A race dating back to 1884

During his second Greenland expedition in 1883, polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld let two men of his crew, Pavva Lars Tuorda and Anders Rassa, ski off to explore the inner unknown areas of the ice continent. After about 57 hours, the two Sámi from the Jokkmokk area returned rather exhausted.

They had suffered badly from lack of drinking water (and material for a fire to melt snow) so they were forced to return. They however estimated that they had traveled close to 230 kilometers to the east, i.e. 460 kilometers in total. They had skied almost continuously without sleep for two and a half days, except when they rested in a pit for two hours during a storm.

In his report of the Greenland expedition, Nordenskiöld would admit that it was with some hesitation that he published how far Tuorda and Rassa had traveled in such a short time. He never doubted the veracity of their story himself, but quite rightly foresaw that many others would question the feat on skis. To cover such a distance in so short time with only skis was simply considered impossible.

To disprove the doubters, Nordenskiöld announced a ski race from Jokkmokk to Kvikkjokk and back in the following year. Nordenskiöld meant that it should be possible to complete the total distance of 220 kilometers within a day.

On April 3, 1884, the competition started and there were 18 men on the starting line. Some competitors had already skied between 60 and 90 kilometers the night before to even get to Jokkmokk. Others had made a small excursion of about 160-180 kilometers to Arjeplog only to borrow skis of pine keel.

After 21 hours and 22 minutes, Pavva "Pavva Lasse" Nilsson Tuorda crossed the finish line. His winning time also included a break of about one hour and forty-five minutes in the middle of the race. All participants actually reached Jokkmokk in a relatively shorter time than what Tuorda and Rassa had accomplished on skis on the Greenland ice.

Thus, what many had thought was impossible was proven right and the praise of the skiing heroes was of course great.