• Aged 27 to 31, Flavien Hillat, Thomas Jarrey and Vincent Lavrov, three Riviera explorers who have made documentaries, have just embarked on an expedition to Svalbard, a frozen archipelago belonging to Norway, 900 km from the North Pole.

  • They will film their isolation in this frozen universe, their sporting adventure too, but above all the majesty of the place, "unfortunately expecting to be able to observe the effects of global warming", he says.

Offer them an adventure on the other side of the world and especially in extreme cold... and they'll always be up for it.

Aged 27 to 31, Flavien Hillat, Thomas Jarrey and Vincent Lavrov, three Riviera explorers who have made documentaries, have just embarked on their new filmed expedition to the Arctic “to show the consequences of global warming”.

A 42-day trip to Svalbard, a frozen piece of land belonging to Norway and located only 900 km from the North Pole.

Arrived on Monday at the airport of Longyearbyen, the administrative capital of this "frozen archipelago, the northernmost on the planet", the three friends, at the head of the association Until the end of your dreams, will set off to a 255 km unassisted crossing on the island of Spitsbergen, between glaciers, icecaps and pack ice.

Between – 20°C and – 40°C, in the footsteps of polar bears

On the spot, they will progress by the sole strength of their skis, attached to three sleds filled with belongings and food.

That had to be very carefully packaged.

In Svalbard, they recall, "there are about 2,800 inhabitants for more than 4,000 polar bears".

A hostile universe “where the temperature will oscillate between – 20°C and – 40°C in a fairly humid climate”, explained Vincent Lavrov, before departure, at

20 Minutes

.

Nothing to scare them.

It is in fact this passion for extreme conditions that brought them together.

“We started on a smaller scale, in the Mercantour, in France, says this resident of Biot, near Antibes.

We slept in the cold, we trained to resist.

Their two previous polar expeditions through the largest ice deserts in Europe, Sarek and Padjelanta, in Sweden, have finished training them.

In connection with a glaciologist to observe the effects of global warming

But the cold and the proximity of polar bears will not be the only parameters to take into account.

In addition to the physical fatigue, they will have to adapt to the rhythm of these high latitudes, where they should also be able to observe the northern lights.

“At the start of our journey, there will only be six hours of daylight in 24 hours.

And at the end of our stay, we will be at 9 p.m., ”explains Vincent Lavrov again.

“We are in contact with Heïdi Sevestre, a French glaciologist to whom we will show the images and who will be able to comment on them.

Unfortunately, we expect to be able to observe the effects of global warming,” he says.

They will film their isolation in this frozen universe, their sporting adventure too (with the ascent and descent, in freeride skiing, of the mountains of the island) but above all the majesty of the place.

On their return, they will need several more months of production to share with the public the thrill of this last expedition.

In the meantime, it's one of their other adventures in Sweden, Isöken, which Netflix will soon be streaming across Europe.

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