Marta’s challenge: 550 km in the ice of Alaska, singing to keep the wolves away.

Not everyone would be able to do the Idita Sport: 550 km to go in the ice of Alaska, temperature up to 35 degrees Celsius sub-zero and a sled to tow with supplies and equipment and (almost) with no aid along the way. But Marta Poretti not only completed this ultra-marathon, but she was also first among woman and second in the absolute rank.

“I completed the path in 8 and a half days,” said the young woman, who is from Busto Arsizio but now lives in Mercallo, “and I also could have done better if there wasn’t a low-pressure area halfway through and if I didn’t run up against a problem. Because the Idita is a particular race “that you can do on foot, on skis or mountain bike” but in which you have to think about all. Marta did it on foot “with a sled linked to a bum bag with all the things I would need, from the sleeping bag to the food” because “along the way there are some check points and some pavillions but they only give you water.”

And so, step by step, miles were streaming under the boots and the sled’s foil. “I traveled almost always alone, trying to ration the breaks and so I often slept in the wood, by locking myself in the sleeping bag” not without any problems or concerns, firstly animals “I knew of the presence of reindeer, I understood which ones were their tracks and when I saw them, I changed my direction. Then one day I began to see prints that seemed familiar and I wondered, “what are dogs doing here?”. I didn’t take too much to understand they were wolves. Fortunately, I had an MP3 player with some songs that I asked my friends for. So, when I stopped in the woods I used to turn them up at full volume and sing in order to keep everybody away from me with my little voice.”

But the unforeseen events of this adventure are others too, “I had to cross a frozen river with the ice on the surface that was breaking.” At the end, “I did it with the water at my knees, leaning on a second layer of ice.” Or towards the end of the venture, “one night, in the middle of a storm, I became lost and the fact that some days before I had lost my glasses didn’t help of course.”

In spite of everything, at the end, Marta crossed the finishing line, with a very good result. Obviously, she began with a respectable curriculum with the Grande Corsa Bianca on the Tonale – in which she won three times – or the marathon of 400 km in the Gobi Desert run – and won – last October, “but I never set out on an Arctic experience.” So, even she had to train. “Looking at other participants I noticed that a lot of them prepared themselves by dragging a tyre but I was convinced that it wasn’t the sledge the most important part. I think that what you had to train is the habit to sleep a small amount, to stand many hours on the legs and in the cold.” And now? “Well, first of all I want to get over this experience; then we’ll see.”