Fast and furious: tailor-made trips that take you to the edge

In times of recession most of us err on the side of caution – all the available research shows that when there’s precious little security around, security is what we most crave. But for those hardy souls who aren’t going to be bowed down by a little financial turmoil and who want to live on the edge there’s Xtreme Spirits, a Galway based company which offers clients “exclusive, unique and personal tailor-made experiences” when it comes to going on holiday.

From flying a fighter jet in Russia to a polar bear experience in the Arctic to driving across glaciers, Aoife McCartan and Adelheid Walsh of Xtreme Spirits promise that they can make it happen.

And the two self-confessed adventurers and professional photographers also document the holiday so that when you come home, you’ll have the best possible record of your high-octane holiday Norway-born Adelheid Walsh met Aoife, who is from Carnmore, when both were employed by a city-based photographer. They decided to join forces in business which would allow them to combine their passion for photography with their love of travel and extreme adventures.

By then, Adelheid had spent two years travelling most parts of the world and Aoife, too, was an avid traveller with a love of adventure sport.When it came to setting up Xtreme Spirits, Adelheid’s background as an entrepreneur was a help.

She had previously established Vogue Events to focus on event design and decoration when she saw a gap in the market for such a service while working as a wedding photographer. But she eventually sold that company to return to photography.

“I’ve always had a camera and a passion for photography. My father was a decent photographer and I started making a go of it 10 years ago,” she explains.

Adelheid can also thank her father and her Norwegian background for her love of outdoor adventure – she has been skiing, abseiling and rock climbing for as long as she can remember.

Aoife and Adelheid recently returned from Iceland where they were employed by a Norwegian lifestyle magazine to take photos for a spread which featured renowned Norwegian explorer Inge Solheim.

And they have been commissioned to photograph the clothing catalogue for Missing Link, an extreme clothing company.Meanwhile, they will travel to America in February to provide their photography services for another area of life that excites their passion – tattoos.

They were recently contracted to set up a photography studio at the Dublin tattoo convention, where they met a guy from reality TV show LA Ink who asked them to come and do a shoot in his studio in America in FebruaryThen they go to Frankfurt for Europe’s largest tattoo convention and hopefully, after that, it’ll be Las Vegas next year, for the world’s largest such event.

“It’s a business that’s recession proof,” says Adelheid.

That is a positive for the duo. Since Xtreme Spirits is in its early days, photography is their main earner at the moment. “A lot of people hire us because they know we will go that bit extra. If they want us to lean out of a helicopter, we will,” says Aoife.

But when they aren’t leaning out of a helicopter, they have teamed up with Adelheid’s contacts in Norway to create a network to offer extreme experiences in Europe and America.

“We are very lucky because we have a global network of people to rely on,” says Adelheid.So, if you want to hang out with polar bears, they’ll arrange for you to do it on Spitsbergen Island off the coast of Norway. The only thing a client has to do is get to Norway. There they will be collected and brought to Spitsbergen, where they can travel by snowmobile or dog-pulled sled to reach the polar bears. If they want, they can also indulge in a little cross-country skiing or sledding.

Accommodation is in a frozen ship, which has five-star facilities inside. For the fighter jet experience, the customer has to arrange their own flight to Moscow, where they will again be collected.

The two women have a supplier there who owns a couple of jets. The clients will be given sufficient training to allow them to enjoy the experience – a possible Christmas present for the (wealthy) man in your life!

See page 27 of this week's Galway City Tribune for full article.