Gearing up: I’ll be photographing a team of extreme adventurers mountain biking across the frozen Arctic Ocean in Canada. I’ll be on a snowmobile, which is still hard work, so I need to get in good shape. A few months before, I start running and doing core workouts. In the Arctic you can’t sit down if you’re tired—you have to keep moving or get in your sleeping bag. I also put in a request to my sponsors for some gear: a down-filled sleeping mat and gloves I can shoot with.
Essential packing list: Our camp in Auyuittuq is 50 miles from civilization in any direction, so I take everything I need for the 2.5-day February trip.
Ready for launch: I get excited in various stages, but it doesn’t feel real until I get on the plane in Virginia. When we land in Qikiqtarjuaq, I go to our Inuit guide’s mom’s house to repack. The team members set up their bikes, and we go over hand signals so I can direct them into the camera’s frame while they ride. Before we head out, I put my stuff into a dry sack in case the snowmobile goes through the ice. The devil’s in the details. I don’t deviate from the plan.
