I, atleast it came like this with the emotions
full, because the last descent beforethe last hundred meters to reach the finish
line is a mortal descent, thatis, it' s a descent that
is very steep and where it hasa very closed curve then you' re

(01:06:39):
going to go down steep, togive a very closed curve and if you
' re not well focused and wellheld on the sleigh literally, what'
s going to happen is that youcan get rid of it. So there,
on that last curve, as it' s already very close to the
finish line, you get part ofthe musher support team to scream, to

(01:07:00):
give you instructions since you go down, to yell at you, to slow
down, tilt your weight to theright, that is, to give you
very precise instructions so that you canaccomplish how to solve that dangerous curve.
So, when I went down,I was shaking because on that curve I
mean, I saw that coming andI saw that they started yelling at me

(01:07:20):
from braking, braking, braking andI said, I mean, to breathe
and say it' s short enough, not like it' s the last
one and fortunately I didn' tfall and my team didn' t have
any accidents, I mean, nobodyon my team had an accident, but
that makes you reach the finish lineshaking and very excited, very emotional.

(01:07:41):
Also not then, as the wholeteam starts to applaud you and to receive
the team of what you did.For me it was like a warrior'
s path, as if that last, that last moment for me was like
the rebirth you know then I rememberthat I came and cried a lot,

(01:08:02):
that is to say I couldn't stop crying, that is I arrived
at the station my sleigh I tookoff my gogles and cried and cried and
my instinct was to go and embracemy dogs, i e my dogs s
and say, as we already arrived, i e, as you were my
companions in this warrior' s pathand then cry to me. I'

(01:08:24):
m already there with the remix eyeand then hugging my team, because there
' s something I didn' ttell you, which is that the penultimate
night, the last night before thefinish line, I was about to give
up and not make it, becauseI couldn' t sleep all the days
before and physically I was very weakand already had the knee swollen by the

(01:08:45):
blows. And what happened is thatI found a guardian angel dressed as a
doctor who helped me to recover,to give me medicine, to give me
a hot soup and as to helpme as to replenish energy, so that
I would be able to finish thelast day by my own foot in my

(01:09:08):
own sled and with my own strength. And if that hadn' t happened,
I probably wouldn' t have finishedthe expedition standing up. What a
journey it is and what a satisfactionthat, even though you were already wearing
a physical tear, because you managedto overcome that, you managed to pass

(01:09:30):
that descent with that curve. Andso the amount of emotions, I can
' t even imagine everything that,everything that you have to have felt,
everything that you' re still feeling, yes, and then everything that all
that work, that whole week ofwork, yes physical, but also with

(01:09:51):
yourself. No. I' venever run a marathon, I' ve
run races that short, but itseems to me that you could assimilate a
little bit that this time, fora week where the challenge is also very

(01:10:12):
mental, very mental, but youknow what. I was accompanied by a
great team. My team doesn't speak well Flor is spoken Spanish,
but my team was Flor de Argentina, Dana de Denmark and Alvin de Sweden.
And the last day that was likethe most challenging day for me,
because I had spent the night beforein recovery and with the doctor and so
when we were going to start thejourney, they told me we got there

(01:10:36):
or it didn' t get toanyone, so if we' re all
going to look out for you we' re going to take care of you
if at some point you think youdon' t, so you need to
stop, rest, breathe whatever itis, you have to tell us slow,
but we' re going to getall and all standing up. I
really am so happy and I admireyou so much that you inspire me,

(01:11:01):
I am so excited and grateful thatyou share this and that this is the
space that you have decided to discussyour story. You truly inspire me.
And what I can tell you iswhat you inspire me to do is literally
make me more adventurous in my day- to- day life, get out

(01:11:24):
of my comfort zone, literally inthe day- to- day, that
is, maybe. I don't have to go on an expedition miles
away or maybe. Yes, butto seek to break those mental and even
sometimes physical barriers, they are theones that help us to break the mental
barriers and get out of the comfortzone, to explore the place where I

(01:11:47):
live and to see the place whereI live with another mentality and also with
a more conscious mentality of the issueof the ecosystem in which I live and
be responsible for it. I thankyou so much. I have another question.

(01:12:08):
What was the first thing you didwhen you came home, I mean,
you came in and you said I' m dying to get home.
No, actually, the first nightwe got back by the time we finished
the expedition, they took us toa hotel. We finished the expedition in
Norway, they took us to ahotel outside Tromso. And the first thing

(01:12:30):
we all wanted to do was freeour feet. We live all week in
heavy snow boots. And the firstthing was how to release, that is,
how to remove the layers, releasethe feet, this as if to
feel light. And I think thatfor me that takes me as it is

(01:12:53):
how I want to go back tolife as light as those, those layers
stayed there And that rough experience,it stayed there? And what I bring
is lightness and good. We wantedto feel light and bathe, even fast,
but with hot water, because youalso learn to appreciate those small comforts.

