After starting her 15,000-kilometre trip from New York to Alaska at the beginning of the year, Doris Wiedemann and her travelling companion Sjaak Lukassen have made fantastic progress. They have ridden safely from New York all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska, and are now within touching distance of the Arctic Circle, with the final destination of Prudhoe Bay just a couple of weeks away.

Doris Wiedemann and her travelling companion Sjaak Lukassen

Riding a BMW F800GS, Doris headed directly south from New York to sunny Florida, where the trip `officially' began in Key West - the southernmost point of continental USA. Since then, she has ridden across the United States and Canada before journeying across the border to Alaska. Along the way, they have met up with some truly inspirational riders, including Dave Barr, who lost both legs in a land mine explosion but still managed to travel around the world by motorcycle; Ted Simon, the famous author of the overlanders' `bible', Jupiter's Travels; and renowned globetrotter Helge Pedersen, whose world travels were documented in his best-selling 10 Years on Two Wheels book.

Along the way, there have been many variations in road surfaces, terrain and of course weather conditions. The sunny Florida landscape and tropical temperatures of 28 degrees Celsius are now a distant memory, as the display on Doris's BMW F800GS recently registered minus 31 degrees Celsius in British Columbia, Canada. All things considered though, the bike has coped extremely well with such massive variations in climate and temperature, according to Doris.

"The F800GS is running great and has really made a good impression on me. Even right at the beginning, when I had to carry four winter tyres plus my entire luggage from the warehouse in New York to the motel where we were staying, it only took about half a kilometre for me to feel completely `at home' on the bike. It has been equally capable on the long rides on the Interstates, riding the twisty narrow roads in California and even on the snow and ice we're tackling at the moment."

Doris Wiedemann and her BMW F800GS

Now they are riding on snow and ice, the two most important issues are keeping the bikes upright and themselves warm in the arctic conditions. To this end, they have both fitted self-drilling studs to their tyres, which can be screwed in either by hand or with a power drill. As for the riding kit, they are now both kitted out in full winter clothing designed to cope with the coldest of temperatures.

Doris is happy with the low fuel consumption of the BMW and is finding that she only needs around four or five litres of petrol for every 100 kilometres of riding - even fully loaded with luggage. She also thinks that she would be able to ride around 300 kilometres on a full tank of gas, but she hasn't had a chance to try this theory out yet, as Sjaak's Yamaha R1 is a bit thirstier, so they stop whenever he needs gas.

Now they are riding on snow and ice, the two most important issues are keeping the bikes upright and themselves warm in the arctic conditions. To this end, they have both fitted self-drilling studs to their tyres, which can be screwed in either by hand or with a power drill. As for the riding kit, they are now both kitted out in full winter clothing designed to cope with the coldest of temperatures.

"We have thermal underwear, heated pants, socks, jackets, inner and outer gloves, heated soles and a specially made thermal overall," said Doris. "Furthermore, we even have heated visors on our helmets. I am wearing my BMW suit and on `warm' days, when the temperatures are `only' around -10C, I use my BMW winter gloves to save power from my bike's battery. I'm also using a soft jacket as a `neckwarmer' to keep the icy chill from getting into my helmet and hurting my face. Together with the heated visors and the special `snorkel' Helge Pedersen made for me in Seattle, this combination works very well."

Doris and Sjaak have packed sleeping bags that are rated for temperatures down to minus 40 degrees Celsius but, fortunately, they have not been forced to use them in these conditions yet. However, since entering the Alaska Highway, everyone that they meet on the road is rather surprised to see two bikers heading north at this time of the year.

"The last motorcyclists we encountered were our friends from Touratech USA, who accompanied us out of Seattle, and Scott, who rode with us all the way to the Canadian border. Since then the truckers, police or border guards we meet on the road mostly think that we are nuts - and I fully agree! - but they all wish us good luck and a safe trip.

They all tell us that we are the first bikers they have seen this year and the first motorcycle travellers they have met on the Alaskan Highway in winter!"

Even though there is only one road going up to Prudhoe Bay, Doris and Sjaak have relied on maps for the entire trip, although they do use a GPS logger www.geotate.com to tag their photos and videos with GPS coordinates so that those who are following their journey can see exactly where all the pictures were taken. To date, more than 20,000 viewers have been watching videos of their travels on YouTube and these numbers are increasing now that they are continuing their two-wheeled journey on snow.

Doris and Sjaak hope to arrive in Prudhoe Bay at some time in early March, depending on weather and road conditions. At the moment there is lots of wind and snow ahead of them, so they are taking their time in order to ensure that they arrive at their destination safely. To view video footage of their travels so far, please visit the www.reismotor.nl website and select the `English language' option from the main menu. Alternatively, click on www.doris-wiedemann.com to see Panoramio location photographs.