This activity replicates part of the training completed by polar explorers before they headed to the Arctic. During the preparation for the 2011 Catlin Arctic Survey, the team would drag tyres for up to five hours a day across Dartmoor. It will probably not be possible to follow this exactly, although some young people may be inspired to take up a new hobby! The emphasis during the actual training is on stamina and teamwork. Try to encourage and focus on these during the activity.

Activity steps - Preparation

1. Loop the chain around the tyre and tie the rope through the ends. The purpose of the chain is to stop the rope from fraying and breaking as it rubs against the ground.
2. If you are just conducting the activity a few times, you will probably be able to get away with tying a rope around the tyres.
3. Consider the length of the rope. Too short a rope will mean that the angle from the tyre may be too steep. This will make it harder to drag and also hard for more than one person to pull the tyre at any one time. An ideal length of rope from the tyre would be 2 to 3 meters.
4. Consider also tying loops in the rope to make it easier to hold on to.
5. Set a relay track around a tree, to the end of a sports field or some other natural point. Be mindful of any social distancing measures that need to be observed.

Activity steps - Briefing

1. This briefing puts some important health and safety points in the context of an Arctic expedition.
2. The tyre represents the explorer’s sled or pulk containing all their food, fuel and equipment needed for their expedition.
3. If the whole tyre is not completely flat during the relay, they will have to start the relay leg again, walking back to the start point. You don't want to be losing any supplies!
4. If the tyre (pulk) bounces or tips during the relay, this could damage the pulk or its contents. On a real expedition, fuel bottles might crack or leak if the pulk is pulled too fast over rough terrain.
5. If participants slip or fall during a leg, the will have to walk back and start again. What might happen if someone fell or slipped during a real Arctic expedition?

Activity steps - The relay

1. The teams will have to drag the tyre around the relay course as laid out six times.
2. Teams will have three minutes to decide how they are going to do this, e.g. all team members may pull the tyre at one time or take it in turns to pull the tyre individually.
3. The winner is the team who successfully gets their tyre around the relay course in the shortest time.

Activity materials (per team)

• Car or van tyre (tractor tyre if you’re feeling really strong)
• Length of rope (at least 4m)

Training for the Arctic

The tyre dragging activity touches on the importance of exercise, not only to keep healthy, but also to enable us to complete certain activities. This may relate to the types of training young people already do as part of their sports activities such as soccer or rugby.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard (one of the survivors from Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition) famously said “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.”

Dragging 120kg sledges for up to 12 hours a day, over smashed up ice in the intense cold and on limited rations makes a long polar expedition a unique physical and mental challenge. The suffering endured on a 3-month journey across the Arctic Ocean is unimaginable to most of us.

Given that the majority of the physical exertion comes from dragging a heavy sled, a lot of the training exercises mimic this action. Tyre-dragging is therefore the polar explorers’ training staple.

As the expedition departure date draws closer, the explorer’s training program increases in intensity. The number of circuit repetitions and towing weights are increased. With this increase in intensity comes the need for the explorers to mimic conditions on the ice as much as possible. This includes training with a hood on, which reduces communication and vision (both of which are extremely important when working as a team on the ice), and wearing mittens to prepare for the frustrations of trying to operate and manhandle kit and sleds with impaired dexterity.