V ETERAN adventurers, Conrad and Hilary Dickinson, were forced to cut short their latest expedition after Hilary injured her back, but they still managed to raise thousands of pounds for wildlife.

And far from dampening Conrad’s enthusiasm, he’s already planning his next major expedition.

It was back in January that the couple embarked upon their ambitious attempt to ski the length of Norway to raise funds for Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

They had completed about 1,000km (621 miles) of the 2,700km (1,700 mile) journey when Hilary trapped a nerve in her spinal column.

Conrad said, “Hilary did an awkward twist when she was pulling the sledge. We rested for a few days, but she just couldn’t move.

“We were both gutted, but it was the only decision. The annoying thing was that we had got through all the mountainous section. We had got through the huge wilderness area and, more importantly, through the darkest nights and minus 30 degree centigrade temperatures of January and February.”

The Norge på langs (which translates as Norway Lengthwise) spans the entire length of the Scandinavian country from Lindesnes in the south to Nordkapp in the north and the trip was expected to take them around 17 weeks.

It was first attempted in 1951 as a relay by the Norwegian Boy Scouts on its 40th anniversary and remains one of the world’s great challenges. The Dickinsons were aiming to become the first British couple to complete the epic route.

They set out on what they described as their ‘journey of a lifetime’ – a mammoth trek across snow and ice – on January 5 but around eight weeks in, on March 3, it became clear that Hilary could not continue.

Conrad wrote in his blog: “When you are attempting hard trips at our ages there’s always the risk of not succeeding. We have both had a great run of successful trips so we can’t complain.”

Between them, Conrad and Hilary, who live within Northumberland National Park, have completed 63 expeditions.

Only two, including this one and a trip Conrad took to the Bhutan Himalaya when he became ill with altitude sickness, have been unsuccessful.

They have traversed Greenland; skied to the South Pole and kite skied back; skied to the North Pole; skied to Lake Baikal in Siberia without support and visited Norway in winter more than 30 times.

Hilary is the first British woman to ski to the South Pole and back unsupported, and Conrad was leader for the British team as part of the Walking with the Wounded 2013 South Pole Allied Challenge with Prince Harry.

Conrad said that the Norway end to end expedition proved “harder going than the South Pole” where he guided Prince Harry, and teams of injured service personnel from the UK, USA and Commonwealth.

Navigation was harder, the weather was harsher, there was less daylight, and the terrain and snow more challenging.

“On a positive note, we had an amazing experience skiing 1,000 kilometres in the Norwegian wilderness and meeting amazing people,” Conrad said.

One of those chance meetings was with fellow Northern adventurer and one of Britain’s greatest climbers, Leo Houlding, who they happened upon at a place called Finse.

“It was bizarre. He was in this hut in the middle of Hardangervidda (a mountain plateau in central southern Norway), which is dubbed the last great wilderness in Europe. We had just crossed that and arrived at this mountain hut where we met Leo who said, ‘Let’s go and have some breakfast!’

“He’s planning this major major expedition in Antarctica next year and was out there to brush up his kite skiing.”

Upon hearing how devastated the couple were that Hilary was pulling out, an old friend of Conrad’s, Ian Jackson of Bardon Mill stepped up to the crease to try and keep the trip going.

“To try to cheer him up, I joked, ‘Well, I could always come and finish it with you,” Ian said. “The next day Conrad texted to say, ‘If you’re serious, I’d like to take you up on that’.”

Several days later, the two men took up where Conrad had left off.

This time however, the weather was against them. Unseasonably warm temperatures of three degrees centigrade made the landscape desperately difficult to cross with impassable streams and lakes flooded with deep water on top of ice.

On March 17 it took them seven hours to journey just 20 kilometres in wet snow and freezing rain and gales. After a lot of soul searching, they decided to quit.

Ian wrote on the blog: “Directly ahead in the plan were nine days of difficult terrain with several plus 35km days and camping before any respite. This trip was supposed to be about having fun; we both agreed the fun was diminishing.

“Reaching our decision that it wasn’t possible to achieve our goal has hurt head and hearts. But the fact is that the weather conditions had beaten us and a safe exit was the only option.”

Conrad and Ian were still two to three days skiing and walking away from civilisation, but luckily they met a hunter who offered to take them on his skidoo to the nearest road where he was picking up some fishermen.

Despite only getting half way through their expedition, Hilary and Conrad, who is managing director of Karpet Mills and patron of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, along with fellow trustees Ian Jackson and Hexham’s Nigel Porter nevertheless managed to raise more than £5,000 for the charity’s vital conservation work on their Virgin Money Giving page.

And half way up Mount Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain, Conrad and Nigel, who joined the group for the last week of the trip, stopped for a photo opportunity to raise a thank you flag to players of the People’s Postcode Lottery who, to date have also supported the Trust’s conservation work to the tune of almost £920,000.

Conrad said this week: “Although we were very disappointed not to fully complete the journey, the most important thing was to raise the money for the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.”

Hilary is now fully recovered and back walking and the couple plan to return and complete their journey in the future.

“We’d still like to tick off the end of it,” said Conrad, who is already planning his next big expedition – next time in the Northern Arctic, kite skiing.

And yes, we did ask if any Royals would be involved but he told us to ‘stop digging’.