Enid's own Jeremy Upshaw has entered quite a competition. He has lived in Enid for 10 years, and he is now trying to compete in the Fjällräven (Fyel-reh-vehn - Swedish for Arctic fox) POLAR Challenge, 2014. Mountaineers, bikers, kayakers, conservationists, and adventure-minded people (who are otherwise everyday normal people like Jeremy) enter, and the ones to receive the highest number of votes for his/her country, are given a chance to captain a dogsled from North of the Arctic Circle, to the Swedish Lappland, sleeping outdoors in the snow along the way.
Jeremy is the only entrant from Oklahoma, and he is representing Enid, OK on my page as my home base - out of about 20 Entrants (from California, New York, North Carolina, Etc.) He needs about 1000-1500 votes to solidify his spot on the United States team of 2. Hopefully, sometime in April, he'll be waving an Enid Buzz flag in the far north of Norway!
Jeremy is an instructor for the Northern Oklahoma College Upward-Bound summer academy, and he intends to use this to help develop some teaching exercises for the students. The link to vote for him is below...
http://www.fjallravenpolar.com/polar-2014/show-all-contributions/?uid=90729
When the dog sleds leave Signaldalen, Norway, on 9 April 2014, a total of 20 people will have been selected to participate. The selection process is based on a competition where you upload a photograph or video and a text explaining why you should be chosen for the trip. The competition takes place on a country-by-country basis and two people from each country/group are selected:
• The first person from each country is selected by visitors to the website voting for their favourite application – the submission with the most votes is guaranteed a spot.
• The second person from each country will be chosen by Fjällräven.
The participants will be chosen to join Fjällräven Polar from each of the following countries/groups: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Germany, UK, USA, Czech Republic and "other countries".
The application period is 14 November – 10 December 2013.
Fjällräven Polar is a 300 kilometer long winter adventure that takes place on April 8, 2014 and runs for four days. You will steer a dog sledge through coastal climate, over mountains and tundra in subarctic wilderness, through low-lying mountain terrain and on to virgin forest. This is an adventure unique to others, as it’s addressed to you without special experience in outdoor activities during winter. Fjällräven arranges Polar to prove that anyone with the right equipment and knowledge can be part of and enjoy the beautiful wilderness of the Arctic Circle.