Paper short abstract:

Wake up in a dark morning in January. Sit up in the tent, crawl out of the sleeping bag. Wind, frost, snow. The shoes are frozen. How did hard conditions affect the body and mind of a researcher in a two year long research of Reykjavik’s volunteer air ground rescue team?

Paper long abstract:

To become a member in Reykjavik’s air ground volunteer rescue team, each candidate needs to complete two years of training. The team is based on volunteers and therefore all the training is during weekends or evenings. The training can be tough, physically, mentally and technically. The weather can be bad and candidates need to survive weekends up in the mountains, eat, sleep, walk and pee in cold, wet and windy conditions. If the members are able to cobe in rough conditions; crawl in tents, sleep in the cold, ski 35 km a day and face the fear as of climbing icey slopes, crossing bustling glacier rivers and navigating alone through mountains, they are deemed to be able to rescue others.

Based on two year long fieldwork, I am intersted in how candidates change and adjust their bodies and minds to rough conditions. Who cobes, who quits? Furthermore, how did I as a researcher and a full participant of the training adjust to the field?