Picture this: You have just skied 600 kilometres of ice and snow in just 16 days when it takes most professional exploration teams over 25. You've walked 16 hours a day in sub-zero temperatures using Nordic skis and dragging 50kg packs containing all your kit, so do you choose:
 | | Rachel before and after kitting up. |
Option A) Rest, relaxation, a good sauna and a flight home. Option B) Doing it all over again. Well for Rachel Pearson from Devon and her three travelling colleagues it was option B that held the most appeal. Rachel, along with Felicity Aston, Jenny Pugh and Jo Vellino are collectively the Arctic Foxes. The team have become the first British all women team to make the crossing across Greenland, the world's biggest island. Now they've returned the same way, finally completing their mammoth journey. They had hoped to try and break the land speed record on the return crossing using power kites and skis that would have enabled the foxes to hit speeds of over 20 mph. Due to the weather that wasn't possible but from the ashes of defeat on that record attempt the phoenix of another might have arisen.
 | | Jo and Rachel map the route. |
The Foxes have been skiing between 30 and 55 kilometers per day, an amazing rate that includes being on their feet for at least 16 hours a day and 30 hours straight on their final night to make sure they reached their extraction flight. Because of this a record might have been achieved without the foxes knowledge. "The way there took 16 days and the way back 15, when we got back the locals said they think we've achieved the fastest ever time walking there and back," said Rachel. "We haven't looked into it but that would be fantastic!" It's not a normal holiday trip though and it was all the idea of travel and adventure writer Felicity. "It was Felicity's idea originally, she discovered that no British women's team had crossed the Greenland ice cap and she thought it sounded like a fantastic idea," said Rachel.
 | | Never tell a lady she's packed too much! |
"It's been an incredibly hard experience but when you do take a moment to look up and look around it can be incredibly beautiful, even in 24-hour sunlight the sun sets slightly and gives you fantastic colours in the sky. For Rachel, this is the first time she's done something quite this extreme. "I've climbed the volcano Cotopaxi in Ecuador which is a little higher than Kilimanjaro, I've also done triathlons and that sort of thing but nothing to this level." Despite the difficult conditions Rachel has loved almost every minute. "It was an incredible experience, all four of us have said it was more than we expected it to be," said Rachel "The ice changes quite a lot depending on the weather so we had everything thrown at us we had bright sunshine, we had really high strong winds that blew us over, snow flying into our faces, snowdrifts up to our knees and beyond. "Everything the ice cap could throw at us it did but it was fantastic, we coped and it was an incredible feeling. "All of us have devoted the last six months of our lives to organising the expedition, we organised it all ourselves and did all our own training as well. It's been hard work so it's fantastic to have been here, it's made us all the more determined."
 | | Training for the kit pull with tyres |
Some of the hardest of the training was pulling tires across parks and Dartmoor, a gruelling task but one that paid off. "I'm glad we did it, we were pulling our paulks - our sledges - that were nearly 50kg of weight, nearly our own body weight, said Rachel. "It was essential training, in fact all of us think the tires on Dartmoor were harder work because of the ground, at least on the snow it was sliding over." Now for the ladies comes the tricky decision, more exploration or a little rest and relaxation. "We didn’t manage to kite too much so were thinking it might be nice to do something to get the kites up in the future," said Rachel, although some less exciting expeditions are being planned "There's a lot of time for day-dreaming and all of us have been fantasising about things like going to Claridge's for afternoon tea together, having a massage and just relaxing. There's been a lot of dreaming about food I have to say!" admits Rachel. "We've all lost quite a lot of weight, we've come back and none of our clothes fit so were in the process of feeding ourselves up, Devon cream teas are definitely in order! "There could be something else on the horizon but no specific plans as yet. I think I'd like to lie in the sea in Hawaii, that's appealing!" | 
