Rab - For the most extreme conditions in the world | Gary Rolfe

Gary Rolfe

Gary has a totally committed approach to his life of solo Arctic journeys with dogs. He lives full-time in Greenland's high Arctic where 280 days of the year temperatures are never above freezing.

Gary travels through some of the most remote and extreme locations on earth in a style that relies on the performance and quality of the gear he chooses to use - Rab® gear literally keeps Gary alive.

Gary has been working with Rab® since 2001 and after all these years Gary knows what works and he provides continual feedback to help with the development of all our cold weather kit.

Gary took a few minutes out to answer some questions and give an amazing insight into his life and what it's like to live in one of the most inhospitable places on earth!

 

Where were you born and where’s home now?

I was born in Walthamstow, E17, London. East End hard. Home is Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland’s east coast. East End hard.

Tell us about your work?

I am a dog musher and live in the remote community of Ittoqqortoormiit on Greenland’s east coast. I live here because Greenland Dogs are the best expedition dogs in the world. Greenland Dogs, not huskies. A husky is a generic term for any mutt that pulls. I moved here in 2006 after an accident

How long have you been dogsledding?

Since the 1990s.

Describe your very first time running sled dogs

This was during my second Minnesotan winter. I was alone with an eight-dog team. A dog called Miles was the lead dog. The last time Will Steger made it to the North Pole, Miles was his lead dog. I loved Miles. He looked after and taught me a great deal. To reach that point had already been very hard work but I never lost sight of what it was I wanted: to live in the Arctic with my own dogs.

Describe your dog sledding career

A long tough graft with sporadic lasting moments of pure ecstasy that make all the hard work worthwhile. I have traveled over 14,000 miles with dogs. I didn’t have the classic upbringing for an expedition dog musher but I decided that’s what I wanted to be and made it happen. My career path has been far from pretty but from experience I can relay what worked for me. You can plan for something but don’t ever expect it to work out that way. Expect good and bad en-route. The clever bit is to make both aspects work for you.I didn’t ever let anyone tell me that my dream was too big. Plenty of people tried because they singled me out for being different and they wanted to see me fail. I gave them the middle finger.When it all felt like too much I did anything to pull through: I crawled on my knees, bled, cried but I never ever stopped. I will never ever give up what I love.

What are your most memorable moments?

On 14th March 2010 I returned home safely (Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland) after a 33-day, 400-mile solo journey  with 12 of my dogs to an area marked unknown or unexplored on the maps of Greenland. It was like I’d come full-circle and was back on my feet again after bad times.  Most runs with my dogs feel memorable. We power out and power home. Sometimes I lay on my stomach - on top of my sled - with my head bipod fashion resting in my hands. I feel like a little boy looking over the edge of his bed at all his best toys.

What do you do when you’re not dog-sledding?

I’m not much good - verging on hopeless - at relaxing if that’s what you mean. If I’m not doing it I’m thinking about it. I have twenty dogs and they dominate my life because that’s the way I want it.

What’s your proudest moment?

Moving to Greenland.  It’s the only place I have ever felt totally at home, where I belong. The Greenland Dog is iconic. Throughout polar history the greatest expedition sled dogs came from Greenland and that is why I live here. A lot of people have said I should have moved here in the first place. Uppa. That’s the east Greenlandic word for maybe.

Who or what inspires you?

Loyalty. Honesty. Valour. Greenland Dogs inspire me. The people of Ittoqqortoormiit inspire me. For all that is written about Greenland, those born here – Greenlanders - consider themselves Greenlandic not Inuit.They have courage, backbone and the ability to never give up hope. Against great odds Ittoqqortoormiit and its people are unique and special. Material wealth is not high on the agenda here. The people are the happiest I have ever had the privilege to live with.  For as long as I live I cannot imagine living within a more noble culture.

