ACCIONA celebrates the success of the ACCIONA Windpowered Antártica Expedition in Madrid’s Science Museum
The ACCIONA WINDPOWERED ANTÁRTICA Expedition put the world’s first-ever 100% eco-efficient and completely emissions-free vehicle successfully through its paces in the most extreme and inhospitable corner of the planet. The team-members also carried out scientific research aimed at determining the …
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Wanderings of an Antarctic Photographer: It’s already night-time in Chile
Javier Selva It seems as if no one realizes; as we’re now concentrating on eating the first piece of meat in 40 days; but the evening light comes through the hotel’s window and it dissolves bit by bit, and again …
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Coincidences in Antarctica: a hundred years after Scott’s arrival to the Pole
blogs.elpais.com By: Paco Nadal Tomorrow, January 17th of 2012, coinciding with my come back home, after two weeks wondering around Antarctica, will be the centenary of Robert Falcon’s British expedition to the South Pole.
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On katabatic winds and people from Albacete
Ignacio Oficialdegui A close look at a map of Antarctica with contour lines will show you that we are in a very steep area; in fact, today we’ve dropped around 300 meters. Despite that, it still feels as though we’re …
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The South Poles
Javier, January 5 You join an expedition. You do several thousand kilometers (2,400 to be precise). You suffer the cold temperatures, in other words you almost freeze to death. You forego sleep for almost 20 days. You survive several storms …
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Memories of a New Year’s Eve at the South Pole (2005)
Juanma Viu, the 5th member of the Expedition team Today, on the sixth anniversary of our earlier Expedition, and immersed in the second one, my thoughts turned to that special date. In the middle of the Antarctic Plateau, without another …
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Nobody gives any presents here
Ignacio Oficialdegui: December 26th In this corner of the world, spirits and frustrations are apt go up and down like a roller coaster. One moment we think we’ll reach the Pole in four days’ time, and two minutes later we’re …
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No looking back and Under Full Sail
J.Selva: December 23rd. We’ve travelled almost 850km and given all things encountered through the journey, we haven’t come across major problems. We’ve cruised last 250 km non-stop. We managed crossing the 80th parallel, which means that from now on we’ll …
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Crossing the Antarctic with ACCIONA
Ignacio Oficialdegui: December 20th At last, things got serious on December 20th. We finally began for real the turn at the kites that we’d been preparing for so long and which we thought was never going to happen. I took …
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In the Middle of the perfect storm
Our last 24 hours, resisting winds of more than 100 km/h. Javier Selva, December 17th. When you read this chronicle we might be in a cave that we will have previously dug under the sled to shelter ourselves from the …
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Escaping from the snowstorm: R. Larramendi
Our first sled’s 100 Km Crossing the Antarctic Plateau at more than seven miles an hour! According to Juanma Viu, the fifth member of the Expedition based at our Logistics and Coordination center in Spain, tonight we’re in for long …
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The wanderings of an antarctic photographer: This is desperate!
This is really desperate. We are in a unique and marvelous place, living out one of the greatest experiences anyone (particularly a photographer) can even dream of and here I am surrounded permanently by cables, batteries and computers. Not to …
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Flying to the Antarctica: R. Larramendi
In two hours’ time we’ll be flying to the Antarctica, following a few grueling days in Cape Town getting everything ready for our departure. It’s strange to think about the Antarctic when you’re immersed in the heat, people, lush vegetation …
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Marching on: R. Larramendi
The past few days’ preparations and stress are finally over. No more worrying that you’ll forget something important, that even the slightest fault can lead to dire consequences. The flight to South Africa (with a connection in Dubai) was quite …
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Greetings to the Expedition from the South Pole’s Centre
A Chronicle from Carlos Pobes, a Spanish scientist, resident in the Amundsen-Scott’s base. January 31st of 2012. There is certainly no shortage of scientists—and I count myself among them—who are passionate about everything to do with Nature and Adventure; and, …
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The wanderings of an Antarctic photographer: Rescuing picture memories from Antarctica
Javier Selva A few months ago I was lucky enough to publish an article in the US magazine “Alpinist” on a climb I did in Alaska. The experience proved to be memorable, more so because of the editor, Katie Ives, …
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Leaving the Geographic South Pole behind, moving downhill gradually
Ramón Larramendi, January 8th 2012 When the time came for us to leave the South Pole behind, wind conditions were worse than forecast. So we set off at a crawl, making a few kilometers headway as best we could and …
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Holy Innocents’ Day brings with it massive sastrugis and the first real damage
Ramón Larramendi: December 29th We set off with the 10m2 kite with zero-visibility and the tail-end of a snowstorm. We move along nicely at a controlled pace reaching 10km/h. Flat stretches and bumpy ones come and go alternately and the …
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The wanderings of an Antarctic photographer: White Christmas
Javier Selva: December 26th. So here we are, completely surrounded by ice. We’re finally travelling at the pace we expected and, surprisingly, this vehicle, which sprang from the imagination and determination of a crazy visionary called Ramón Larramendi, is proving …
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Ramón Larramendi: “The normal temperature is around -30 °C”
El País Ramón Larramendi, the explorer leading the Windpowered Antarctica Challenge, details the situation facing his team in the ‘El Larguero’ segment.
