Academically I trained as a Botanist eventually specializing in research on the adaptations of Arctic-alpine plants to their environment. This involved carrying out research in the German Alps into a member of the Rose family called Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens).
After graduating from my first degree I decided to visit Iceland; having developed an interest in mountains and wilderness areas in Britain this seemed a logical extension northwards. Although a scientist, I had long fostered an interest in the Vikings and their westward migration as colonists and explorers from their Scandinavian and Hebridean homelands.
My fascination with the North was driven by a number of factors. Firstly the sheer grandeur of the landscape, austere and monochromatic but enlivened occasionally by flashes of the intense colour provided by the petals of arctic plants. This is a direct result of their struggle to attract potential pollinators and to store away excess sugars produced in the 24-hour arctic summer day!
Secondly the light is of a quality that has a spiritual intensity and this is exaggerated by the open landscapes in which the blue-upon-blue sky is always dominant. Against this backdrop the exploratory journeys of the Viking colonists that would eventually culminate in their brief sojourn on the North American continent around the First Millennium provided an endless fascination. Indeed a friend and I were two of the few English participants in the celebrations to mark the Second Millennium that took place in South Greenland to commemorate one thousand years of Christianity in Iceland/Greenland and the one thousand year anniversary of the Viking colonisation of the “New World”.
Greenland is one of the planet’s jewels and the struggle for existence that the Viking colonists eventually lost is made even more fascinating by the fact that the Inuit’s survived – just! Travelling with Inuit hunters in their boats and exploring the wilderness of East Greenland one cannot but fail to be in awe of the technology developed by the Stone Age culture that allowed them to survive in such a hostile world.
Being a schoolteacher the opportunity to transfer this fascination with the Northern landscapes, natural history, history and people and to give young people an opportunity to experience wilderness where life is simpler, less dominated by the complexities of the modern world and more elemental has always been pivotal. I have visited the mountain and glacial wildernesses of Iceland and Greenland over twenty times with school expeditions comprising almost half of these.
It is a privilege to provide these expedition groups with such formative experiences and also to provide them with the opportunity to learn to appreciate risk and, most importantly, to learn to manage it. This is becoming increasingly rare in a world dominated by the fear of litigation and the tendency to try and wrap young people in cotton-wool rather than to teach them to think and learn from their experiences.
The attributes gained by students involved in expeditions are best summed up by words like focus, commitment, independence and individuality. The participants learn to rely on themselves, to face challenges, to make decisions and to learn from these in a controlled yet demanding environment. They learn to work in a group, to develop trust in their colleagues and to appreciate the need to display reliability, determination, direction and tolerance. Individuals are encouraged to step out of their “comfort zone” and view things from the viewpoint of others, which fosters a more expansive view of the world.
For the majority it provides a once-in-a-lifetime experience at a formative age with a group of young people that have grown up together. It signals the end of adolescence and school, and the arrival of the transition into the adult world.
I believe that it is vital to preserve the opportunities for young people to experience the true value of participating in such trips and therefore of benefiting from such experiences.

Nigel Bidgood BSc, MSc, PGCE, FRGS. Deputy Headmaster – Bedstone College. Bedstone College Arctic Club Expedition Leader.

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