On 22 August, the Honourable Artillery Company in London played host to the launch event for Project Fire and Ice, a self-supported ultra-challenge trek through the Arctic Circle next March. The team is made up of ex-Forces members who are doing the challenge on behalf of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.
This event will test all of the team like never before; Project Fire and Ice will require them to cover 500 kilometres over 10 days, self-supported, through the snow-covered forests of Lapland in Sweden. They will be dragging sleds containing all of their gear and supplies needed to complete the challenge.
Three of the team members were in attendance:
Jason “Foxy” Fox, a former Royal Marine Commando who joined the SBS, later turned TV personality who has taken on other ultra-challenge events like kayaking the length of the Yukon River in 2019, also known for the Channel 4 television series SAS: Who Dares Wins;
Karl Hinett, a former British Army soldier who after surviving severe burns in Iraq nearly 20 years ago, has since committed himself to running marathons and took home a silver medal in the 1500 metre race at the 2018 Invictus Games in Australia; and
Brian Wood MC, a former soldier in the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment who was awarded the Military Cross in the Battle of Danny Boy, a famous 2004 battle in Iraq that was adapted for the BBC Two miniseries Danny Boy.
Unable to attend was Aldo Kane, the fourth member of the team, a former Royal Marines Commando Sniper turned extreme adventurer who was part of another team that was the first to row across the Atlantic Ocean from mainland Europe to mainland South America.
Project Fire and Ice is a challenge in every sense of the word, an extreme challenge that only the most dedicated of long-distance adventurers can take on. SSAFA is grateful to the event’s headline sponsor Verkada, as well as our other sponsors Givestar, Resilient Nutrition, and Thrudark, all of which will make this event possible and memorable.
This extreme ultra will take place in March 2025, with training events scheduled between now and then for the team to prepare for this physical and psychological event. For more information on the event and to donate to their fundraising page, please visit the event’s page here: www.ssafa.org.uk/support-us/project-fire-and-ice.
