During an intense day and night when July became August, Icebug 24 was decided in the beautiful surroundings of the Vindelfjällen mountains around Hemavan in North Sweden. This is just by the polar circle, in the biggest nature reserve of Scandinavia. 33 teams of two were competing in this year’s race, five more teams than last year. The rules of this rogaining competition are straightforward: The teams were to collect as many of the 30 checkpoints as possible, in the shortest possible time, with a time limit of 24 hours. They could select the order of collecting themselves, and the point of each checkpoint was set according to accessibility and difficulty. Teams lost one point for each five minutes period exceeding the stipulated maximum of 24 hours. The course director’s estimate was that the winning team would be able to collect 28 checkpoints, but the top teams would prove more capable!
Already after 22 hours and 24 minutes, the winning team Lundhags/FK Herkules (with Aaron Prince and Pär Boqvist) cleared the finishing line with a complete set of stamps. They had then covered a distance of 108K straight line on the map (approximately 130K running) and over 7,000 metres of altitude.
New for 2009 was Icebug 24 Trekking, an event for those with a bigger appetite for adventure than competition. The shortest distance was 30K and the participants could influence the length and difficulty of the course by collecting bonus checkpoints. By collecting these, the chances to win prizes at the banquet after the race increased.
In Icebug 24 Trekking, there is a mandatory base camp stop of four hours, where the participants eat and rest.

Full list of results, more pictures and reports on www.icebug24.com
Eager participants will also be able to sign up for next year’s event there, which is preliminary scheduled for August 6-7^th 2010.