As Highland dwellers, we have all been through the odd sub-zero winter.
But next week, explorer Felicity Aston will tell us all what it is like to truly feel a winter chill in a talk about her expedition to the Pole of Cold.
As Scotland settles deeper into winter, Ms Aston’s Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) talk will feel particularly relevant.
She will share her story of a 36,000km journey across the Arctic Circle, “chasing winter” to the Pole of Cold, the coldest inhabited place on Earth.
Ms Aston and her team, who travelled in a Land Rover Defender, collected images, sounds and stories of lives lived at the extremes and asked the question, “what does winter mean to you?”
Ms Aston’s journey shows that our experiences in Scotland are nothing compared to the extremes faced by those living across Scandinavia and Siberia within the Arctic Circle where temperatures can reach -59°C.
Ms Aston said yesterday: “I came to Inverness a couple of years ago to talk about my experiences of skiing alone across Antarctica – so I am really looking forward to returning to share a more recent expedition, and one that I hope will strike a chord as it is all about how we perceive winter.
“Chasing a season is an unusual concept for an expedition but having spent most of my adult life traveling in the polar regions, places like Antarctica, I was curious about how people live in the extreme cold. The Pole of Cold is the coldest inhabited place in the world and it is home to a small community of around 300 people in the far north east of Siberia. People go to work, take their children to school, start their cars, all in temperatures below -50C. I wanted to know more about their lifestyle and their attitude to winter and to see if I could learn anything along the way that would be relevant to our own winter lifestyles here in the UK.”
RSGS CEO Mike Robinson said: “The talks are a fantastic way to spend a winter’s evening and can transport audiences all over the world. We look forward to welcoming the public to our talks and hope they will enjoy and, indeed, be inspired by this season’s speakers”.
Felicity Aston’s talk “Chasing Winter: A Journey to the Pole of Cold” is open to all and costs £8 (free to RSGS members, students and U18s), tickets will be available on the night. The talk will start at 7:30pm at the Highland Council Chamber on Monday 11th January. For more information please see www.rsgs.org.