Ever since I was a little boy I think a lot about the people who died in times of war and sacrificed their lives so others might live their lives with the freedom that they were fighting for. By freedom, I mean, to live a life that we choose. My great uncle Jack was a runner in World War One. His duty was to run over the top with messages when lines of communication were broken. He later became the youngest ever Sergeant Major in the British Army. He was 18. He fought at Ypres and the Somme. On July 9th 1917 he was awarded the DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.”  This is the highest military awarded that can be bestowed to a British NCO. Jack was 20. And he survived the Great War. I will never forget.

Do you carry any regrets?

No. Some people might say I should but I’m the only one whole knows the entire story.

What are your future plans/goals?

Greenland is immense and comes with the prospect of great journeys. In September I had  my latest litter of puppies. I plan for more because these are my future expedition dogs. From birth, it takes three years before I consider a dog for a long journey.

What are your favourite pieces of Rab® kit?

Where I live - nine months of the year the sea is frozen - we have lots of snow. It’s cold too. What I wear keeps me alive. I love the cold but I hate being cold. If favourite means what I wear the most, it has to be Vapour-rise.In 2008 I wrote what I thought about it .

My Windsuit was a favourite last March when I journeyed into an area marked unexplored or unknown on maps and my Expedition Down Suit, saved my life in 2006 .

During a 36-day hike in 2004 I was re-supplied  by a float-plane. Part of one particular re-supply was a Neutrino Jacket. I have very fond memories of that jacket. But not of times I was charged by grizzly bears.

How else do you train?

Training to me means teaching my dogs new skills. Some important points about how I train my dogs can be found here.

I film my dogs a lot and watch this over and over to pick-up on detail that might be best improved. It might be pairing off one dog with another for instance. It also helps to see on film how my dogs react to a verbal command from me. Non-leaders might respond, in which case it is time to have them try leading beside an experienced dog. 

Myself, I train twice daily, hard and alone. Here are two article links describing what I do here and here.

How do you think your friends would describe you?

Several of my Greenlandic friends do not speak a word of English. We learn off each other without saying a word.

They are proud, skilled hunters and their dogs are an important and intrinsic facet to their culture. Consequently they are expert dog drivers. Actually, I would go as far to say that they are the best in the world. I have a very good understanding of why hunting is so important to my friends here but I am a dog musher, not a Greenlandic hunter. I don’t live to hunt, I live to run my dogs on long journeys.  And that I know is very strange to my Greenlandic friends. I do things that they consider very strange.

Of course they love to socialise, enjoy Facebook and the Internet. Some I know read my blog www.garyrolfe.blogspot.com and I am sure they understand how I feel and the respect I have for them. They see me work and go about my daily life. There’s no time-wasting, so what I say, I mean. The first two years I lived here there were questions about how long I would stay. After three years the asking stopped. Now after five years they know my love for Greenland is true. 

When Greenlandic friends say complementary things about my dogs that says a lot. But when they ask to buy dogs from me, well, that I consider is the highest compliment anyone could say to me, the fact that I can rear, train and condition dogs good enough for them to want. They also know I would rather starve than have my dogs go without.

Regarding what other friends think, god knows, but I asked a few. The jist of their replies was: he’s driven, intense, passionate, a bastard, he’s got a big nose, he’s loyal, direct and to him hardly anything else exists but dogs and snow. Funny, difficult, engaging. No half-measures.

Mars or Snickers?

Only once have I had to survive eating dog food on a journey. What followed was a personal record for chocolate bar eating. The record stands at 16 bars. That’s regular size if anyone wants to challenge it. That was followed by three loaves of bread.

I cannot remember the last time I purchased a chocolate bar. We get Mars here but they’re nearly two quid each. . . . So Mars please and not just one.

Beer or wine?

Not much of a bar is it? If it’s bottles on offer I’ll take the wine. Any colour. Thank you.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee please. Black. No sugar.

Carrot or ginger cake?

I prefer ice cream and make my own even on journeys. I mix a litre of water with a cup of powdered milk, add sugar and stir in dehydrated fruit and leave the concoction outside my tent. The trick is to stir the creamy mixture often, before it freezes, which does not take long.