(01:13:15):
Of course, a warm bed,from the water coming out of the
key, from the hot water comingout so you can bathe, even if
it' s quick. Then Ithink we all came to want to take
off layers of clothes and shoes andwant to bathe. And for me too,
as my first action was to phonemy boyfriend to say it was okay,

(01:13:39):
because I' ve never spent somany days disconnected. I mean,
no phone signal, no computer signal? I mean, as my close people
also took a step of faith tosay she' s okay and as days
later we' re gonna find outor she' s gonna call us.
But in the process we can't do anything, I mean, we
can' t call her, wecan' t contact her. And it

(01:13:59):
was like being able to call andsay wow. I had never had to
call and give signs of life andsay no more. No, it doesn
' t mean that I' malive, that it goes well and that
it was very rough, but hereI am. I think I' ve
never had to do that, aswell as wow gives signs of doubt,
yes no, and also that disconnection, after so much time, that is,

(01:14:24):
small pleasures, also really sitting downto eat and enjoy what you'
re eating, drinking water, havingaccess to water, bathing, I mean,
I love hearing and before we saygoodbye what you have, I mean,
what' s your next adventure,what' s the next challenge or
what? You haven' t gotit yet. You want to be dropped

(01:14:45):
more twenty or what' s nextto cari look challenge as such. The
expedition is not, but I thinkthe most important challenge is to be able
to live my life with that mindsetthat I met there, that is,
like with that mindset the other daythat I can do different, that I
can improve with a very tremendous commitmentto my body, because one of the

(01:15:08):
things I am thirty- nine yearsold and one of the things I saw
is that if I want to continueas I take my physical body to where
my mental and spiritual body wants togo to explore, we have to keep
taking care of this body even moreintensely now and with a commitment to keep

(01:15:28):
my body healthy and strong so thatI can keep taking me for a walk
to those places and also inspire otherpeople to compete to these things. No,
this call is coming back this year. In October. November of this
year the contest comes out, itwill be again and there is a new
opportunity for twenty more people to beable to integrate. And one thing father

(01:15:50):
is that the brand is this Aprilopening its outlets in Mexico. Then it
is also a commitment to power,like being a spokesperson for brand philosophy that
seems to me that there is agenuine, real and honest commitment to sustainability

(01:16:10):
and to the human spirit. So, if you are in Mexico City from
now on, in fact, thisweek of April, you can go to
points of sale in Palacio de HierrosPolanco and Santa Fe, where there are
already small islands of the brand tostart transmitting this kind of philosophy in our
country. And that, I mean, the challenge for me is to stick

(01:16:31):
to that mindset, improve it,inspire more people to do it and remind
me that, even if I'm in an office, I' m
a PhD. Then remind me that, even if I' m in an
office and I' m like alot of work, the mindset doesn'
t change. We can continue tobe curious, adventurous, light, compassionate,

(01:16:55):
empathetic and helpful to others from whereverwe are. No and truth,
well, you' ve got mewith my heart so fast. Thank you
for opening up, honey There's something I haven' t asked you
to share. Yes one important thingfor me, to say, this expedition

(01:17:16):
has a real gender focus, thatis, that there may be the same
number of women as men participating inthese things. And I think it'
s important, as women, tobe able to venture, empower, and
have a circle of people, andespecially women, that drive us to do
this. So I think, whilein Mexico there are already many teams and

(01:17:40):
many mountaineering or hiking clubs, Ithink there is still important work to recognize
the place of women in this kindof adventure. I want to thank a
Mexican woman who is very successful.She' s the most successful Mexican mountaineer.
Her name is currently Viridiana Alvarez andwhen I found out she was going

(01:18:03):
on this expedition, I literally wroteto her. I told myself I'
m going to venture to write youby instagram to ask you for recommendations,
recommendations on how to take care ofthe skin of the face, of those
vain things even more hearing things,how I prepared physically, mentally what piles

(01:18:23):
of camera I carry I mean,I asked him everything that occurred to me
and Viridiana was with all the compromisesthat she has and that she is a
rockstar of mountaineering. He took timeoff his expedition, from one of his
most dangerous expeditions. It took timeto answer all my messages and to give
me all the recommendations. And forme that is the truly adventurous spirit.

(01:18:45):
It is generous and it is solidarityand sorororo among women we support each other.
It fascinates me, it fascinates me. Viridian applause, Applause to you.
What an honor to hear your story. Thank you, Kary, for
sharing us, thank you for inspiringus and thank you truly for infecting us.

(01:19:12):
Not much thanks to you, Thankyou for interested, thank you for
giving me the space and hopefully,many Mexican women are encouraged to contest fialdrab
in Polar two thousand twenty- five. Yes, sir, and all of
you who are listening to us,thank you for getting to this point.
We hope your heart too is fast, as well as mine. And these
are stories that fascinate me to havehere, that fascinates me to hear,

(01:19:36):
that fascinates me, to be ableto have the privilege of calling Karina,
my friend who I know of knowingthat she is there. I feel very
honored and very privileged to have herhere and to have you too that you
are listening to us in this audience. If you want to know a little

(01:19:56):
bit more about the expedition, I' m going to ask Kari to pass
me to some leagues or some pageso they can leave it the description of
the episode and you can have alittle more information also if Kary allows me,
some contact for her in case you' re interested in this expedition or
a little more in its history.If you' re interested in going in

(01:20:16):
the twenty- five and then Ithank you if you liked it you already
know it stings the sharing button andsend it to someone you think might be
interested in I send you a kisswe see the next one and remember the
impact you want to see in theworld. Look what wey thinks of me.