Meet the 2023 Fjällräven Polar team
Their motives impressed us. Their life experiences moved us. Their efforts to live sustainably are inspiring. Meet the 2023 Fjällräven Polar team.
They may come from 13 countries and have vastly different backgrounds and lifestyles, but the 20 people selected to participate in Fjällräven Polar 2023 are united by one vision: to embark upon a 300km dog-sledding expedition in the Arctic.
It wasn’t an easy decision-making process for the event jury. In fact, this Fjällräven Polar application period had the most submissions in the event’s history: 14,460 to be precise. Global Event Manager Calle Hård af Segerstad admits that Fjällräven is humbled by the experience: “We thought we started a kind of competition for this expedition, but it feels much more that we started a movement for outdoor life in the wintertime.”
Each of the chosen participants however, impressed the jury by responding to three Instagram challenges with a level of authentic creativity and ambition that provided deep insight into who they are, what compels them to be in nature, and why they would be a welcome addition to the group.
Without further ado, here is the Fjällräven Polar 2023 team:
John Ayche, Sweden
Katie Baker, United States
Lina Barón, Colombia
Rebecca Chapman, United Kingdom
Christina Fesz, United States
Nooshindokht Hamzehloo, Sweden
Ting-Yu Hu, Taiwan
Ali Imran Muhamad Izam, Malaysia
Kert Kivaste, Estonia
Wenceslas Marie-Sainte, France
Maëlys Morel, Canada
Elisa Nordman, Finland
Katrin Riedmayr, Germany
Ilhan Ryu, South Korea
Rasmus Stagsted, Denmark
Sonja Stangl, Austria
Thomas Steinert, Germany
Mark Thompson, United Kingdom
Conrad Vitasse, Canada
Christopher Wolff, United States