March 31, 2020

Ruairi Oneill, a 24-year-old commercial filmmaker from Ireland, was seven days into a long winter trek in northern Sweden when he fell through the ice while crossing a frozen river.

Thinking quickly, he planted his trekking poles to keep from
submerging fully into the quick-moving water, but still emerged soaked all the
way to the top of his knees.

Within minutes, the arctic temperatures began to freeze his pants and boots, making walking difficult and painful. He had seven hours worth of hiking left before arriving at his next shelter for the night.

He was trekking Kungsleden, a popular route and one of the world’s most famous and beautiful hiking trails. The path, established in the 20^th century, winds for 400 kilometers and passes through four national parks. Trekkers can take shelter in at least 16 mountain cabins along the way. It’s frequented by adventurers on foot in the summer and on skis or snowshoes in the winter.

Oneill opted to trek with snowshoes, and haul much of his food and supplies in a sled behind him. And although it wasn’t his first solo journey of epic proportions — previously he mountain biked the Icelandic interior and the Scottish Highlands — it did turn out to be a little different.

For the duration of Oneill’s trek through the arctic tundra, temperatures dipped as low as -25 degrees Celsius, and he often was hiking through knee-deep snow and blizzard conditions. He was perpetually cold, but driven to continue by the breathtaking landscapes and sights.

“I was struck by the sheer beauty of the nature and the
wildlife in the area,” he said. “It was a gorgeous place, honestly. So totally
still and quiet.”

When he was lucky, he slept in the shelter of a hut along
the trial. Other nights, he was forced to simply pitch a tent.

The adventure pushed him, both psychologically and
physically. While it was an experience unlike any other, at times it was just
miserable. And Oneill was by himself.

“The best aspects of solo hiking are the self-reliance and
ability to move at your own speed,” he said. “The worst aspect is that often
you wish you had people to share the highs and lows of the adventure with.”

He certainly had some lows. Several days into the trip, one
of Oneill’s snowshoes developed a long crack in the plastic material. Attempts
to repair the snowshoe, and even construct a pair of skis out of a piece of plywood
he found, fell flat. He opted to continue on and hope the broken snowshoe
stayed intact while he trekked over a long mountain pass.

“I was a little bit scared and a little bit excited,” he
said. “It felt a lot better to try to continue on than to turn back.”

But coming down off a mountain ridge, Oneill heard a loud
crunch. He looked down and saw that his foot had gone completely through the
broken snowshoe, rendering it unusable. He had no choice but to break trail
with nothing but his winter hiking boots.

“At that point I knew that I might be in a little bit of
trouble,” he said.

Oneill persevered and waded through deep snow to get off the mountain, but eventually was forced to pitch his tent and take shelter due to poor weather conditions.

Huddled in his tent at an elevation of 1,000 meters, it took
Oneill two hours to chisel the ice off his boots and free his feet before
falling asleep. The next day, he continued on, still cold but filled with the
determination to make it to safety.  

“With my snowshoes broken, and my feet in ever-worsening
conditions, I knew it was my last chance to make it to civilization,” he said.

It was that day — day seven — that Oneill fell through the ice.

When he finally arrived at the hut and built a fire, it once
again took him hours to thaw out his boots and free his feet. When he finally
did, he saw that his toes were severely frostbitten. It was so bad that he
worried he might pass out from the pain, and he was alone.

Triggering an SOS

In preparation for solo adventures, Oneill had purchased an inReach® Mini satellite communicator — at the time more for its navigation and communication features than with an SOS situation in mind.

“Having it as a communication device gave my loved ones some
peace of mind while I was out of range of cellular reception,” he said. “But my
inReach was invaluable in multiple ways.”

Its preloaded maps showed the location of the mountain shelters along the way, and the SOS feature allowed him to communicate with emergency services despite being in an extremely remote area.

“If I hadn’t had the inReach, I may not have found the
shelter with the stove which allowed me to thaw my feet,” Oneill said. “And
without the SOS feature I would have had to hike for at least 35 miles in heavy
snow on mountainous terrain with broken snowshoes while suffering from
frostbite.”

After triggering the SOS and communicating with staff at the
GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center, the North…