Favourite book?

Call of the Wild by Jack London, in my opinion the greatest adventure book ever written.

Favourite music?

Punk. I grew up on 70s punk. For those who weren’t around at the time that means the likes of the Sex Pistols, Sham 69, The Ramones and the band I followed most, UK Subs. Punk was never understood properly by the media. It had nothing to do with the aggression that was so often publicised. What really was behind it all was about getting off your arse, to participate, to make something happen and extend it into your own life to do whatever it was you wanted to do. It was about not accepting what you’re told. It was about having an opinion – not somebody elses - and knowing why you have it. It didn’t matter what you looked like either. At the time punk was never aired on the radio, TV and eventually live gigs were sent underground. Does Radio 4’s Desert Island Disks still exist? I’d love to be invited. I still love and listen to punk. And I still feel it inside. 

Pie or salad?

Salad please. We get just two re-supply ships here a year. In winter there is just one scheduled flight in per week. Weather permitting. Because of storms the longest I have known us to be totally cut off is five weeks. Nobody could get out and no-one could get it in. That was either side of Christmas 2007. Fresh food is a luxury.

Bivi or B&B?

I’ve not had a bath for five years and I’d love one, so B&B if I could ask for a bath. And bring the wine. Please.

Hot or cold?

Cold. I live for my dogs. The cold is their domain so I must be here.

Cat, dog or goldfish?

Dog of course. Cats are not allowed here and I’m not sure or that bothered how you’d get a goldfish here. I do know a family with a hamster though. The Danish mother of the little boy who owns it swears that they will stay here until the creature dies. She said the reams of red tape involved in getting it here included her being escorted through Icelandic customs by armed officials.

Car or bike?

I don’t own either since neither are much good here. But given the chance I’d give a car a go since I could get more dogs in a car and we could go for a drive over the ice. When I lived in Arctic Canada the early winter dare was to see who would drive from Aklavik to Inuvik by car over the frozen Mackenzie River. The car never had doors or windscreen for a rather hasty exit just in case it went through the ice.

Radio 1 or 2?

I can only tune into one radio station here and it’s Greenlandic. They play allsorts most of which I’m not overly keen on. So I think I should be allowed to choose a CD player.

Long haul or short haul?

Long haul, else what is the point?

Facebook or email?

Email, even though Internet airtime is very expensive here. One gigabyte costs cost 54 quid. Use a phone for calls outside Greenland and they cost a pound a minute. My phone doesn’t ring much.

Christmas or New Year?

Christmas. Ittoqqortoormiit has 56 days either side of Christmas when the sun never appears. It’s so dark it’s like being nailed inside a coffin. If the weather is calm the houses twinkle and it’s like a scene from a fairytale.

Film or theatre?

Film. It has to be a dvd. We have no cinema or theatre here. We do have a public service building where people take their showers since hardly anyone has running water in their houses. This service building sometimes is used to screen films. 

Favourite stand up?

I’m sorry, but I am not a fan of stand-up. Charlie Chaplin was the greatest comic ever. That’s what I think anyway.

Favourite time of day?

Come May and 24-hour daylight I find it very difficult to stop working. Three days is the longest I’ve gone without sleeping because of the sheer joy of living.

Favourite joke?

This was in Arctic Canada. Picture the scene: a very remote cabin and I’m inside. There’s a knock on the door. There stood a very scruffy bearded man. He introduced himself, as Cliff. He was Alaskan and asked if I wanted to come to a party over at his cabin. Again, very remote. He warned me, “There’s gonna be some really hard drinkin’ “. I assured him that’s fine by me. At this he said, “There’s gonna be some really tough fightin’ “. Again, I said that’s fine by me. When he said,” There gonna be some wild sex” I was really bothered about what to wear but Cliff said, “Don’t worry, only you and me will be there.”

Favourite quote?

“The easiest way to survive is to never give up”.

Lemmy. Motörhead.