Leila’s off to Dead Man’s Mountain

Hours after scuba diving with bull sharks two years ago, fitness instructor Leila Javadi was already planning her next adventure – and now, after months of gruelling training, the 24-year-old is ready to take on the Gates of the Arctic challenge.

On January 9 Miss Javadi, who works at Newbold Comyn Gym, will begin a one-month work placement at a hunting ranch in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, before moving north to spend another month at a dog sled farm near Whitehorse in Alaska – where there will be no running water or electricity.

She will then, along with a friend, begin the 250-mile four-week expedition to the Arctic Circle, travelling with at least six dogs around contours mapped as ‘Help me Jack Hills’, ‘Death Valley’ and ‘Dead Man’s Mountain’.

The pair will survive on dried food, chocolate and melted snow and they will have to buy their clothing in Canada as the specialist kit they need for such conditions is not available in the UK.

Miss Javadi said: “It really is a challenge I could not miss. To motivate me more, there’s the promise of the aurora borealis, the mountainous landscape, and mushing through the arctic snow.

“I’m starting to feel quite nervous now, but I don’t think it will really hit in until I’m on my own on the plane – I have lived in Leamington for over 13 years, and I have never been away for this long.”

Although she has completed training in Alaska and been winter camping in Norway to prepare herself, Miss Javadi knows she will be facing the most difficult conditions.

She said: “I have promised my partner and family that if we really have to, we will try and hire a guide to take us. But first, we will give 110 per cent to learn as much as we can to do it independently. To achieve any such dream, without an infinite budget, you have to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and make it happen – and so we will.”