Adventure runner completes never-before-seen expedition with a rugged laptop as his only personal item

Finnish adventure runner Jukka Viljanen has run across Iceland’s largest ice cap in a rare combination of extreme sport, sustainability research, and technology testing.

He was the first person in the world to run across Greenland, completing a 550-kilometre, 18-day struggle over ice sheets and glaciers. He has also completed the North Pole Marathon and the Antarctic Ice Marathon in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. And not least, in 2012, Jukka Viljanen became the first person in the world to run across the Sahara Desert—a nearly inhuman achievement of 1,628 kilometres in just 31 days.

Now, the 62-year-old Finnish adventure runner has completed another spectacular feat: a run across the Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland’s largest ice cap—once again as the first person ever to do so.

"I was surprised to learn that nobody has ever attempted to run across the Vatnajökull Glacier. A lot of people have skied across it, but no one has ever done a run. It took me 48 hours to complete the 150 kilometres, with a few power naps along the way. Running in the Sahara Desert will probably seem like an extreme challenge to most people, but at least you know what to expect. You know that you’ll be running on sand, and that the temperatures will be high. That was not the case here. In Iceland, the surface constantly shifted between being stable, slushy, and even icy. Also, the weather was a constant mix of wind, mist, snow, sun, and temperatures both above and below zero."

The project was supported by the Arctic Council and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was given the name Running for the Arctic, as the overall goal was to raise public awareness about the need for immediate climate action. One of the specific tasks was to collect snow samples from the glacier, which will be used for research by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Furthermore, Jukka Viljanen brought with him a rugged Panasonic TOUGHBOOK laptop to document his experiences and highlight the importance of using long-lasting computers and tablets instead of replacing hardware every few years.

Adventure runner completes never-before-seen expedition with a rugged laptop as his only personal item

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