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Mini Arctic Run debrief: Windowless convertible and second-degree frostbite
Feb 28, 2005 19: 58 EST
The MINI car craze has created a subculture of drivers and the popular car even has its own annual car run. The “Mid-winter Mini Arctic Run,” driving route begins outside NYC in Suffern, New York and goes up through Canada along the James Bay road to Chisasibi, a small town on the very edge of Hudson Bay. ExWeb's guest contributor Noah Sudarsky joined the first winter Arctic Mini expedition and here's his debrief:
Convertible with the top down
Eleven mini coopers (and one BMW all-wheel drive support vehicle) speeding merrily over the 53rd parallel doesn’t qualify as an arctic expedition, but for sheer adrenaline content it can rival anything, especially if you’re rushing over 1000 km a day to get there.
Add temperatures in the -25 to -34 Celsius range after the meeting point in Matagami (which until the construction of the 650 km James Bay Road in 1973 to build and service a new hydro-electric power plant—La Grande-1—was the prior northernmost point reachable by paved road in Eastern North America), a raleigh organizer driving in a convertible with the top down, and you have the makings of a real challenge.
Hudson Bay or Bust
Mini drivers and aficionados came from clear across the country for the first “Mid-winter Mini Arctic Run,” also known as the “Hudson Bay or Bust” mini expedition, and most got their wish: to experience an unforgettable adventure of spectacular beauty in extreme conditions. Mini maniacs made a bee-line to the border from Georgia and North Carolina. Others flew in from the West Coast to meet up with their rides. In mini speak, these aren’t co-pilots, they’re “second guns.”
In Radisson it hurts to go outside
To some participants, the sheer cold was daunting, unlike anything they had ever experienced, and I’ll always remember the Algonquin Indian who came up to us in Matagami as we were preparing to drive off in the convertible. He wasn’t wearing a lot of clothes, and he took a long hard look at the car before saying: “watch out, it gets cold up in Radisson.”
The temperature in Matagami in the early morning was already -26. I didn’t think it could get any colder, but in Radisson it hurts to go outside, and even Peter Emminger, who rode up most of the way in safari shorts, had to put on some long underwear and jeans when we hit the pit-stop at km 381, the only place to get gas on the James Bay Road.
No one in that district had ever seen a real mini
Leaving Matagami, there is a control station at km 6, where Francine Perrat will register your name and give you a few words of advice about driving on the James Bay Road. As Gilbert Côté, another employee of the Municipalité de la Baie James, told me on the way back, no one in that district had ever seen a real mini Cooper, much less 11.
On your own on James Bay Road
Most locals were nonplussed or slightly amused. There was nothing amusing about flipping over in David Rose’s convertible nearing the 52nd parallel at marker 159, however.
We were barreling North at a steady 100 km/h + clip, and had yet to develop the proper respect for the iced-up road, a respect our situation demanded. Cell phones don’t work this far in northern Quebec, and if you mess up on the James Bay Road, you’re on your own. Even if you can reach an emergency phone (and they’re situated roughly every 50 km!), it will take hours for help to reach you.
My head was buried in a few feet of snow
David lost control briefly, over-compensated a tad, and that was all she wrote. We went into a tailspin, hitting the embankment going backwards, and an unpremeditated “it was nice knowing you” escaped my lips before the mini flipped over the side of the road and became part of the landscape.
I was never unconscious, and found myself suspended upside down by my seatbelt, my head buried in a few feet of snow (the top was down, of course). The snow also absorbed the brunt of the crash, cushioning us nicely, and the mini’s front windshield sustained the impact with only a stress fracture.
I couldn’t see much of David
The car was tilted, with David’s side a bit higher off the ground, but that difference worked in my favor, as my window shattered but David’s did not, leaving me a small opening. No one saw us go off the road, and it took 2-3 minutes of back-breaking labor to reach my seatbelt release. Finally I got loose and out the window, and crawled back inside the mini to see how David was doing.
I couldn’t see much of David, however, only his legs sticking out in my direction, leading me to believe the rest of him was pinned under the car.