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Larramendi at ‘El Larguero’ from Radio Station: Cadena SER (6/12/11)
Straight from South Africa, Ramón Larramendi was interviewed at “El Larguero” right before boarding in a plane that would later take him and the rest of the crew members to Antactica: Javier Selva, Juan Pablo Albar and Ignacio Oficialdegui. Larguero: …
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We’re still on the Antarctic Plateau: R. Larramendi
There seems to be no end to the bad weather. On the 8th of December we were unable to do anything at all. Javi was plagued the whole day with strong headaches and nausea. The tent and the equipment are …
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On our way to the Antarctica: J. Selva
My tendency to suffer stress will be the death of me… or, then again, maybe it’s what gives me life. It’s no less true that not all expeditions, and not all lives, are the same. In my case, in our …
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Acciona embarks on a new eco-efficient and zero-emissions expedition
ACCIONA MARKS THE SCOTT-AMUNDSEN CENTENARY WITH AN EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH POLE ON BOARD THE “ACCIONA WINDPOWERED ANTARTICA”, THE WORLD’S FIRST-EVER WIND-AND-KITE-DRAWN SLED. A tribute to Amundsen and Scott one hundred years after their epic voyage. An Inuit-inspired, 100% wind-powered …
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ACCIONA Windpowered Antártica covered 3,500km in just 34 days, 300 of them in a single day and 500 in two days. Let’s look at the benefits
Juanma Viu What we’re seeing is more than just another record being broken—we’re looking at objective data with which to compare the efficiency of this vehicle with other initiatives. I thought it might be useful to take a look, in …
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Larramendi and his polar catamaran reach their Antarctic journey
barrabes.com New success of the new version of Ramón Larramendi’s polar catamaran, which has been proven as a perfect solution for loaded zero emissions movements through that kind of territories. The Acciona WindPowered Antarctica 90º Expedition finished on January 17th: …
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The ACCIONA Windpowered Antarctica Expedition successfully completes its polar crossing
The ACCIONA team ends its 3,500km crossing of the South Pole using only a wind-drawn sled The expedition members took a number of ice and air samples to scientifically determine the effects of climate change Madrid, January 16th 2012. Today …
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1,300m above sea-level. Mountains, heat and not much wind
Ramón Larramendi It’s surprising how gradually you descend as you move away from the South Pole. On January 9th in the space of 100km we dropped more than 500 meters. This doesn’t happen from one moment to the next; it’s …
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Three Kings Night
Ignacio Oficialdegui, January 5th. First and foremost, my congratulations to my friend Jesús; quite apart from his other virtues, Jesús has always been in the rearguard on all my Polar incursions, taking charge of the more mundane aspects of my …
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Adventures of an Antarctic photographer: The South Pole and my hometown’s celebrations.
Javier, January 4 We have made it to the South Pole. We can scratch one of our goals—the main one—off the list. Now we must continue on to Patriot Hills to culminate our Antarctic crossing in this unique wind-propelled vehicle. …
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Swallows, kilometers and kilometers still to go and 80ºS
Ramón Larramendi: December 24th December 18th went well, but on the 19th the wind came from a different direction to the one forecast, from the South Pole and towards the coast. Juanma (the fifth team-member) sends us the weather forecast …
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Snowstorms and Frustrations: Experiences in the Antarctic.
Ramón Larramendi – December 21st The weather has been far more unstable than initially forecast. Following our 140km leg of the journey, we’ve had nothing more than unpredictable weather and snowstorms. We’ve had to face two snowstorms in the past …
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Bye Storm, bye. The Expedition continues after ten windy hours
Ramón Larramendi, December 18th The storm left as she came. Four hours after sending yesterday’s chronicle at 1 am, the wind disappeared. Under a cloudy sky an absolute calm. The truth is that we felt relieved. We ran outside to …
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Sastrugis: our worst enemies in the Antarctic
The experience of Juanma Viu, the 5th member of the Expedition We’ve lived similar experiences to the Russians who christened them, so we’ve given them a few names of our own: in Spanish, sardinillas, truchetas “buenas”, salmonetes, cachalotes or tiburones …
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Ramón Larramendi’s Chronicle: December 11th
Today we wake up with the sled entirely set up. The weather conditions improved and we were able to finish it. The strong wind kept blowing through the whole night. Once again, it buried pieces of our luggage and the …
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In the Antarctic Plateau : R. Larramendi
We are in the Polar Plateau. A storm rages outside, blinding us. Fine snow dust seeps in through all the cracks. All our gear is buried in the snowdrifts. The thermometer reads -32 °C: the Antarctic welcomes us. This is …
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Hundred Years Ago: R. Larramendi
Around about this date one hundred years ago, two teams of explorers vied to be the first to reach the South Pole. Roald Amundsen, whose original idea was to reach the North Pole, changed course and headed south when he …
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