An artist and adventurer hailing from Estonia, Maiu has built a life where the wild places of the world are a canvas and her playground. Whether navigating Europe in her little red van, Elfi, or working as a dogsled guide in the frozen reaches of Northern Sweden, her mission is to share the meditative beauty of the outdoors. Now settled in Tartu, she brings the raw emotions of the wilderness to her watercolour sketches, but it’s her daring solo expeditions that have captured the hearts of tens of thousands on her YouTube channel.
One of her most ambitious expeditions was a winter through-hike of the legendary Kungsleden (“The King’s Trail”) in northern Sweden. Stretching 460 kilometres through some of the most remote mountain landscapes on Earth, the trail is a formidable challenge even in summer. Maiu, however, chose to face it in the dead of winter. Alone. On skis. With only her two Alaskan huskies, Linkka and Odezza, for company.
But the journey started months before the trail’s beginning in Hemavan. First, there was an intense preparation process. She trained her dogs behind a bike in the heat of Spain and Portugal and by pulling tires across Estonian sea ice to build their endurance. She meticulously modified a sled with custom brakes, sewed her own waterproof sled bags, and even crafted boots from scrap fabric. Logistically, the hike was a puzzle. There were five stages, four resupply boxes, and a staggering 4,000 calories of food required per dog, per day, mostly air-dried raw meat and pure pork fat. Even her own supplies were calculated for survival, including five kilos of Estonian chocolate and calorie-bomb coffees loaded with butter. Finally standing at the start line, reality hit in a tough way. The early days were a brutal winter struggle. Within the first few kilometres, Maiu battled nausea from nerves, was soaked in sweat from grueling uphill climbs, and nursed painful blisters. She sat in an emergency cabin during a whiteout, wet and cold, questioning if she could truly survive another twenty-five days.
Drawing on her experience as a guide, Maiu applied soot around the dog’s eyes, mimicking the natural dark markings of a husky, to reduce the UV glare.
Still, the mountains rewarded her persistence. The struggle gave way to moments of transcendent beauty like gliding across glittering, empty plateaus where the sun turned the snow into a field of diamonds. Reaching a warm cabin with its 110-degree sauna could heal both her spirit and her feet. She adapted to a rhythm. The adventure had plenty of scares in between the routine. In the blinding whiteness of the national parks, her dog Odezza began to show signs of sun blindness. Drawing on her experience as a guide, Maiu applied soot around the dog’s eyes, mimicking the natural dark markings of a husky, to reduce the UV glare. They faced blizzard winds of twenty metres per second and freezing nights where the dogs slept happily on the snow while Maiu huddled in her -30°C sleeping bag.
Lünekund’s expedition vlog is a candid, exciting look at human vulnerability within the majesty of nature.
If you want to experience the full scale of this incredible expedition, you can watch the entire six-part series below:
