Renton’s Peter Han looking to win trip back to the arctic

Han, 19, said he is concerned about global climate change, which he said has a “surprisingly big influence” on the Arctic climate.

Lindbergh graduate and aspiring Arctic scientist Peter Han needs your help to get back to the very top of the planet this winter.

Han, who graduated this past spring before heading out to Siberia this summer to study the Russian permafrost, has entered a contest by a Swedish outdoor supplies company to return to the Arctic, this time in the winter.

“I’m hooked,” Han said during a phone interview this week. “That’s what I definitely want to do.”

Han said seeing the “wild, desolate beauty” of life above the Arctic Circle  this summer cemented it for him.

“What I want to do is become an Arctic scientist,” he said. “It’s cold, it’s hard and half the year there’s no sun. You won’t get bored studying it.”

Han, 19, said he is concerned about global climate change, which he said has a “surprisingly big influence” on the Arctic climate.

While he visited the Russian arctic this summer, the current contest, sponsored by the Fjallraven clothing company of Sweden, will take him through 320 kilometers of Scandinavian Arctic on dogsled.

Han, who is presently attending the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., said the company will pick two people from each country in which they sell their clothing; the one who gets the most votes on the company’s website and a second, at the choice of the company.

To see the video Han made and to vote for him to win the trip, click here.

As of Friday, Han was in second place of 33 Americans.