Hearing the other minis speeding by, I ran up the embankment to flag them down. Apparently a few drivers had noticed something was amiss, and the cars were already slowing. I ran back down to the mini, which was about 10 meters off the road, and by the time I reached David he was kicking his legs and trying to free himself.
It looked like the mini was giving birth
Fear that he might be choking overcame the fear of moving him and possibly causing further injury, and I began to yank at his boots. Joe Rose (not a relation of David’s) arrived first at the scene and helped me pull David literally out of his heavy parka, the hood of which was pinned beneath the window.
It looked like the mini was giving birth to a very big and very hairy baby. Miraculously, we both escaped unscathed, and with the help of the other drivers even managed to right the convertible, at the price of the remaining window. We salvaged our stuff (or what we could find), which was strewn all over the place, and piled our bags, equipment, and ourselves into the other cars. I completed the journey to Radisson in Peter Wan’s BMW X3 support car.
The land of Jack pines, Wolverines, and Cree Indians
It was a road of staggering, if austere, beauty. We were traversing the boreal forest, or Taïga. The land of Jack pines, Wolverines, and Cree Indians. I actually missed being in the convertible. All bundled up as we were with no exposed skin the cold was sustainable, and the experience of driving with the top down in that pristine snowy wilderness is unparalleled.
Radisson is home to the largest herd of Caribou in the world. The hunting season had just ended, and we were told they are curious beasts, frequently encountered on the road. And encounter them we did.
The first minis to reach Radisson in winter
When we finally reached Radisson, well after sunset, the ice sculptures seemed to be laughing at us. The next day, some participants, the die-hard crew, went on the extra 250 km (round-trip) to Chisasibi, which lies off the main road on the edge of Hudson Bay, and a few degrees further north.
Four cars left early on Sunday to get a head-start on the return trip. A few records were established on this journey, the first being that these were the first minis to reach Radisson (or even Matagami) in winter (David Rose had made a previous trip in October 2003).
And although there could well be a few minis driving around St. Petersburg, which is further north than Radisson, none have embarked on a 1300 km trek in the sub-arctic wilderness in the dead of winter, and endured the kind of cold we were confronted with (due to geographic specificities, average winter temperatures in St. Petersburg are 10-15 degrees warmer than Radisson).
The minis started right off the bat in below -34, Peter Wan’s SUV did not.
For mini lovers, this expedition proves that the object of their enduring affection can take whatever mother-nature can throw at it—barring deep snow, that is, as the mini’s underside is only six inches off the ground. In Radisson on Sunday morning, all the minis started right off the bat after spending the night outside in temperatures that plunged below -34, but Peter Wan’s SUV did not.
The support vehicle last to leave Radisson
The fancy BMW battery refused to be jump-started or even to take a booster charge from a heavy-duty device brought in by one of the employees of Hydro-Quebec, and the whole car had to be thoroughly warmed and serviced on Monday morning. The emergency support vehicle was thus the last to leave Radisson, at 1 p.m. on Monday, with one remaining mini in tow to provide backup on the difficult road ahead.
Windowless convertible and second-degree frostbite
As of Wednesday, the final tally had all the participants making it home safely, with some logging in over 7500 km in six days. David Rose got his mini back in Matagami, and after a few essential repairs he drove his windowless convertible back to New York, and ended up with second-degree frostbite on three fingers. It will be interesting to see how many embark on next year’s arctic mini odyssey.
The second annual Hudson Bay or Bust Midwinter Mini Arctic Run went from February 18-22. The Suffern, NY to Chisasibi route is around 1200 miles (2400 round trip) of some of the most beautiful scenery in North America. The route also allows drivers to see authentic Canadian Indian towns along the way. Visit the MINI run website for more details.
Images top to bottom: Distances, Mini line up, Mini flip, survivor Dave, sunset before Radisson. Courtesy Mini Arctic Run participants Maros Tomkos (Slovakia) and Roman Kavan (Czech Rep).
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