Snowkiting: from learning to great expeditions with Michaël Charavin

Over the last few years, thanks to our great friend, guide and explorer Dixie Dansercoer, who tragically passed away in Greenland in June 2021, we have developed a rare expertise in expedition snowkiting, whether crossing Greenland, Antarctica or Alaska. Thanks to him, we've been able to get close to the best polar kiters in the world, and it's in this spirit that we're now developing our range of programmes, with four new stays or mini-expeditions guided by French snowkiter Michaël Charavin. Mika is probably the most experienced French-speaking expedition kiter. With him, we now offer four 8- to 10-day programmes in Norway, based on star trekking, roaming or training courses in preparation for your next big expedition. We will also be working with him to organise our major expeditions to Greenland and Antarctica in the years to come. An extraordinary activity to discover this winter.

Michaël Charavin, polar guide and snowkiting expedition specialist

Born in 1970, Mika qualified as a mountain leader in 1999, is a snowkiting instructor and has been guiding in the polar regions since 2003. He is a member of the IPGA - International Polar Guide Association, which brings together the world's best polar guides. He has been snowkiting in the boreal and arctic regions for 20 years, and has clocked up over 15,000 kilometers of expeditions in this way. He is one of the few polar guides specialising in this sport.

He was one of the very first to cross Greenland by snowkite from south to north-west (2,300 km in 2008), then to complete a circumnavigation of the Greenland ice sheet (5,067 km in 2014). On this occasion (and until 2019), he became the author of the longest voyage ever undertaken on skis and on his own. He was also innovative in the way he practised snowkiting in the mountains (the most complex playing field there is for this activity), combining ascents of summits and crossings of massifs. 

Called up for military service in 1994, he spent fourteen months as a technical aid volunteer in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, on the Kerguelen archipelago, where he contributed to various eco-ethological studies and the restoration of sub-Antarctic ecosystems. Then, in 1996-1997, he completed an 8,000-kilometers mountain bike trek across the highlands of southern Latin America, from the Bolivian Amazon to Tierra del Fuego, via the Altiplano, the deserts of the Sud-Lipez and the Atacama Puna, Patagonia...

From 1999 onwards, his taste for the wilderness, for isolated, austere and cold regions, became even more refined: he turned resolutely towards the northern regions, and invested his energy in carrying out committed and stripped-back ski expeditions: 1,800 kilometers and four months of itinerant skiing across Scandinavia (from south to north) in 2000; several raids and several hundred kilometres in the central, western and southern regions of Spitzbergen in 2001 and 2002; an attempt at an east-west crossing of Greenland in 2003. ..

Still driven by a deep passion for the great ski crossings of the polar and sub-polar regions, he nevertheless modified his approach to these environments from 2006 onwards: in addition to the rigour required for the logistical, technical and mental preparation of such expeditions, he now wanted to add performance and technicality, key concepts, in his opinion, in the realisation of great raids, particularly in the extreme environments of the great ice caps. It's also a way of reintroducing a playful dimension into an activity that fundamentally lacks one...

All in all, he has supervised numerous trips, on skis, on foot or in a sea kayak, to Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Spitzbergen, Alaska and the French Southern Territories...

© Michaël Charavin

Two preparatory courses for a major polar snowkiting expedition

We're offering a first preparatory course for major polar snowkiting expeditions, during which we'll be heading for Finse in Norway, north of the Hardangervidda plateau. In this first of a two-part course, we'll set off each day in a star formation around comfortable accommodation. Finse generally offers good wind conditions. We spend our days outdoors, with sessions lasting several hours each day. An intensive snowkiting course for intermediate to independent kiters.

For our second preparatory course, this time roaming, we joined Berlevag in Norway. In this second part of the course, we'll be cruising across the peninsula from west to east. Our days were spent outdoors, with sessions lasting several hours each day. The ‘intensive’ nature of such a trip ensures a high volume of practice and rapid progress. And kitesurfing will become a way of travelling through the wilderness of the Far North... The aim this time is to put ourselves in the conditions of an autonomous crossing. A course for intermediate to autonomous kiters.

See all our polar trainings.

© Michaël Charavin

Two short kite trekking programmes, star or itinerant: pure pleasure

A first programme around Finse, north of the Hardangervidda plateau, for an intensive star kite adventure. This programme is similar to the first long expedition course, but differs in its objective: to seek out new riding conditions every day, to make progress of course, but above all to have fun. This course is aimed at participants who have already practised snowkiting, so are at an intermediate to autonomous level.

The second programme takes us to the northernmost point of Norway, well beyond the Arctic Circle, to the land of the Northern Lights, on the island of North Cape and the Porsanger Peninsula. In this magnificent place, with generally good wind conditions, we don't plan any pre-established itineraries so as to give ourselves maximum freedom and possibilities depending on the conditions we encounter there. The use of the vehicle allows us to go to a different spot each day and explore new areas, each as magnificent as the next. All our energy is focused on kitesurfing, and the ‘intensive’ nature of this kind of holiday guarantees a high volume of practice and rapid progress. This trip is aimed at participants who have already practised snowkiting, so who are at an intermediate to autonomous level.

See all our short polar expeditions.

© Michaël Charavin