Martin Brooks was always fascinated by the story of Ernest Shackleton, the explorer whose expedition to the Antarctic on the ship Endurance in 1914 saw him and his crew stranded on the ice and having to make their way back to civilisation after abandoning ship. It’s a story of courage and inventiveness that has captivated the imagination for over a hundred years. So, when Martin was looking for a change of career after years spent as a marketeer, he decided to co-found an apparel company and name it after his hero.
The idea was to make stylish clothes that were also technically fit for purpose for those who wanted to put them to the test. That was back in 2016, and today Shackleton is an established brand with collaborations with Leica and Land Rover, and an expedition arm – the Shackleton Challenges – that trains customers to take on a trek to the South Pole in the footsteps of Ernest Shackleton. Here, Martin tells us of his favourite hotel, a small Norwegian place where his firm’s expeditions stay when during the training of would-be explorers.
There’s a tiny, tiny village called Finse in Norway, in the Hardangervidda National Park, which is between Oslo and Bergen. If you’ve never done the journey along the railway that runs between them, the Bergensbanen (Bergen Line), you must, it’s the most gorgeous train journey in the world.
You can only get to Finse by the snow train, and it’s where we at Shackleton run a 10-week polar training camp from February through to March each year. We have people on our Shackleton Challenges expedition experiences come out, eight people at a time, and the first and the last night they stay in the Hotel Finse 1222, which I love.
It’s called 1222 because it’s that many metres above sea level, which is also the apex of the Bergensbanen. It’s classic Norwegian – understated, very classy but simple. There are pictures on the wall of Ernest Shackleton and explorers (Captain) Scott and (Roald) Amundsen and all the other people that trained in that area 100 years ago. Because topographically, the terrain, the landscape, the weather conditions, the climate… all are very similar to Antarctica during winter.
It’s also, if you remember the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, the location used for the snowy planet called Hoth, so the Hotel Finse has lovely pictures of Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Chewbacca and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia because they all stayed there during filming.
When we’re training our people, you set off from the hotel on your cross-country skis, and you head off into the glacier, then across the glacier to the National Park, and you’re in the absolute middle of nowhere. There are incredible stars at night. It’s minus 20.
Then, after three or four days of living in a tent and boiling up snow for water and all the other things that you have to do to survive, you go back to the hotel and get to enjoy the impact of refuge and safety and warmth, but delivered with incredible, impeccable, gentle, Norwegian soul. It’s just so lovely. I had the best G&T I’ve ever tasted on my return!
You can of course stay in the Hotel Finse as a guest if you’re not on a Shackleton Challenge, and I’m sure they can arrange for a ski guide to take you out. But our programme is a bit special. Our director of expeditions is Louis Rudd, one of the world’s number one polar explorers, and the first Britain ever to cross Antarctica solo, unsupported. He spent 30 years in the SAS and he’s amazing. If you come on our training camp, he will be your instructor.
We do five to six days of training at three different levels. One actually gives you four nights in the hotel, while another sees you go out on a journey called Hut-to-Hut, where you spend days travelling between five of the 600 huts the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) maintains all over the region, so people have a place to stay when outdoors.
If you like the experience in Norway and want more, we have the next stage up where we do a similar thing, but more hardcore, in Greenland. And then after that, it’s Antarctica, where you can either do the last degree, which is where you fly to 89˚ South and do the last 60 nautical miles, or you can do a full coast-to-pole traverse, which is about six weeks, about 700 nautical miles.
Most people come to Finse with us to try the experience out and then decide if they want to progress. We have had visitors that have literally never put on a pair of skis in their life and have done Norway, Greenland and then made it to Antarctica. We call it Couch to South Pole!
hotelfinse1222.no; shackleton.com
Peter Howarth has been the style director of British GQ and the editor of Arena, British Esquire and Man About Town. He is the co-founder and CEO of London creative agency SHOW and managing director of Secret Trips.
